Online Nevada Encyclopedia

Helen J. Stewart

Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

Frederick S. Dellenbaugh established his artistic reputation in Nevada with one painting. "Las Vegas Ranch," executed in 1876, was painted as the artist was resting on his way to a mining camp in Southern California. It has the distinction of being the first known painting of the Las Vegas Valley. Dellenbaugh studied art in New York, Munich, and Paris. However, it is his career as a topographer and writer that is highly regarded to this day.
 
Below is reprinted with permission from the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly.
 

Mesquite Club

Formed in 1911 as a literary club for women, the Mesquite Club quickly became a force for community improvement in the railroad town of Las Vegas. The name, suggested by an early settler of the area, Helen J. Stewart, emphasized the hardiness and usefulness of a tree native to the area. The women of the club began immediately to enhance the appearance of the raw new town constructed on the Southern Nevada desert. They decided to add trees along the dusty streets, building on Las Vegas' history as a shady oasis for travelers along the Old Spanish Trail.

Clark's Las Vegas Townsite Auction

The birth of downtown Las Vegas took place during a land auction on Monday, May 15, 1905, when 1,200 lots in an area called Clark's Las Vegas Townsite were offered for sale. The townsite was named after U.S. Senator William Clark of Montana, who had purchased the 1,800-acre Stewart Ranch from area pioneer rancher Helen J. Stewart in 1902.

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