Is Las Vegas getting better with its history? Seems like for every Strip implosion, there’s a Downtown building preserved. For every Davy’s Locker sign destroyed, another gets saved for the growing Neon Boneyard. Now, Springs Preserve has not only preserved precious cottages from the city’s early railroad-town days, it has re-created that era to impressive—if more compact—effect with its new, $6.5-million Boomtown 1905 attraction, opening to the public February 4. And here’s what you’ll encounter after you exit your train (visitors may opt to take a quarter-mile walk on the still-developing Exploration Loop Trail instead) and stroll down the streetscape …
Disembark the 40-passenger choo-choo ($2; free for members) and explore the mission-style train depot, which includes info boards on legendary Old West badasses like folk hero Nat Love and an interactive steam whistle and telegraph machine. Upon exiting the station, walk toward the four preserved and landscaped cottages from 1910, among the first commercially available homes in Las Vegas. You can enter the second one, filled with antique furnishings and old-timey music played on a real Victrola.
Cross the street for Boomtown’s commercial side, which starts with the Lincoln Hotel, exhibiting a bachelor room, a guest water pitcher and not much more. “It’s sparse, but that’s the point,” says Springs Preserve curator of exhibits Aaron Micallef. Just south is the outdoor Majestic Theater, which will screen old movies and includes entertainment-poster recreations painted by local artist JW Caldwell. Next door: the Arizona Club, a Westworld-ish gaming saloon and brothel where you can learn about the first Vegas nightlife scene and spin a real roulette wheel. Mercantile is the next stop, a general store complete with a fitting-room area and an interactive scale and old-school cash register. Finally, First State Bank features a teller’s cage, along with a scale and assay slips one can fill and take to the Nature Exchange for a hunk of iron pyrite.
This weekend kicks off what looks to be a momentous year for the educational/cultural campus. Also debuting is a new parrot show; next weekend sees the opening of The Science of Ripley’s Believe It or Not touring exhibit. An updated children’s playground is forthcoming. And come summertime, Springs Preserve will both open its new Waterworks exhibit—which details how we get, treat and conserve water in Southern Nevada—and celebrate its 10th anniversary, marking another boom for the old Las Vegas Springs.
Boomtown 1905 Tuesday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; $5-$19. Springs Preserve, 702-822-7700.
