Battle at South Mountain

A Natural Barrier

The Battle of South Mountain erupted on September 14, 1862, when elements of the Union army tried to drive the Confederate rear guard from Crampton’s, Fox’s, and Turner’s Gaps and break through to the western side of the ...

Col. Philip Cochran

(1910-1979)

WWII hero. Cochran distinguished himself as a daring pilot commanding P-40 fighter planes in N. Africa and as the colorful leader of the 1st Air Commandos during the invasion of Burma. He became a colonel at the age of 33 ...

Harrison Boarding House

1933

Black entertainers were not allowed to stay at the Strip hotels where they performed in the 1940s and 1950s. Mrs. Harrison's boarding house offered fine accomodations for many of the era's most famous stars.

During one memorable week in September 1949, ...

1862 Antietam Camapign

Lee Invades Maryland

Fresh from victory at the Second Battle of Manassas, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac River on September 4-6, 1862, to bring the Civil War to Northern soil and to recruit sympathetic Marylanders. ...

Jackson Street Commercial District

1942

Commerce on the Westside was short lived, collapsing in 1905 when rival Las Vegas Townsite opened on the east side of the railroad tracks. In 1942, the Westside defined a new commercial district to serve the ethnic population of the ...

19th Century Backpacker

The Civil War Soldier

An unnamed citizen of Frederick City said the following of the Confederates he had beheld marching through his hometown: “I have never seen a mass of such filthy strong-smelling men. Three in a room would make it ...

A Famous African-American Dream

The earliest African-American national radio and television minister and advisor of three American presidents, the Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux purchased the lands around you in 1936. His dream was to establish a farm and a national memorial to the progress ...

Christensen House "The Castle"

1935

This fairy-tale residence reflects the unique family that built it, whose roots stretch back to a pioneering Utah Mormon blacksmith, ranchers in Idaho and Nevada, and railroad workers in Las Vegas.

The life of Las Vegas pioneer Lucretia Tanner Christensen Stevens, ...

The James I. Perkins Family Home

Attorney James N. Thomas (b. 1816) erected the one-story portion of this residence before 1851. James I. Perkins (1847-1923) built the two-story wing and added Victorian detailing after he purchased the property in 1883. Head of a leading Rusk family ...

Moody House

1939

Herman Moody, Las Vegas' first black career police officer, was raised in this house at 321 Van Buren Avenue, built by his parents (father Henry Moody pictured lower left) who came here in 1939.

As first African-American in Las Vegas to ...