Prehistoric
Southern Nevada was a virtual marsh of
abundant water and vegetation. As eons
passed, the marsh receded. Rivers disappeared
beneath the surface. The once teeming
wetlands evolved into a parched, arid
landscape that supported only the hardiest
of plants and animals. Water trapped underground
in the complicated geologic formations
of the Las Vegas Valley sporadically surfaced
to nourish luxuriant plants, creating
an oasis in the desert as the life- giving
water flowed to the Colorado River.
Construction workers in 1993 discovered
the remains of a Columbian mammoth that
roamed the area during prehistoric times.
Paleontologists estimate the bones to
be 8,000 to 15,000 years old. Hidden for
centuries from all but native Americans,
the Las Vegas Valley oasis was protected
from discovery by the surrounding harsh
and unforgiving Mojave Desert.
Mexican trader Antonio Armijo, leading
a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail
to Los Angeles in 1829, veered from the
accepted route. While Armijo's caravan
was camped Christmas Day about 100 miles
northeast of present day Las Vegas, a
scouting party rode west in search of
water. An experienced young Mexican scout,
Rafael Rivera, left the main party and
ventured into the unexplored desert. Within
two weeks, he discovered Las Vegas Springs.
Oasis discovered: The exact date is unknown,
but Rafael Rivera became the first known
non-Indian to set foot in the oasis-like
Las Vegas Valley. The abundant artesian
spring water discovered at Las Vegas shortened
the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, eased
rigors for Spanish traders and hastened
the rush west for California gold. Between
1830 and 1848, the name "Vegas,"
as shown on maps of that day, was changed
to Las Vegas which means "The Meadows"
in Spanish. Some 14 years after Rivera's
discovery, John C. Fremont led an
overland
expedition west and camped at Las Vegas
Springs on May 13, 1844. His name is remembered
today in neon as well as museums and history
books. The Fremont Hotel-Casino in Downtown
Las Vegas bears his name as does Fremont
Street - the main thoroughfare through
the heart of casino-lined Glitter Gulch.
Mormon influence: Mormon settlers from
Salt Lake City traveled to Las Vegas to
protect the Los Angeles-Salt Lake City
mail route and in 1855 began building
a 150-square-foot fort of sun-dried bricks
made of clay soil and grass, a substance
known as adobe. The Mormons planted fruit
trees, cultivated vegetables and mined
lead for bullets at Potosi Mountain. Mormon
pioneers abandoned the settlement in 1858,
partly because of Indian raids. A portion
of the "Mormon Fort" has withstood
the ravages of time and is an historic
site today near the intersection of Las
Vegas Boulevard North and Washington Avenue.
Scientists began an archeological dig
on the site in November 1992. Members
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints (Mormons) currently make up about
12 percent of the Southern Nevada population
and in December 1989 dedicated a Mormon
Temple in Las Vegas. The temple spires
are visible in the foothills of Sunrise
Mountain to the east of the city.
Railroad tycoons start boom: By 1890 railroad
developers had determined the water-rich
Las Vegas Valley would be a prime location
for a stop facility and town. More than
a quarter century earlier, Nevada, known
as the Battle Born State, had been admitted
to the Union in 1864 during the Civil
War. Work on the first railroad grade
into Las Vegas began the summer of 1904.
The tent town called Las Vegas sprouted
saloons, stores and boarding houses. Rails
were connected with the eastern segment
of track in October 1904. The San Pedro,
Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, later
absorbed by its parent the Union Pacific,
made its inaugural run from California
to points east on Jan. 20, 1905.
The railroad yards were located at the
birthplace of a partially paved, dusty
Fremont Street. Jackie Gaughan's Plaza
Hotel, located at Main and Fremont streets
in Downtown Las Vegas, today stands on
the site of the original Union Pacific
Railroad depot. Freight and passenger
trains still use the depot site at the
hotel as a terminal -- the only railroad
station in the world located inside a
hotel-casino. Advent of the railroad led
to the founding of Las Vegas on May 15,
1905. The SanPedro, Los Angeles and Salt
Lake Railroad, owned by Montana Senator
Williams Andrews Clark, auctioned off
1,200 lots in a single day in an area
which today is casino-lined Glitter Gulch.
Nevada gambling glitch: Nevada was the
first state to legalize casino-style gambling,
but not before it reluctantly was the
last western state to outlaw gaming in
the first decade of the 20th Century.
At midnight, Oct. 1, 1910, a strict anti-gambling
law became effective in Nevada. It even
forbid the western custom of flipping
a coin for the price of a drink. The Nevada
State Journal newspaper in Reno reported:
"Stilled forever is the click of
the roulette wheel, the rattle of dice
and the swish of cards. "Forever"
lasted less than three weeks in Las Vegas."
