The search for any scrap left by wayfarers in Southern Nevada as early as 5,000 years ago is a labor of love for archaeologist Greg Seymour and his team excavating the collapsed shell of a shelter erected over Little Spring to protect the city's first source of drinking water from contamination. It's part of a larger labor by the Las Vegas Valley Water District to restore historical parts of the crude system that once delivered water to residents living on and around Fremont Street, so that generations from now Las Vegans can see evidence of their history at this site. Most people whiz by the spring, south of U.S. 95, east of Valley View Boulevard and north of Alta Drive.
Cottonwood trees create a natural green island in the center of a sea of urban pavement.
If they find evidence of the ancient people, they will dig under the historic house looking for more, and plans to preserve the house will have to be revisited. By April the water district hopes to have a staircase built into the steep creekbed leading to the spring. The stairs will allow visitors a path to follow down to a hands-on experience at the spring house. Spring Mound, a spot not yet studied on the water district's north well field, holds pottery shards, Seymour said. Eighty percent of those shards are Anazasi.