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- About the Plaza Hotel
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[caption id="attachment_1052" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hermit's Peak"][/caption] One hundred seventy-five years ago, the storm and thunder of native elk swarmed the piñon-laced hills outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. The land looked different then. Beaver claimed the Rio Gallinas in numbers much larger than today. The river bent to nature’s whims, snaking around geological dips in the landscape, flooding the plains during spring thaw. The land grew wetter, greener, and denser. Prairie dogs dotted the landscape with cavernous burrows. They chewed the delicate native grasses, prompting the growth of tender shoots that elk love to explode across the plains. It’s difficult to imagine how Las Vegas used to appear before cattle barons carved the land and shifted the balance of natural power, forced thick fence stakes into the red earth in order to keep the neighbors and Native Americans at bay, before fur trappers scented rusting traps with the glands of dead beaver in the hopes of snagging a fat prize. In 1835, Spanish settlers applied for a communal land grant from Mexico, asked to settle in a rolling valley beneath the Sangre de Christo Mountains. New Mexico wasn’t yet a State of the Union. The railroad connecting east to…
- What to do in Las Vegas, New Mexico
Wondering what to do in Las Vegas, New Mexico? The Hot Springs near Montezuma Castle are a local favorite spot. You can soak in the 112 degree hot pool while your young children splash in the 100 degree warm pool. These natural hot springs have been used by the local population for hundreds of years. The pools are free, outside, and are maintained by the students of the Armand Hammer World College, a two-year dormitory college prep school which has students from over 100 different countries. The Historic Plaza Hotel has a Hot Springs Special, too! [arrow]Click here to download a brochure detailing the Montezuma Hot Springs, including directions and a map![/arrow] The Historic Plaza Hotel and Byron T’s Saloon, on the Plaza in Old Town Las Vegas, New Mexico, is the site where Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders held their first reunion. The hotel has been restored and features a wonderful restaurant and wild west accommodations with a modern touch. The Historic Plaza Hotel has an incredible new expansion – the Ilfeld Building, located right next to the hotel on the Old Town Plaza. The building features a gorgeous newly renovated ballroom and theme rooms. Don’t miss it! Each Saturday…
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Wondering what to do in Las Vegas, New Mexico?
The Hot Springs near Montezuma Castle are a local favorite spot. You can soak in the 112 degree hot pool while your young children splash in the 100 degree warm pool. These natural hot springs have been used by the local population for hundreds of years. The pools are free, outside, and are maintained by the students of the Armand Hammer World College, a two-year dormitory college prep school which has students from over 100 different countries. The Historic Plaza Hotel has a Hot Springs Special, too!
The Historic Plaza Hotel and Byron T’s Saloon, on the Plaza in Old Town Las Vegas, New Mexico, is the site where Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders held their first reunion. The hotel has been restored and features a wonderful restaurant and wild west accommodations with a modern touch. The Historic Plaza Hotel has an incredible new expansion – the Ilfeld Building, located right next to the hotel on the Old Town Plaza. The building features a gorgeous newly renovated ballroom and theme rooms. Don’t miss it!
Each Saturday and Sunday on Grand Avenue, the People’s Flea Market offers fun, excitement, and some amazing bargains! Find a used leather holster, or buy a crate of live chickens! Farmers, ranchers, cowboys, and townspeople set up free tables where they sell their extra goods. Don’t miss the fresh tamales and prune empanadas – mmmmmm! Find the People’s Flea Market just a mile North of town!
The Rio Gallinas splits Las Vegas into East and West. The river boasts a pretty gravel river walk, where you can enjoy the pinon trees and watch the numerous beavers work on their dams. Explorer Coronado crossed the Gallinas during his travels – see the plaque on the Bridge Street bridge. Pick up a smothered green chili burrito at Charlie’s Spic and Span on Douglas Ave, and enjoy some lunch at the river’s edge.
The Las Vegas Museum and Rough Riders Museum on Grand Avenue is a museum crammed with photographs and artifacts from the town’s Wild West days. The historian on duty will describe what life was like when Billy the Kid terrorized the town.
The haunted La Castaneda Hotel is located next to the old Las Vegas Train Depot. The hotel is closed, but the saloon on the ground floor is still open – and it looks exactly like it did during Doc Holliday’s years. Grab a Corona and sit on the hotel deck. If you’re lucky, you might spy the ghost!
You’ve read about our Original Las Vegas in your history books: the rooftop where New Mexico was first declared a part of the United States, the biggest stop on the entire Santa Fe Trail, Doc Holliday’s last – and most deadly – shingle, the city, and still-standing saloon Teddy Roosevelt chose for his Rough Riders.
You’ve seen the “reel” Las Vegas in the movies – the sheer cliff of Hermit’s Peak and our cowgirl mural in “Red Dawn,” our neighborhoods and vintage Serf Theatre in “No Country for Old Men,” and our rolling prairie lands in “The Astronaut Farmer.” Hollywood has discovered us! Now it’s your turn…
Come, begin your adventure in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Let us show you our hospitality, our vintage architecture, our welcoming kindness.
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