🏘️ Background: Centennial Hills is largely a product of the go-go-growth years of Las Vegas before the 2008 crash. After the crash, it was hollowed out by foreclosures, and perhaps inspired the eerie suburban setting of the 2011 remake of Fright Night.
As for the name, residents got to pick it — it was among a slate of selections that scream aspirational, Tuscan-lite stucco modern such as Arrow Canyon, Northridge, Montecito, Vista Verde, Rancho Linda Vista. The success of the Centennial Hills identity is one of the few sparkles on the checkered resume of hapless then-Councilman Michael Mack.
🦣 Deep background: Just north are the Tule Springs Fossil Beds, where mammoths, camels, bison, ground sloths, and Giant North American lions primally moshed in a prehistoric stew of fur and fangs — and where, in 1962, a historic dig unearthed their big-ass fossilized bones.
🥩 Eat: Quite a few good eateries in these Hills. Open since 1955, Bob Taylor’s Original Ranch House still serves up fine slabs of beef in its pleasantly clamorous, saddle-fortified dining room. For quick bites, my friends swear by the “so dang yummy” noodles at Ichi Ramen House, as well as MooWoo Korean BBQ and burger spot Mooyah.
🦚 Get active: Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs is a must-visit for picnicking, fishing, walking, all-around Transcendentalist-lite nature-bathing, and birdwatching. With its multiple layers of history reflecting various reinventions, it’s emblematic of Vegas itself.
How so? Its titular springs were once, actually, real springs, and the site has served as a stagecoach stop, a working ranch, and a divorce ranch before becoming a community gathering spot beloved for its peaceful walking trails, placid fishing ponds, and famous peacocks — which, like many Las Vegans, found it a good place to put down roots. Indeed, the fancy birds you hear shrilly trilling are descendants of peacocks brought here almost 80 years ago.
Andrew Kiraly publishes TheList.Vegas, a website focused on local events. This first appeared in his newsletter The Itinerator.
