Nathaniel Jones Park steeped in southwest valley history

A second Mountain's Edge park opened in June, complete with a basketball court, walking trails, shade structures and a long-deceased namesake.

Nathaniel Jones Park is in keeping with the theme Mountain's Edge creators were gearing for when they broke ground in 2004. All of its parks, present and future, play into a "sense of discovery and exploration," said Lynn Purdue of Purdue Marion & Associates, the marketing firm for land developer Focus Property Group.

"Rather than going with 'Canyon Park' or those sorts of things, we wanted people to ask questions," Purdue said. "We wanted them to learn about the Mormon Mission that led to the establishment of Las Vegas. The whole sense of exploration is very crucial to the brand of Mountain's Edge. The more people know about the land they live on, the more ingrained they become in their community."

All Mountain's Edge parks were named in 2003 and approved by the Clark County Commission. Exploration Peak Park, the first to open, sits on Bureau of Land Management turf, Purdue said, but an agreement was reached between the BLM and the Mountain's Edge developer.

"(Mountain's Edge) took the native plant material that was displaced by the detention basins and roadways and refurbished that mountain," Purdue said. "And we actually put in an application with the U.S. Geological (Survey) to give it the official name of Exploration Peak.

"The mountain didn't ever have an official name (before), but there were all kinds of different colloquial names from people who had been around for a long time."

Future planned parks include John C. Fremont Park, Helen Stewart Park, Paiute Park and Mountain's Edge Regional Park.

But back to Nathaniel Jones.

When Mormon missionaries came to the Las Vegas Valley from Utah in 1855, their job was to spread the Mormon faith to the Paiute Indians, teach them to farm and become a self-sustaining operation, said University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor Eugene Moehring. The Mormon settlement, which included the present-day Old Mormon Fort near downtown, also would serve as a rest area for passing travelers going from Utah to the Mormon Colony in San Bernardino, Calif. They taught farming to the Paiutes in the area around present-day Kyle Ranch in North Las Vegas.

The mission's leader was William Bringhurst, who would later clash with the leader of the Mormon Church at the time, Brigham Young.

During the first year, the Paiutes led the Mormons to what is present-day Mount Potosi about 30 miles southwest of Mountain's Edge, where they had discovered lead. When Young heard of this, he sent Nathaniel Jones to extract it.

Jones had experience in mining and had studied metallurgy. Jones was born in Brighton, N.Y., in 1822. He spent time in Potosi, Wis., which could explain how the mountain was named, said College of Southern Nevada history professor Michael Green. Jones converted to Mormonism in 1842 and served in a Mormon battalion in the Mexican-American War, which lasted from 1846 to 1848.

Jones arrived in Southern Nevada in 1856 with orders from Young to convert the Mormon missionaries from farmers to miners.

Bringhurst defied Young's orders, disputing with Jones about supplies and the direction of the mission. Young sided with Jones, and by the end of 1856, in a letter from Young, Bringhurst was relieved of his leadership position and "disfellowshipped from the Church."

Jones' mission would prove to be relatively unfruitful. Lead was sent back to Utah but with impurities. Young had hoped to use the lead to make tools and bullets to hold off the Ute Indians, but the goods from Mount Potosi would not cut it.

By the fall of 1858, the missionaries had enough.

"They were already suffering the effects of the heat," Green said.

Relations with the Paiutes, which had been mostly friendly, also were deteriorating. The Indians would not accept the Mormon teachings and stole much of that year's harvest.

"They just weren't happy here," Green said. "So (Brigham Young) let them leave the mission if they wished."

Jones would die less than five years later on Feb. 8, 1863, at 40. The cause, as recorded by Mormon historians, was "inflammation of the lungs and brain."

Bringhurst eventually regained the Church's favor and was named by Young as one of six founding trustees at present-day Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.