[von949]

Is this the area where 'The Hills Have Eyes' was based on?!

[basnobua]

Originally Posted by von949

Is this the area where 'The Hills Have Eyes' was based on?!

If you hike in the wrong place on a day with low visibility, you might think so

I've seen tents in a few places, but this is both more elaborate and higher up than any other "home" I've ever stumbled upon.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by basnobua

Some Frenchman's mountain history:

Very early on the mountain seems to have been known as Gass Mountain (after Octavius D. Gass (RJ article or wiki))

In this 1910 excerpt from the Las Vegas Age (newspaper of the time), "Have you seen Halley's comet?... has returned just as advertised and may be seen just before daybreak over Gass mountain in the eastern sky"

Mountain and eastern sky are hardly enough to say Gass = Frenchman definitively, but a 1912 article, convinces me that this is the case. "Gass Mountain lying about eight miles east of Las Vegas...entirely independent of any other range" and is the location of the "Frenchman's mine"

Interestingly the Frenchman in question is Paul Watelet, a Belgian man.

Both mine entrances I have seen on Frenchman:
Mining on the south end:


Mining Further North:



So formerly Gass Mountain, then probably colloquially Frenchman's Mountain, then officially Frenchman Mountain, then colloquially Sunrise Mountain.... (and then of course a failed attempt to name it Mount Reagan)

That's pretty confusing, as Gass Peak is in the Sheep Range to the north of the Valley. It's the one with the reflections from Metro's radio equipment building that you see at times during the summer. Actually that is the Las Vegas Range, but everyone refers to IT incorrectly as the Sheep Range.

[Buzz123]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenchman_Mountain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunrise_Mountain_(Nevada)

Gass Peak Road - Desert - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Would you prefer Belgian Mountain? Why doesn

[basnobua]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

That's pretty confusing, as Gass Peak is in the Sheep Range to the north of the Valley. It's the one with the reflections from Metro's radio equipment building that you see at times during the summer. Actually that is the Las Vegas Range, but everyone refers to IT incorrectly as the Sheep Range.

Presumably Gass mountain would have predated the naming of Gass peak, but who knows. Early Las Vegas history is bizarre. Octavius gets sort of forgotten in most historical accounts because he left before things got interesting, so its fitting he only gets a street and a peak.

1855 - 1857 Mormon Fort built and occupied by Mormons

1865 - 1881 Gass owns the fort as part of Los Vegas Rancho

1876 Image of Gass Ranch with Gass/Frenchman mountain in the background


1879 Gass got a $5000 loan from Archibald Stewart, and defaulted on it. Stewart takes possession of the ranch in 1881

1884 Stewart goes to visit Conrad Kiel's Ranch (friend of Gass from Ohio) and gets murdered. (NLV was rough even before it existed)

1900 Both of Kiel's sons get murdered (possibly by Stewart's son)

1902 William Clark purchases a large part of the Ranch from Stewarts widow, railroad is built

1905 Clark Townsite auction, Las Vegas is born

1907-1914 Paul Watelet (the Frenchman) "finds gold" and starts mining on Gass Mountain (its almost universally accepted that this was a scam and no ore of any value was produced by these mines)

A view of Gass mountain from Gass peak (probably for the best that this was changed)