Las Vegas
By J.Young

At the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and 65 miles east of Santa Fe, at elevation 6424 feet above sea level is the original “Sin City”, the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Established through a Spanish land grant in 1835. It was the last Spanish colony built in North America and was originally named Nuestra Senora de los Dolores De Las Vegas Grandes (our lady sorrows of the great Meadows) by the early settlers. At first the settlement served also as a fort. It was designed to defend itself from attacks from the Apache Indians. One story flat adobe houses surrounded a large Central Plaza.

First and most importantly, a water supply was constructed. A large ditch called the Acequia Madre ran off the Gallinas river, which reports say still winds behind buildings on the old Plaza and waters the gardens on the western portion of town today.

In 1846 just after the US and Mexico went to war General Stephen W Kearney and a large army arrived at Las Vegas in April 1846. When they arrived they found around 1,500 Spanish settlers in town and surrounding the area. The army surrounded the town placing cannons pointing at the plaza and the people of the Town surrendered. The Army confiscated the home of Hilario Gonzalez, using his home as their barracks. The army stayed for five years, leaving in 1851 moving about 20 miles north of Las Vegas to the newly built Fort Union, as well as another location at Fort Lunas. Its purpose was to protect the settlers coming in on the Santa Fe Trail to Las Vegas and Santa Fe from further Apache raids.
Miguel A Romero, a native of Spain and his father Francisco, were some of the first settlers at Las Vegas and built the very first homes there. The town began to develop and many traders, prospectors and travelers stopped at Las Vegas along the Santa Fe Trail. It was the first town after 600 miles of sucking dirt on the road from Kansas. Travelers demanded whiskey, women and a hot bath and the town was ready to accommodate. Las Vegas became very popular and in 1879, about 1 mile east of the plaza across the Gallinas River, railroad tracks were laid and the first train arrived at Las Vegas. Hundreds of town folks gathered to celebrate and a large settlement of tents and small cabins were built near the railroad. Soon large establishments were built and its commercial District became competitive to the West End Plaza. Las Vegas in all grew so large it rivaled Denver and El Paso in size of area.

It wasn’t long when about 6 trains a day stopped in Las Vegas. This brought in many curious eastern travelers, along with some outlaws, con artist murderers and thieves. The east end of town became rather rough by the new group of arrivals. Another group came to town from Dodge City and established themselves as peace officers; they were known as the Dodge City gang. It was made up of men such as JJ web, mysterious Dave Mather, Joe Carson, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh (Radenbach)
and their leader Hoodoo Brown, who served as the Justice of the Peace. With Hoo-Doo calling the shots he placed Dave Rudabaugh (Rodenbaugh) as The City’s first chief of police. Tom Pickett served as the city’s Chief of Merchants Police.
Las Vegas became a home and a or frequent place to visit by people like; Doc Holliday, Big-Nose Kate, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Bob Ford, Wyatt Earp, Rattlesnake Sam, Cock-Eyed Frank, Hook Nose Jim, Stuttering Tom, Durango Kid, Handsome Harry the Dancehall Rustler, Vicente Silva and his gang, and Belle Siddons (alias Monte Verde).

Doc Holliday is thought to have bought a saloon on Center Street (now East Lincoln ave) with partner JJ Web. But Doc didn’t stick around long, on July 19th 1879, Doc got into an argument with a local named Mike Gordon who was apparently very well liked. The two went out to the street to settle business. Doc, who was known as a polite man with a quick and deadly trigger finger said in a laid back, calm voice “start shooting whenever you would like” … a moment later Mike Gordon was dead with 3 three holes of hot lead in his belly. In retaliation for Mike Gordon the town folks and friends of Mike formed a mob to Lynch Doc. Doc got word and was able to leave town for good.

