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Aside from being one of the early inspirations for the Classic Las Vegas Historic Collection, Dennis McBride is one of the leading authorities on the history of Southern Nevada, especially the history of the building of Boulder (Hoover) Dam and Boulder City.

He has spent his life collecting stories and memories of Southern Nevada in the 20th Century.  As a native Nevadan, he has had a front row seat to the changing landscape of the Valley over the course of his life.

He is the Curator of History at the Nevada State Museum in Lorenzi Park and he was kind enough to share his thoughts on the history he has collected and much more:

As a native of Southern Nevada, how has Las Vegas changed since you were younger?  How do you feel about the changes.

Thanks to our pals at LA Observed for clueing us into Chance of Rain:

In a stunning reversal for Las Vegas water manager Patricia Mulroy, ground-water awards that were to fill an almost 300-mile-long pipeline planned by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to run from central eastern Nevada to Las Vegas were invalidated today. In an unanimous decision, the Nevada Supreme Court decided that the State Engineer violated the due process rights of hundreds, if not thousands, of people in target valleys across the Great Basin who had long protested the pipeline and water withdrawals.

After accepting to hear Great Basin Water Network vs State Engineer,  the Nevada Supreme Court last spring issued this summary: “In 1989, the predecessor to the Southern Nevada Water Authority filed applications for unappropriated water rights from rural Nevada for use in Las Vegas. More than 800 interested persons filed protests. In 2005, the State Engineer notified roughly 300 of the interested persons that a prehearing conference would be held to discuss the water rights applications. Some organizations and individuals petitioned the State Engineer to re-notice the 1989 applications and reopen the period for filing protests. After the State Engineer denied the request, appellants filed a petition for judicial review in the White Pine County District Court. That petition was denied and appellants are now appealing that decision. [At issue:] Did the State Engineer deprive appellants of the right to due process and/or equal protection by refusing to re-notice the groundwater applications? Did the State Engineer violate his statutory duties by not ruling on the 1989 application within one year?”

In fact, as the legal protest period to the original 1989 applications neared closing in August 1990, the number of protests had surpassed 3,000. Most of these protestants were gone, broke or dead by the time the State Engineer began holding basin-by-basin hearings that would award water claimed under the applications more than a decade later.

In its decision issued earlier today in Great Basin Water Network vs the State Engineer, the Supreme Court of Nevada concluded that due process rights of the protestors had indeed been violated and that “the State Engineer violated his statutory duty by failing to take action within one year after the final protest date.  Thus, we … remand for a determination of whether SNWA must file new groundwater appropriation applications or whether the State Engineer must re-notice SNWA’s 1989 applications and reopen the period during which appellants may file protests.”

In a written statement issued by the Great Basin Water Network, the attorney who brought the case, Simeon Herskovits, said, “The Court’s ruling clearly and forcefully affirms that powerful agencies like SNWA are not above the law that binds the rest of the citizenry, and that the State Engineer cannot arbitrarily give such agencies a pass on the law’s requirements.”

Also responding with a prepared statement, the Southern Nevada Water Authority called today’s ruling disappointing and added that it is “considering whether to file a Motion to Reconsider, because we believe the justices may not fully appreciate the far-reaching ramifications of their decision on people throughout the state.”

The Authority also questioned the fairness of singling out Las Vegas for a time lag when it contends that hearings for other applications are routinely not heard within a year of closing the protest period.

“While the decision was directed at the Nevada State Engineer’s ruling on our water right applications,” read the water authority’s statement, “the reality is that based upon an initial review of the state’s database, more than 1,800 applications are jeopardized by this ruling … it is not uncommon for it to take longer than 12 months to act upon a water right application.”

In light of today’s ruling, an agreement pending with Utah about how much water Nevada might be allowed to draw for the Las Vegas pipeline from Snake Valley, a basin shared by the two states, has also stalled, according to reports in the Utah paper the Millard County Chronicle Progress. “This ruling significantly changes the landscape upon which our ongoing discussions have been based,” Utah Governor Gary Herbert told the Chronicle Progress. “It allows us to revisit the proposed agreement with the State of Nevada and ensure that our continued desire to protect Utah’s water interests and the environment is met.”

Patricia Mulroy, who began her leadership of the Las Vegas Valley Water District in 1989 by stunning Nevada with sweeping groundwater applications in dozens of basins across the state, and who later led the formation of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, is in Washington DC today at a climate change conference, where she was expected to recommend exports of Mississippi River water to Southern Nevada as part of a large federal works project.

Photo provided by Chance of Rain

Pete Buol watches water flow like black gold out of an artesian well. 

Las Vegas mayors seem to have always been a colorful group.  Then as now, they were frequently outspoken and seemed to attract controversy. Though Las Vegas was founded in 1905 with the famed land auction it would be six years before the citizens of that small dusty community felt the need for a mayor.  The city of Las Vegas was incorporated in 1911 and with that brought the need for a mayor.

