TITLE: CLARK COUNTY'S GARDEN OF EDEN
ITEM NUMBER: X00000053883

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AUTHOR: Walter A. Eisner
GENRE: Non-Fiction
DESCRIPTION
THE CREATION OF CLARK COUNTY

Introduction to Clark County

Clark County was created February 5, 1908; its name honors William A. Clark, a United States Senator from Montana who built the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. The county covers 7,881 square miles (20,490.6 square kilometers) which is comparable to the area of Massachusetts.

Prehistoric Southern Nevada was a virtual marsh of abundant water and vegetation. As time passed and the desert aged, the marsh receded and rivers disappeared beneath the surface. The once abundant wetlands evolved into a parched, arid landscape that supported only the hardiest of plants and animals. Water trapped underground in the complicated geologic formations of the Las Vegas Valley sporadically surfaced to nourish plentiful plants; creating the “Clark County’s Garden of Eden” in the desert as the life-giving water flowed to the Colorado River.

Construction workers in 1993 discovered the remains of a Columbian mammoth that roamed the area during prehistoric times. Paleontologists estimate the bones to be 8,000 to 15,000 years old. Hidden for centuries from all but Native Americans, the Las Vegas Valley Garden of Eden was protected from discovery by the surrounding harsh and unforgiving Mojave Desert.

Clark County’s Garden of Eden Discovered

While in 1829, Antonio Armijo's caravan was camped Christmas Day about 100 miles northeast of present day Las Vegas, a scouting party rode west in search of water. An experienced young Mexican scout, Rafael Rivera, left the main party and ventured into the unexplored desert. Within two weeks, he discovered Las Vegas Springs.

The exact date is unknown, but Rafael Rivera became the first known non-Indian to set foot in the garden of Eden-like Las Vegas Valley. Between 1830 and 1848, the name "Vegas," as shown on maps of that day, was changed to Las Vegas which means "The Meadows" in Spanish. Some 14 years after Rivera's discovery, John C. Fremont led an overland expedition west and camped at Las Vegas Springs on May 13, 1844. His name is remembered today in neon as well as museums and history books. The Fremont Hotel-Casino in Downtown Las Vegas bears his name as does Fremont Street -- the main thoroughfare through the heart of casino-lined Glitter Gulch.

This is the photographic history of Clark County in Nevada, which started to emerge as early as 1905. In the eyes of the author, Walter A. Eisner, his photographic account of Clark County’s evolution appears to follow some specific patterns reminiscent of another garden, identified as the ‘Garden of Eden’. A historical garden, which has been identified as the birth place of civilization, like-wise Clark County has become known in recent years as the birth place of global diversity. Walter has categorized his photographs into evolutionary patterns, which tell the story of Clark County’s history through the use of photographs. There are three parts to this photographic story of Clark County’s history; of which part one and two have three categories each of photographs that put its history in perspective. The third part has three final categories that bring full circle the categories of part one and two in the form of Las Vegas as the city is now magnified in the beauty of its night lights; the city that never sleeps.

In part one; there are three categories of photographs that deal with Clark County’s history in relationship to its natural habitat. The first of these evolving patterns are represented by beautiful skylines and disruptive weather patterns evidenced by magnificent photography. The second of these photographic categories, all but forces the observer to visualize what has always been an illusion of how the ‘Garden of Eden’ must have appeared to the first humans. This is evidenced by a display of an array of breath taking photographs of all types of flowers, insects and humming bird interacting with the blossoms; the pollination of life as it must have occurred in the ‘Garden of Life’, that of Eden. The third of these evolving patterns are represented by the Clark County terrain, which provides a rare photographic glimpse of the inhabitants in their environment and weird mountain formation.

Part two brings forth the evolutionary stages of perhaps some prehistoric life leading up to the first civilization and habitat in the valley. Walter photographs an unknown civilization; old structures that were lived in perhaps by miners back in the day of the gold rush in Nevada and finally remnants of old abandon mines structures.

Finally in part three; the author brings Clark County into full circle, which is evidenced of a determined spirited people by this photographic account of how Las Vegas became the name of the diversified city.

Carrie Riley-Johnson
Editing Consultant