It contains the Old Mormon Fort (completed 1855), the first permanent structure built in what would become Las Vegas fifty years later.

[citation needed] Mormon missionaries led by William Bringhurst arrived on June 14, 1855, and selected a site, along one of the creeks that flowed from the Las Vegas Springs, on which they would build the fort.

The fort served as the midpoint on the trail between Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California.

In a letter from Col. James Henry Carleton written to Pacific Department headquarters, December 23, 1861, Carleton mentions his plan to send an advance party of seven companies from Fort Yuma to reoccupy Fort Mojave and reestablish the ferry there.

In 1902, William A. Clark's San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad acquired the property from Helen Stewart along with most of what is now downtown Las Vegas, transferring most of the company's land to the now defunct Las Vegas Land and Water Company.

With support of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the city of Las Vegas acquired the fort in 1989.