Overlooking the central plaza, the El Encanto restaurant caters to travelers visiting historic downtown Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Las Vegas was established in 1835 after a group of settlers received a land grant from the Mexican government. The town was laid out in the traditional Spanish Colonial style, with a central plaza surrounded by buildings which could serve as fortifications in case of attack. Las Vegas soon prospered as a stop on the Santa Fe Trail. During the Mexican-American War in 1846, Stephen W. Kearny delivered an address at the Plaza of Las Vegas claiming New Mexico for the United States. In 1877 Las Vegas College, the precursor to Regis University, was founded in Las Vegas by a group of exiled Italian Jesuits. In 1887, Las Vegas College moved to Denver whereupon the name was changed. When the railroad arrived in 1880, it set up shop one mile ( km) east of the Plaza, creating a separate, rival New Town (as occurred elsewhere in the Old West; Albuquerque suffered the same inconvenience, for instance). During the railroad era Las Vegas boomed, quickly becoming one of the largest cities in the American southwest. Turn-of-the-century Las Vegas featured all the modern amenities, including an electric street railway, the "Duncan Opera House" at the northeast corner of 6th Street and Douglas Avenue, a Carnegie library, a major Harvey House hotel, and the New Mexico Normal School (now New Mexico Highlands University). The arrival of the railroad on July 4, 1879 brought with it businesses and people, both respectable and dubious. Murderers, robbers, thieves, gamblers, gunmen, swindlers, vagrants, and tramps poured in, transforming the eastern side of the settlement into a virtually lawless brawl. Among the notorious characters were such legends of the Old West as: dentist Doc Holliday and his girlfriend Big Nose Kate, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Mysterious Dave Mather, Hoodoo Brown, and Handsome Harry the Dancehall Rustler.
Size: 3312px × 5402px
Location: Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA, United States, America
Photo credit: © M L Pearson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: america, cafe, education, las, mexico, southwest, tourism, travel, usa, vegas, west
