Goodsprings a short drive with a long heritage  The smallest of
the pioneer towns surviving in Clark County, Goodsprings, is
about a half-hour's drive from Las Vegas, nestled near the
southern Spring Mountain Range, a short trip into the region's
past.  To reach the town of fewer than 200 people, head south
from Las Vegas on Interstate 15. At the Jean exit, turn right
onto Route 161. Goodsprings is seven miles west of Jean near the
base of the mountains out of sight of the freeway. From
Goodsprings, Route 161 continues west through scenic Columbia
Pass to Sandy Valley, a scattered community along the Nevada-
California border.  The highway parallels a historic travel
route used by native cultures for centuries. Following ancient
pathways linking watering holes across the desert, early
explorer Antonio Armijo in 1830 visited the life-giving springs
near the site of what would become Goodsprings. In the 1850s,
when Mormon colonists established a fort along Las Vegas Creek
and assessed the nearby mountains for mi