Robberies targeting stages carrying gold, silver and other valuable items were on the rise and occurring mostly in the Vegas area. Two stage robberies in August of 1879 and one train robbery. Many suspected that the perpetrators were members of their own police force; The Dodge City Gang. On August 18, 1879, a Barlow & Sanderson stagecoach was robbed by three masked men near the village of Tecolote. John Clancy, Jim Dunagan, and Antonio Lopez were arrested for the robbery, however, they were not convicted. Just a few weeks later on August 30, 1879, another Barlow and Sanderson stagecoach was held up. “Frank” Cady, “Slap Jack Bill”, “Bull Shit Jack”, and JJ Webb, all with ties to the Dodge City Gang, were arrested and charged with the second holdup. However, they too escaped conviction. Dave Rudabaugh would later confess to this crime in connection with Las Vegas Marshal Joe Carson and a man named Joseph Martin. On October 14, 1879, a train was robbed in the Las Vegas area by masked men. The robbers made off with $2,085, three pistols, and all the lanterns on the train. In mid–February of 1881, in an attempt to avoid trial on a capital offense, Dave Rudabaugh would plead guilty to the robbery..The townspeople were tired of violence and crime and posted this in Las Vegas optic on April 8th 1880:

TO MURDERERS CONFIDENCE MEN, THIEVES:

“The citizens of Las Vegas have tired of robbery, murder, and other crimes that have made this town a byword in every civilized community. They have resolved to put a stop to crime, if in attaining that end they have to forget the law and resort to a speedier justice than it will afford. All such characters are therefore, hereby notified, that they must either leave this town or conform themselves to the requirements of law, or they will be summarily dealt with. The flow of blood must and shall be stopped in this community, and the good citizens of both the old and new towns have determined to stop it, if they have to HANG by the strong arm of FORCE every violator of the law in this country.” – Vigilantes.

Shortly after July 14th 1881 the day of Billy the Kid’s supposed death. The Las Vegas optic mysteriously had an index finger in a jar of alcohol they claimed as Billy the Kid’s Here is an ad they put in:

“His finger is well-preserved in alcohol and has been viewed by many in our office today. If the rush continues we shall purchase a small tent and open a sideshow to which complimentary tickets will be issued to our personal friends.” -Las Vegas Optic

Crime was on an upswing again in Las Vegas, shootings were a regular occurrence and cattle rustling was getting out of control. Whole entire herds were disappearing!

Vincent Silva and his gang called The white caps or 40 Bandits or the Society of Bandits hung around and lived in town. Vincente Silva soon found out that a friend …maes was about to tell all about their wrong doings and called a nighttime meeting at his saloon with all the gang members present. At a so-called mock trial, the gang members judged Maes guilty and he was hanged during a snowstorm on a bridge over Gallinas Creek on October 22, 1892. When his body was found, a Coroner’s jury decided that he had been lynched for an unknown crime.

Afterward, Silva fled on October 26th to his hideout in the mountains near Los Alamos. While he was gone, he was indicted for horse and cattle stealing on November 7, 1892, and the Territorial Governor had offered $1,000 for his capture. Suspecting that his brother-in-law, Gabriel Sandoval, was going to inform on the gang for the lynching of Maes, he ordered him killed. Three crooked Lawmen and gang members, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Eugenio Alarid, and another.. shot and killed Sandoval in February 1893 and his body mysteriously disappeared.

Afterward, Silva’s wife began to ask numerous questions about her brother’s questionable disappearance and Silva decided that she too had to be killed. He then ordered his men to dig her a grave. However, as the men dug in, their discussion changed, As they were insulted with the offering of a tiny payment and decided that Silva was out of control. When Silva appeared with his wife’s body, the men robbed and murdered him, burying his body along with his wife’s. This officially ended the reign of Silva’s White Caps.

Teddy Roosevelt formed the Rough Riders In many of that group were made up of men from Las Vegas and the town hosted its first Roughriders reunions and was attended by Teddy Roosevelt the soon-to-be president at hotel La Castenada. Which still stands today. After sitting vacant and abandoned for years, the hotel was purchased in 2014 by Allan Affeldt with plans to renovate the historic property. It faces the railroad tracks on the 500 block of Railroad Avenue.

Today Las Vegas has about 900 buildings on the national register of historic places. including the Bridge Street and plaza areas where there is a designated Santa Fe Trail site.