Arrowhead Trail Henderson
Henderson, Clark County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Arrowhead Trail Henderson. The name, “Arrowhead Trail” likely originated from the former San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad, which had an arrowhead for a logo. Prior to 1850, New Mexican trading caravans from Santa Fe en route to Los Angeles used this segment of the Old Spanish Trail.Heading south along this trail toward Bishop Mountain, travelers turned through El Dorado pass, and continued to Nelson, Searchlight, Nipton, Wheaton Springs, and on to San Bernardino.This section of the trail was popular as an early automobile road (1916-1924) connecting Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Local communities along the route promoted its construction and the tourism possibilities of Southern Nevada, including the nearby Valley of Fire, Nevada’s first state park.
Erected by Ben G. Sweet, Jr.
The Story
The Arrowhead Trail traced a corridor with deep roots: before 1850, New Mexican trading caravans from Santa Fe followed this stretch of the Old Spanish Trail toward Los Angeles, passing through El Dorado Pass and on to San Bernardino. Its name likely came from the arrowhead logo of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. Between 1916 and 1924 the route was revived as an early automobile road linking Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, boosted by local towns eager to promote Southern Nevada tourism.
Why it matters
The trail layers three eras of Western travel—Spanish trade caravan, railroad, and pioneering auto highway—onto a single desert path, showing how routes endure even as the vehicles change.
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Related events
- · Old Spanish Trail
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Spanish Trail: Armijo's Route
Henderson, NV
On January 8, 1830, the merchant Antonio Armijo led the first pack train from Santa Fe through the Las Vegas Valley to Los Angeles, opening a trade link between the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and California. Some sixty men drove woolen goods west and returned east with herds of mules and horses along what became known as the Old Spanish Trail. Contemporaries called it the longest and most arduous pack-mule route in America, and it remained the principal path between the two territories until the Mexican War ended in 1848.
Rafael Rivera
Clark County, NV
In January 1830 the young scout Rafael Rivera, riding ahead of Antonio Armijo's sixty-man trading party out of Abiquiú, New Mexico, became the first person of European descent on record to enter and cross the Las Vegas Valley. Ascending the Vegas wash and blazing a route to California's Mojave River, Rivera opened a vital link in the Old Spanish Trail, with the Las Vegas Springs an essential stop. John C. Frémont mapped the trail in 1844, and after its extension toward Salt Lake the route became known here as the Mormon Trail — closely paralleled today by Interstate 15.
Old Spanish Trail
Las Vegas, NV
For decades before the railroads, a rugged pack-trail linked the Spanish outposts of Santa Fe and the growing settlement of Los Angeles, threading 130 miles across what is now Clark County. Opened to commerce in 1829, it carried woolen goods east and mules and horses west, becoming the region's first true artery of trade. Later the same path guided gold-seeking '49ers and Mormon emigrant wagons toward California. Concrete posts set in 1965 preserve the route's memory.
Las Vegas (The Meadows)
Las Vegas, NV
Artesian springs once rose from this desert floor, sending streams across the valley to water lush meadows — the vegas, or "meadows," that gave Las Vegas its name. For generations the oasis was the winter home of Southern Paiutes, and it became a vital resting stop on the Old Spanish Trail after Antonio Armijo's trading party passed nearby in 1829–30. John C. Fremont camped here in 1844 and mapped the site; Mormons founded a mission and fort in 1855; and in 1905 a railroad company acquired the water rights and platted the City of Las Vegas.