With the railroad arriving in 1905, development along Fremont Street straight out from the train station formed Downtown Las Vegas.
Fremont’s mapmaking, the booming California Gold Rush, and the snow-free Western trail through town helped Downtown Las Vegas grow. Fremont not only charted important trails crisscrossing the American West, but also helped reroute the Old Spanish Trail ( established 1829) from Santa Fe to Los Angles near an oasis located in today’s Downtown Las Vegas.
There had been Native American tribes in the Las Vegas Valley for thousands of years, but it wasn’t until John Charles Fremont arrived in 1844 that Las Vegas ( Spanish for The Meadows) was officially on the map.
