The fort was surrounded by 14-foot (4.3 m) high adobe walls that extended for 150 feet (46 m). While called a fort, it was never home to any military troops but like many Mormon forts provided a defense and shelter for local settlers and travelers.[citation needed]
Around 1860, a small detachment of U.S. Army troops was assigned to protect the settlers at the fort.[citation needed]
The fort was called Fort Baker during the Civil War, named after Edward Dickinson Baker. 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.[10] Carleton then intended to send on from there three cavalry companies and one of infantry to the Mormon fort at Las Vegas, and establish a post called Fort Baker. This was in preparation for an advance to Salt Lake City the following year.[11] The move to reoccupy Fort Mojave never occurred as planned because Carleton's California Column at Fort Yuma were sent instead into Arizona and New Mexico to evict the Confederates there the next year. However, Fort Mojave was later reoccupied in 1863 by Union troops from California. In 1864, a road survey party led by Captain Price, Company M, 2nd California Cavalry Regiment traveled on the route from Fort Douglas to Fort Mojave passing through Las Vegas, stopping for water there on June 10. No mention is made of any garrison there.[12] Presumably the post was never garrisoned during the Civil War.
Ranching/early Las Vegas period
In 1865, Octavius Gass re-occupied the fort and started the irrigation works, renaming the area to Los Vegas Rancho (later renamed Las Vegas in 1902). Gass defaulted on a loan to Archibald Stewart in 1881 and lost the ranch, with Stewart and his wife Helen becoming the new caretakers. 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.[13]
Site preservation
Ownership of the fort and the land around it changed hands many times and it had several close calls with destruction. In 1955, the land was acquired by the Las Vegas Elks. With support of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the city of Las Vegas acquired the fort in 1989. Long-term protection was gained when the state acquired the site as a state park in 1991.[14]
A $4.5 million renovation and visitor center, designed by assemblageSTUDIO, was completed in 2005.[15] A visitor center explains the history of the fort.[3]
^Gene Amberg, Supervisor of Federal Aid Programs, Planning Dept. (November 8, 1971). "Las Vegas Mormon Fort". National Register of Historic Place Inventory Nomination. National Park Service. Retrieved January 30, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Carleton calls it Fort Navajo, but by referring to the ferry and Major Hoffman's route up the Colorado in his campaign against the Mohave Indians it clearly indicates he means Fort Mojave. He also indicates it will then draw supplies from Los Angeles. Fort Mojave was the terminus of the supply route known as the Mojave Road from San Bernardino and Los Angeles.
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