[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 18, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5655-S5656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IN RECOGNITION OF LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today to bring attention to the 
special distinction of Las Vegas, NM, as recently highlighted by the 
Los Angeles Times. Perhaps more faithfully than any other community in 
the Southwest, this charming city continues to hold fast to its rich 
Hispanic and European heritage, and colorful ``Wild West'' history.
  Firmly rooted in Hispanic traditions, Las Vegas was christened 
``Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de Las Vegas Grandes,'' or ``Our Lady 
of the Sorrows of the Great Meadows,'' by sheep and cattle ranchers of 
Spanish heritage who settled there in 1835. Las Vegas prospered as a 
major trading point on the Santa Fe Trail, giving rise to a great 
proliferation of adobe homes and commercial buildings. As trade 
burgeoned, the trail and the nearby Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe 
Railroad brought in a larger variety of settlers and architecture, 
including other European influences, and the town grew to include a 
large number of Victorian buildings. As the Los Angeles Times points 
out, Las Vegas currently boasts over 900 structures listed on U.S. and 
New Mexico registries of historic buildings, an outstanding number of 
monuments to the varied cultural influences that have shaped the town 
for more than a century and a half.
  The Los Angeles Times also noted that ``this Las Vegas, in fact, has 
so much history, the town's not sure what to do with it all.'' Las 
Vegas has played host to both illustrious guests and infamous Wild West 
personalities. Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders convened there 
for a reunion in 1899, a year after they stormed San Juan Hill. Both 
Ulysses S. Grant and Emperor Hirohito of Japan took advantage of the 
Montezuma Castle hot mineral springs resort outside town. The same 
vibrant traffic that made the town boom brought in some of the most 
colorful characters of the Old West: outlaw Billy the Kid and bank 
robber Jesse James made appearances in Las Vegas, and controversial 
gunman ``Doc'' Holliday performed a stint as the town's dentist.
  Though the town was established by a land grant from the Mexican 
government to several Spanish families, Gen. Stephen Kearny of the U.S. 
Army arrived on the scene in 1846 by way of the Santa Fe trail and 
sparked the Mexican American War by declaring the town's residents to 
be citizens of the United States. Henceforth, the town clung 
tenaciously to its roots, resulting in a vibrant and authentic Hispanic 
community unlike any other in the Southwest.
  Although the boom begun by the railroad left Las Vegas behind, and 
stagnation sometimes haunted the town's economy, Las Vegas continued to 
embrace its home-grown values and place an emphasis on preservation as 
it sought other means of development. I believe Las Vegas, with its 
history and charm, is poised for a 21st century renaissance. It has the 
ingredients--a ready workforce, access to transportation and 
metropolitan services, a higher- education base, and the desire to be a 
prosperous and growing community. I have worked through my Rural Payday 
initiative to help bring new telecommunications-related jobs to Las 
Vegas, and we are working on other projects to bring more jobs to the 
area. The socalled information superhighway, like the railroads of the 
1800s, can be the region's next conduit for growth.
  The people of Las Vegas and San Miguel County hold a very special 
place in my heart. They make New Mexico particularly proud for staying 
true to their values and heritage. Possibly no other locale that so 
purely embodies the real historic and cultural elements that 
distinguish our state from any other. I commend Las Vegas' residents 
for their active preservation efforts, and congratulate this community 
on its remarkable place in New Mexico's cultural life.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Los 
Angeles Times article from June 16, 2002, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Los Angeles, Times, June 16, 2002]

            No Sin City, This Vegas Savors Its Rich Heritage


The small community in northern New Mexico treasures its old buildings, 
           unlike its glittery namesake in the Nevada desert

                            (By Tom Gorman)

