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#47307 - 08/29/99 03:16 PM
Search For the Very Beginning
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Member
Registered: 08/12/99
Posts: 1814
Loc: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
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This is a project I've been intending to accomplish for the past few years but for a number of reasons, I've just not gotten around to doing it.
First of all, it would require me to spend a lot of time in Las Vegas, and I don't have a lot of time to spend there.
Secondly, it would require that I spend a lot of time outside of one casino or another, and I am usually very reluctant to do that.
So I am writing this in the hope that someone out there may have the time and the inclination to get this ball rolling and help me out until my next visit to Las Vegas.
It could prove to be very interesting!
Here it is! - Every city in every state has an official civil service agency that maintains records of property ownership. In most cases these public records go all the way back to the very beginning showing that "John and Buleah Smythe" received 30 acres from Chief Always Thirsty, bounded by a line heading due north from the deepest part of Cochise Gulch to the very top of Pete's Peak, then east to the intersection of Rabbit Trail and Cayote Road, then due south .........but you get the idea!!!
This was way before the Mormons built a fort.
In order to protect his claim to this arid piece of land, John Smythe (as encouraged by his wise wife, Buleah) had it put to paper by the nearest neighbor who could read and write and had it signed (X'ed) by the mighty Chief himself who felt that the neighborhood was going to Hades anyway and moved the tribe in search of greener pastures.
John and Buleah scratched a living from the soil, raised a family and died at an early age. John died holding in his hands the proof that he owned this arid piece of land. He was buried beside Buleah within 100 yards of the shack he and his wife had built. The proof of ownership was shoved with some other mementos in a box in the cornor of the shack and life went on.
He sons and daughters grew and married closest neighbors about 25 miles beyond the sun baked horizons.
The oldest son hunted for a wife and married an Indian maiden (White Cloud) whose grandfather was Chief Always Thirsty. It was quite a coincidence but not a rareity in a land of approximately 25 people for every 100 square miles of arid desert.
It was a difficult life but they survived.
The dog eared "deed" was greased and used to cover an opening in the wall to keep the wind out and the sunlight in.
Time passes and the government decides to move west and get it organized. Agents and their families make land claims in the name of the U.S. government and for their own and the people they find sitting on worthless land are given the opportunity to own it legally in the "eyes of the law".
Eventually they reach the desolate Smythe Ranch and the contract on the window is discussed in fine detail and a decision is made right on the spot that it is indeed a valid deed and will be so honored by the Government of the United States and the State of Nevada as soon as it is formed.
"This 'deed' will be registered so that your claim to this piece of desert so described can never be in question. If this property is ever sold, you must so notify the Land Registration Office!"
This happened throughout the Wild Wild West. It was the start of a land registration process that continues to this very day.
The Smyth Ranch was eventually sold for $3 an acre and the family moved west with a sizeable amount of money in their pockets. They wanted to see the ocean and move to a little place in California called Los Angeles.
The Smyth's sold their land to an old and cranky prospector who was semi-retired and had a small business renting mules to anyone within a 100 miles who needed a mule for a short time need. This land transaction was registered so now the official files showed three subsequent owners - Chief Always Thirsty sold the land to John and Buleah Smyth and their rightful son eventually sold the same parcel of land to the old and cranky prospector who was currently useing the land to breed mules which he rented out on a short term basis (Rent a Mule - the first official business in the Las Vegas Basin).
These transactions were all duly noted in the Land Registration Office and so were many others. The system showing ownership of property over the years was in effect and working well. No one could make a claim for property that was not rightfully their own.
The arid piece of property with the donkeys roaming freely and the cranky prospector sitting in the shade on the run down porch was just about useless, but the donkeys and the prospector enjoyed it immensely.
Life was hot in the summer and cold in the winter, but they were all content.
He would often just sit there and talk to his mules about the "Crazy Mormons heading north to build a fort!"
This is how life was before Las Vegas was Las Vegas
This prospector would not recognize his land today for they built the beginning of Las Vegas Bouleard right through the middle of his property, the very trail that his feet had drawn while strolling for lost donkeys who did not return at nite. His feet and the hofs of the fololowing donkeys eventually created a narrow dirt trail but over the years it grew and was expanded enough to warrant the term "Boulevard" behind its name.
(to be continued)
I am hopeing to visit this Land Registration Office soon to research the records on various parcels of land beneath the major casino properties on the Strip. I figure that each has a fascinating history to tell.
I think that the easiest search to conduct would be the parcel of land that until recently was under the Hacienda and is now under Mandalay Bay. I don't think that that parcel of Las Vegas desert changed hands too very often and it could be an easy start from the very beginnig.
Someone once told me tht the majority of the Strip was once owned by Mae West and W.C. Fields and was purchased for $30 an acre. I'm planning to check these rumors out.
I can recall my first visit down Las Vegas Blvd. It was all desert except for a few isolated, low rise hotel/motels. No one walked because they were too far apart and it was very difficult walking through the heated desert sand. And if you wre crazy enough to walk on the narrow highway, you would more than likely get stuck in the melting tar. "Sink" could be a better word!
Hand drawn signs were evident all along the Strip. Acres and acres of roadside desert parcels for sale.
Who would be crazy enough to buy this desert junk?! There were already too many hotels bakeing in the desert sun out here!! These people are crazy if they think they can sell this land!
But the Crazies bought and sold and did well indeed!
The donkeys??! They packed up and moved to a little prospecting town in the hills of Arizona.
Name it!!!
_________________________
will800
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