By Nancy Olds

The rip-roaring winds over 50 MPH did not discourage numerous volunteers from showing up for the Floyd Lamb Park Cleanup on Saturday, March 2 from 9 to 11 AM. Get Outdoors Nevada hosted this event. Our Southern Nevada Group, Sierra Club proudly partners with their cleanups throughout the winter, spring, and fall.

I had arrived after an exciting drive from Henderson, where a multitude of shopping bags were flying through the air and skirting the highway as most drivers significantly slowed down. Most of our Southern Nevada Group-Sierra Club volunteers arrived despite the wind and the storm warnings. I had never visited this park before, located just about twenty minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. It is as beautiful as friends have described it to me!

I met a volunteer, Juan, who also hailed from my neighborhood in Henderson. He is an employee with the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Juan mentioned that several volunteers from the Luxor Hotel and Casino and the Mandalay Bay Casino Resort in Las Vegas had volunteered for this cleanup.

We had a great showing of volunteers despite the rough weather. I met up with some SNG-Sierra Club regulars, but several SNG-Sierra Club newcomers were participating in their first cleanup! Congratulations to our SNG-Sierra Club members for showing up and cleaning up this lovely city park!

Many of the volunteers were able to refuel from the morning’s chill with hot coffee and Dunkin Donuts at a picnic area. Get Outdoors Nevada’s Mihaela Genova thanked us for getting out to the park and gave us an overview of the park. She and her staff, including Tayler Lundvall, were well-prepared for a large group of volunteers. There were brand new bright orange grabbing tools, good quality work gloves in large and medium sizes, buckets, and garbage bags. The staff made sure that personal safety was a top priority.

During our widespread search for trash, Mihaela came by, letting us know that there was an approaching rainstorm. I had heard about these exotic birds from some park regulars and I eventually discovered that there were peacocks in this park. How cool! These exquisite resident birds were trying to take cover by staying close to some of the historic outbuildings, their elegant tails waving like flags.

This park is very well-maintained compared to previous trash pickups I have participated in on some public lands. Most of the trash included tossed cigarette butts, plastic bottle caps, fishing lures, fishing bobbins or floats, and fishing lines. One group found an inflated beach ball!

There were a few children accompanied by their parents or guardians. Get Outdoors Nevada allows minors under the age of eighteen to join these cleanup events as long as there is an adult present and the parent or guardian signs a waiver. One of our more recent SNG-Sierra Club members comes often to this park with her Shibu Inu/Chihuahua mix for walks. Fishing is permitted in this state park. Unfortunately, while walking her dog one day, the unsuspecting dog stepped over a fishing hook, narrowly missing her padded paw. Luckily, her dog was spooked but not hurt. Many of us noticed many fishing bobbers or floats, fishing lines, and lead weights hung up on tree branches or stuck in a pond while ducks, American coots,  and geese paddled by. A volunteer at the event reported seeing a duck with a fishing line tangled around its leg. Many years ago, in another state, while kayaking on a river, I assisted in untangling a struggling cormorant covered in fishing line and tree branches, barely able to stay afloat. I do hope that this state park has staff to monitor these incidents.

It was very gratifying to see so many volunteers show up for the Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs Cleanup!

Floyd Lamb State Park, now renamed Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs, which was in honor of a state senator, was originally Tule Springs Ranch, a natural desert oasis and a watering hole for Native Americans for many centuries and for prospectors seeking their fortunes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The park contains prehistoric evidence related to Ice Age mammals during the Pleistocene Epoch.

In 1916, John Herbert (Bert) Nay bought some property there. Nay built a blacksmith shop and storage room while managing a farm. He sold his farm in 1928 and moved to California. The property was vacant until a prospector, Prosper Jacob Goumand, bought the property as a private retreat for his friends. From 1941 to 1959, Tule Springs Ranch was a working ranch. In the late 1940s, Goumand’s ranch became a popular retreat due to Nevada’s short-term divorce laws. Guests, including movie stars of the time, would wait out the six-week requirement at the ranch before filing their paperwork! Prosper Jacob Goumand’s granddaughter inherited the ranch after his death in 1954. She sold the ranch to a group of businessmen who formed the Tule Springs Investment Company. The ranch was leased out until 1964 when the City of Las Vegas bought the ranch. By then the ranch was converted into a city park. Until relatively recently, in 2007, Floyd Lamb Park was a state park. In 1981, Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2008, the city had it placed on the Las Vegas Register of Historic Places.

Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs
9200 Tule Springs Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89131
There is a $6.00 entrance fee payable by debit or credit card only.

One of the many exotic peacocks on the Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. Some of these  peacocks are perhaps descendants of the original flock on the ranch. Peacocks make excellent watchdogs!

Canada geese and domestic swan goose x wild greylag hybrid geese grazing in this historic park with some of the original buildings from the
park’s ranching period from 1941 to 1959. 

Southern Nevada Group-Sierra Club member Diana Baker picking up debris by one of the four ponds at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. 

Canada geese and American coots swim in one of the four ponds at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. Part of our trash pickup was checking along the edges of the ponds for fishing bobbers or floats, fishing line, lead weights, lures, and
fishing hooks. 

Get Outdoors Nevada had everything ready to go for the cleanup with fine work gloves, orange grabbers, buckets, and trash bags. 

Domestic swan goose x wild greylag goose hybrids at one of the ponds.

Two fishing bobbers or floats caught on a branch over the pond. The fishing bobbers or floats were beyond reach during the cleanup. Some of these were captured during the cleanup.

One of the stunning four ponds at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. American coots, Canada geese, rudy ducks, cormorants, mallards, and many assorted wildlife swim in these ponds. 

Southern Nevada Group-Sierra Club member Lynn Lessard at the cleanup in this uniquely beautiful park surrounded by cottonwood trees, spacious green lawns, and ponds filled with trout.

Get Outdoors Nevada staff, from left to right: Tayler Lundvall and Michaela Genova greet all the volunteers for the cleanup.