       This is the other Las Vegas--not where 40-years-old casinos 
     are imploded because they're no longer fashionable, but where 
     140-year-old storefronts still have purpose.
       The mob missed this place, but not the ruthless Billy the 
     Kid, who was run out of town after pistol-whipping the 
     sheriff, and bank robber Jesse James, who relaxed in its hot 
     mineral baths. Probably neither visited the town dentist, 
     ``Doc'' Holiday.
       Nevada's Las Vegas may have its conventions, but it was 
     here where Theodore Roosevelt and his Roughriders held a 
     reunion, attracting 10,000 admirers, a year after they 
     stormed San Juan Hill in 1898. Hotel guests in Nevada's Vegas 
     include flash-in-the-pan celebrities, but the old Montezuma 
     Castle mineral springs resort here played host to Ulysses S. 
     Grant and Emperor Hirohito of Japan.
       This Las Vegas, in fact, has so much history, the town's 
     not sure what to do with it all.
       More than 900 buildings in this city of 15,700 are listed 
     on New Mexico and U.S. registries of historic buildings. Most 
     are clustered downtown, still used as homes, offices and 
     storefronts, just as they were more than a century ago when 
     this was New Mexico's boomtown.
       But more buildings were constructed here from 1880 to 1900 
     than can be used today.
       ``In other cities, old buildings are torn down in the name 
     of progress and are replaced with big new buildings,'' Mayor 
     Henry Sanchez said. ``But we were too poor to tear our 
     buildings down poverty saved our History''.
       Now the city treasures its old buildings, and it has 
     created a handful of preservation districts where the 
     demolition of historic structures is banned.
       The city is struggling to find tenants for the few dozen 
     empty ones, in part because investors wary of water 
     restrictions in the drought-ridden Southwest are afraid to 
     launch businesses here and because of the cost of renovation.
       Civic leaders also say they want to preserve the town's 
     heritage and don't want to become another Santa Fe, 64 miles 
     to the west, which is chided by Las Vegans as having forsaken 
     its roots in favor of becoming a tony arts colony.
       ``Santa Fe is no longer a practicing Hispanic community,'' 
     said Bob Mischler, an anthropology professor at New Mexico 
     Highlands University here. ``Santa Fe has been taken over by 
     outsiders who have created a whole new environment. We don't 
     want to do that.''
       The challenge here, Mischler said, is to preserve and 
     capitalize on Las Vegas' Latino and European heritage.
       Las Vegas was settled by Mexican sheep and cattle ranchers 
     in 1835, attracted by the lush green meadows that gave the 
     town its Spanish name.
       Army Gen. Stephen Kearny, following the Santa Fe Trail, 
     arrived here in 1846 and started the Mexican American War by 
     proclaiming the town's residents to be American citizens. No 
     shots were fired, and in time town commerce flourished by 
     trading with nearby Ft. Union.
       The economy that traders generated along the Santa Fe Trail 
     through Las Vegas further enriched the town's merchants but 
     was nothing compared to the arrival of the railroad in 1879, 
     fostering 20 years of heated growth.
       The town grew as two distinct halves--Latinos around the 
     historic plaza, Easterners and Europeans around the rail 
     district. Entrepreneurs from both cultures profited, and Las 
     Vegas presented a confluence of architectural styles--from 
     adobe and California mission to Queen Anne and Italianate--
     that grace the town to this day.
       ``Las Vegas has very few rivals in the West for frontier 
     boomtown architecture,'' said Elmo Baca, until recently New 
     Mexico's historic preservation officer.
       But after the turn of the century, Las Vegas' fortunes 
     waned as railroads expanded their reach to Albuquerque and 
     other Western towns. Baca, a Las Vegas native, said the town 
     still embraced its home-grown values.
       ``Ever since Kearny came here, we've had a healthy 
     suspicion of outsiders,'' he said.

[[Page S5656]]

     ``We've held on dearly to our cultural heritage, perhaps at 
     the expense of economic development.''
       The frontier buildings were neither razed nor improved as 
     the city's economy stagnated during the last century. Few 
     businesses moved here; a factory made parachutes during World 
     War II, and today the biggest employer is the government.
       Not that progress isn't being made.
       The city is renovating the railroad depot, at a cost of 
     $500,000; the Montezuma Castle resort was renovated and is 
     now used as one of 10 Armand Hammer United World College 
     campuses around the world.
       And the citizens committee for historic preservation 
     purchased an 1895 mercantile building for its own use, 
     investing about $500,000 to turn it into a Santa Fe Trail 
     interpretive center.
       Slowly, building owners are renovating their structures, 
     although some remain empty. Among them: two century-old 
     storefronts owned by the Maloof family, which settled here in 
     1892 and became wealthy New Mexico business owners and 
     bankers. Today, one branch of the family owns the Sacramento 
     Kings professional basketball team and a Las Vegas, Nev., 
     casino hotel.
       Among the town's boosters is Anne Bradford, who moved here 
     from Carlsbad, Calif., nine years ago and spent $150,000 to 
     turn a 109-year-old home into a bed-and-breakfast inn.
       Her guests, she said, enjoyed this Las Vegas for what it 
     is. ``People will always recognize our Las Vegas,'' she said. 
     ``It'll always be a little bit behind. That's part of its 
     charm.''

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