Tule Springs is one of the larger urban retreats in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Las Vegas Valley. It is a significant desert ecosystem consisting of a series of small lakes that formed an oasis in this area of the Mojave Desert. Both the springs and the ranch are located within the Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs which is operated by the City of Las Vegas.
Tule Springs Ranch and the associated buildings are listed as a district on the United States National Register of Historic Places and located within this area. The ranch district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 23, 1981. [1]
The area was home to numerous Native American visitors in the pre-Columbian period. More recently, it served as a guest ranch for out-of-state residents seeking to "live" in Nevada and gain access to its easy divorce requirements. Several of the ranch's buildings remain, as do a few peacocks.
The springs archeological site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 1979. [1]
The wash, also known as the Upper Las Vegas Wash feeds into the Las Vegas Wash. [2] The wash area also includes several patches of the rare Las Vegas bear poppy.
This area is part of Ice Age Fossils State Park, a 23,000-acre (9,300 ha) conservation area, and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, established in 2014. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area is coextensive since 2003 with Clark County, Nevada. The Valley is largely defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a 600 sq mi (1,600 km2) basin area surrounded by mountains to the north, south, east and west of the metropolitan area. The Valley is home to the three largest incorporated cities in Nevada: Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas. Eleven unincorporated towns governed by the Clark County government are part of the Las Vegas Township and constitute the largest community in the state of Nevada.
Spring Mountain Ranch State Park is a public recreation area located within the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Nevada's Cottonwood Valley, five miles (8.0 km) northwest of Blue Diamond, Nevada. The state park preserves the historic Sandstone Ranch, which was entered into the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1976.
Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park is a state park of Nevada, containing the Old Mormon Fort, the first structure built by people of European heritage in what would become Las Vegas fifty years later. In present-day Las Vegas, the site is at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue, less than one mile north of the downtown area and Fremont Street. This is the only U.S. state park located in a city that houses the first building ever built in that city. The fort was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 1, 1972. The site is memorialized with a tablet erected by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997, along with Nevada Historical Marker #35, and two markers placed by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.
Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs is a 2,040-acre (830 ha) park in Las Vegas, Nevada. The park is centered on Tule Springs, a series of small lakes that formed an oasis in this part of the Mojave Desert. One of the larger urban retreats in the Las Vegas Valley, Tule Springs was once considered to be far out of town but is now encroached by development. The park includes the Tule Springs Ranch, Tule Springs Archaeological Site, Tule Springs Wash and four ponds available for fishing.
The Lakes is a 2-square-mile (5.2 km2) planned community located within the city limits of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is located in the western part of the Las Vegas Valley near the Spring Mountains and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The centerpiece of the community, and its namesake, is a large man-made lake, Lake Sahara. It was originally planned to have two man-made lakes but was downscoped to one. It was built from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and at the time was at the edge of development in the valley. It consists of a mixture of gated communities consisting of single-family homes, condominia, commercial areas and offices.
Tule Springs Archaeological Site is an archeological site listed on the National Register of Historic Places that is located in the Las Vegas Valley of Nevada, United States. It is one of a few sites in the United States where humans were once thought to have lived alongside, and potentially hunted, extinct Ice Age megafauna, although this view is not supported by the available scientific data and is no longer generally accepted.
Tule Springs Ranch and the remaining buildings are listed as a district on the United States National Register of Historic Places in Las Vegas, Nevada. Part of the area is included in the Tule Springs Archaeological Site and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The building are part of the Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs which is operated by the City of Las Vegas. Located about 20 miles from the Strip off U.S. Highway 95 north.
Tule is a plant of the sedge family.
Gypsum Cave is a limestone cave in eastern Clark County, Nevada, United States, about 15 miles (24 km) east of Las Vegas, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Elizabeth von Till Warren was an American historian and preservationist. She had expertise in the history of water development in the Mojave Desert and the Las Vegas Valley in particular. She also had expertise in the historical route of the Old Spanish Trail in Southern Nevada.
Paleontology in Nevada refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Nevada. Nevada has a rich fossil record of plants and animal life spanning the past 650 million years of time. The earliest fossils from the state are from Esmeralda County, and are Late Proterozoic in age and represent stromatolite reefs of cyanobacteria, amongst these reefs were some of the oldest known shells in the fossil record, the Cloudina-fauna. Much of the Proterozoic and Paleozoic fossil story of Nevada is that of a warm, shallow, tropical sea, with a few exceptions towards the Late Paleozoic. As such many fossils across the state are those of marine animals, such as trilobites, brachiopods, bryozoans, honeycomb corals, archaeocyaths, and horn corals.
Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, a United States National Monument near Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, was established in 2014 to protect Ice Age paleontological discoveries. The 22,650-acre (9,170 ha) monument is administered by the National Park Service.
Basin and Range National Monument is a national monument of the United States spanning approximately 704,000 acres of remote, undeveloped mountains and valleys in Lincoln and Nye counties in southeastern Nevada. It is described as "one of the emptiest spaces in a state famous for its emptiness."
Gold Butte National Monument is a United States national monument located in Clark County, Nevada, northeast of Las Vegas and south of Mesquite and Bunkerville. The monument protects nearly 300,000 acres of desert landscapes featuring a wide array of natural and cultural resources, including rock art, sandstone towers, and important wildlife habitat for species including the Mojave Desert tortoise, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion. The area also protects historic ranching and mining sites such as the ghost town of Gold Butte, although little but mine openings, cement foundations, and a few pieces of rusting equipment remains. The monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Corn Creek is an unincorporated community in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The community is located along the former Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad where it had a station. It is approximately 7.5 miles from the Las Vegas city limits by road and is situated south of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge border and bordered to the west, south, and east with the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument.
Durango Drive is a major north-south road in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, Nevada, United States, located on the west side of the city.
Centennial Hills is a neighborhood in northwest Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is bordered by the Snow Mountain Paiute Reservation and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument to the north, Lower Kyle Canyon and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to the west, Summerlin to the south, and North Las Vegas to the east. The Spring Mountains are visible to the west with Gass Peak in the Las Vegas Range to the north. Lone Mountain lies within the neighborhood.
Willie McCool Regional Park is a 160-acre regional park in North Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, located next to the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument and Ice Age Fossils State Park. It is the northernmost park of the city park system.
Ice Age Fossils State Park is a 315-acre state park in North Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, on the northernmost fringe of the metropolitan area. It is located adjacent to the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument near Willie McCool Regional Park. This park is currently under construction and there are no facilities available to the public yet. Grand opening information will be posted to the park website and social media once a date has been determined.