Seven takeaways from Sunset Park’s birthday tour

By Camalot Todd

Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Clark County marked the 50th year of Sunset Park with a rain-soaked walking tour on Friday.

The tour took place 50 years to the day that the Clark County Commission authorized the purchase of Houssels Ranch and developed it into the park.

Clark County Museum Administrator Mark Hall-Patton, a frequent contributor to “Pawn Stars,” led the tour. Here are our takeaways:

• One of the iconic Moai statues that guarded the Aku Aku restaurant at the Stardust now stands guard at the island in the middle of Sunset Park’s pond.

• The Las Vegas Valley’s last remaining sand dunes are located at the park.

• The park was originally a ranch owned by John F. Miller, who built Hotel Nevada (now known as the Golden Gate).

• Miller sold the ranch to J. Kell Houssels, part owner of the Tropicana. Houssels used the ranch as a site to breed thoroughbred horses, and his stables produced the 1941 Santa Anita Derby winner.

• The discovery of underground water led to free government land under the Desert Land Act, and nearly a 100 wells were built in Paradise County. Water continues to flow under the park and surfaces to provide irrigation to the entire west end of Sunset Park.

• The park is one of the last habitats for Phainopepla, a tiny, red eyed, black-crested bird that lives among the mesquite trees.

• The Paiute tribe lived on the land nearly 1,000 years ago during fall and winter before migrating to the mountains in the Summer.