The first mayor was also one of the biggest civic boosters.  Along with "Big Jim" Cashman, Sr and Maxwell Kelch, Las Vegas city boosters tend to have larger than life personalities.  Pete Buol was no exception.  He was the optimistic sort who looked at that dusty railroad town and could see a brighter future ahead.  Not everyone has that knack and Buol appears to have possessed it in spades.   According to his campaign literature "ability doesn't count, knowledge is useless, experience has no worth without the driving force of optimism."   He had grown up in Chicago, the son of a Swiss master chef.  He had an eighth grade education but more importantly, he had ambition.

Pete Buol the first mayor of Las Vegas 

He won a lottery at 19 and found himself worth over $100,000.  Unfortunately for Buol, he didn't have the acumen for finances and quickly ran through the money.  He made another small fortune with a food concession at the Chicago's Exposition.  He served over 5,000 people a day, charging $.25 cents a meal.

He came west and spent some time in Hollywood before heading to Nevada.  He had hoped to invest in a mine in Goldfield but, as he later told a reporter, his bankroll was too small in Goldfield to have much of an impact.  He decided to go to Las Vegas.  He arrived by stagecoach just ahead of the railroad and the land auction.

The town was barely a town.  There was the old Kiel Ranch, the Stewart Ranch and a couple of wildcat businessmen, Jim Ladd and John Miller, had some tent hotels.  The only physician in town, Halle Hewetson, operated out of a tent.   Buol decided that real estate might be worth investing in. 

In 1905, at the land auction, Buol had two subdivisions for sale.  Buol's Addition, which was just west of the railyard, shops and Ice Plant and Buol's Sub-division was "just far enough away to be out of the noise and smoke of the shops and engines."

Buol quickly realized that one of the most important elements of selling real estate in this climate was water.  The Railroad had secured the water rights to Big Springs, the large artesian springs,  which fed the creek that ran down to the Stewart Ranch (where the Sawyer Government Building is today).  But Buol noticed that there were other artesian springs bubbling up around the valley.  Less than six months after the land auction, Buol was the manager of the Vegas Artesian Water Syndicate and he was ready to start drilling for water.

Buol was not the only one drilling for water.  Others were drilling for irrigation and crops.  Buol was drilling to enhance housing development.  In 1910, he brought in a large well near 6th and Fremont (near where the El Cortez is today), adjacent to his Buck's Addition. 

The railroad had long resisted supplying water to those outside the original township.  But with Buol's water supply, the area east on Fremont and north (to where the freeway is today) was able to develop into a very residential area. 

Buol and a friend ran for mayor because no one, according to Buol, was interested in the job.  He won by 10 votes.  His salary was $15 a month.  One of his first orders of business was rules for business licenses.    He served for two years, being succeeded by the man who had run against him, his friend Bill Hawkins.  He was then elected to the assembly.

He and his wife built a home at Seventh and Ogden.  According to writer A.D. Hopkins, their house had "walls eight inches thick, adobe inside and brick without, porches on all four sides, and a peaked roof, it was said to be the coolest in summer and warmest in winter of any in town. Its eight rooms were heated with wood fireplaces. "  When Mrs. Buol entertained her lady friends, Buol would serve them gourmet dishes harking back to his gourmet days with his father.

Through his connections, Buol met a Scotsman, Sir John Murray.  Murray had traveled extensively around the United States.  The two men corresponded and Buol traveled overseas to pitch an idea for a new development to the wealthy Scot.  Murray agreed to invest $100,000 in the new development ot be located on the far west side of the train tracks.  Buol returned home a hero to the townsfolk who were worried about the continued growth of the town.

Unfortunately, World War I interfered with Buol's plans.  Once Britian entered the Great War there was a ban on all exported assets.  Buol had to abandon his idea of an agricultural oasis just outside of the little town he loved.  However, the name stayed attached to the development and later become one of the most sought-out addresses for those who could afford it, the Scotch 80s.

Buol continued speculating.  Some of his efforts are now long-forgotten such as the little town of Johnnie or Plantina (near where Sandy Valley is today).  However, he invested in a lime deposit that helped establish the town of Sloan.   He had a borax claim that was said to have netted him $250,000 when he sold it to Francis "Borax" Smith.

In 1925, Buol and his family left the little town that he had done so much to develop and moved to the California Coast.  He continued to pursue his mining claims and was badly injured in a mine cave-in in 1929.  He died ten years later following a stroke.

Though he made a great deal of money during his lifetime, he died relatively poor.  But Pete Buol's legacy lives on in the town that he believed in so fervently, the Scotch 80s are still one of the most sought off addresses in VeryVintageVegas. 

Special thanks to the Las Vegas Review Journal for letting us use these images.

If you are interested in a home in the Scotch 80s, we encourage you to contact the crew at VeryVintageVegas.com