Why the name “Las Vegas” means “The Meadows”
The name points to a landscape that would have seemed surprising in the dry basin: patches of green grass. Spanish explorers encountered grasses sustained by springs fed from underground water, and called the area Las Vegas—Spanish for “the meadows.” The name described what the water made visible, not a broad, lush grassland.
How underground water reached the surface
An artesian spring forms when groundwater is trapped in a layer of rock between less-permeable layers. Pressure pushes the water upward; if the rock opens at the surface, it can emerge without being pumped. Where that water flowed, grasses could grow amid otherwise arid surroundings.
That contrast made the meadows a recognizable feature in the basin. The place-name preserves a clue to the older landscape: before the modern city defined Las Vegas, naturally emerging water supported green areas that stood out in the desert.