Gamblers quickly set up underground games
where patrons who knew the proper password
again jousted day and night with Lady
Luck. Illegal but accepted gambling flourished
until 1931 when the Nevada Legislature
approved a legalized gambling bill authored
by Phil Tobin, a Northern Nevada rancher.
Tobin had never visited Las Vegas and
had no interest in gambling. He said the
legalized gambling legislation was designed
to raise needed taxes for public schools.
Today, more than 43 percent of the state
general fund is fed by gambling tax revenue
and more than 34 percent of the state's
general fund is pumped into public education.
Legalized gambling returned to Nevada
during the Great Depression. It legitimized
a small but lucrative industry. That same
year construction started on the Hoover
Dam Project which, at its peak, employed
5,128 people.The young town of Las Vegas
virtually was insulated from economic
hardships that wracked most Americans
in the 1930s. Jobs and money were prevalent
because of Union Pacific Railroad development,
legal gambling and construction of Hoover
Dam 34 miles away in Black Canyon on the
Colorado River. World War II stalled major
resort growth in Las Vegas. But the seeds
for future expansion had been planted
in 1941 when hotelman Tommy Hull built
the El Rancho Vegas Hotel-Casino on what
is now vacant land opposite the current
Sahara Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
During World War II, nearby Nellis Air
Force Base grew into a key military installation.
Originally built to train B-29 gunners,
it later became the training ground for
the nation's ace fighter pilots. Many
key military personnel assigned to Nellis
during World War II later returned as
civilians to take up permanent residency
in Las Vegas. Today thousands of people
are connected to Nellis in the form of
active duty personnel, civilian employees,
military dependents and military retirees.
World-famous strip starts: The success
of the El Rancho Vegas triggered a small
building boom in the late 1940s including
construction of several hotel- casinos
fronting on a two-lane highway leading
into Las Vegas from Los Angeles. The stretch
of road evolved into today's Las Vegas
Strip. Early hotels included the Last
Frontier, Thunderbird (Still standing
as the Arubu Hotel & Spa) and Club
Bingo. The El Rancho Vegas was razed by
fire on June 17, 1960. As time passed,
many other first-generation Strip resorts
lost their identity through absorption
by new owners, demolition, extensive renovation
and name changes.
In 1931, Nevada legalised gambling and
simplified its divorce laws, paving the
way for the first big casino on the Strip,
El Rancho, which was built by Los Angeles
developers and opened in 1941. The next
wave of investors, also from out of town,
were mobsters like Bugsy Siegel, who built
the Flamingo in 1946 and set the tone
for the new casinos - big and flashy,
with glitzy entertainment laid on to attract
high rollers. By far the most celebrated
of the early resorts was the Flamingo
Hotel, built by mobster Benjamin "Bugsy"
Siegel, a member of the Meyer Lansky crime
organization. The Flamingo with a giant
pink neon sign and replicas of pink flamingos
on the lawn, opened on New Year's Eve
1946. Six months later, Siegel was murdered
by an unknown gunman who fired a shotgun
blast as Siegel sat in the living room
of the Beverly Hills, Calif., home of
his girlfriend, Virginia Hill.
Siegel's life was the subject of a 1992
movie entitled "Bugsy." Although
the historic accuracy of the movie is
questionable, the movie prompted the Flamingo
to open the "Bugsy Celebrity Theater"
in November 1992. The Flamingo, after
numerous ownership changes, is now owned
and operated by the Hilton Hotel Group.
Its proper name is the Flamingo Hilton.
While the El Rancho Vegas and other 1940s
resorts followed a western ranch-styled
theme, the Flamingo was what Siegel called
a "carpet joint." It was modeled
after resort hotels in Miami. Only the
Flamingo Hotel name has survived the 1940s
era of Las Vegas Strip development. The
final end of the Flamingo as Bugsy knew
it was announced early in 1993 when Hilton
Corp. revealed plans to construct a $104
million tower addition at the Strip resort
-- the last of a six tower master plan.
The addition opened in the spring of 1995.
Architectural plans included razing the
outmoded, motel-style buildings at the
rear of the property, dooming the fortress-like
"Bugsy Suite" and bullet proof
office used by the gangster before his
death in 1946. In December 1993, the last
remnants of Bugsy Siegel and his residence
were destroyed when the hotel bulldozed
the Oregon Building that held the suite
in which the gangster once lived.
Today
Las Vegas boasts 19 of the world's 20
largest hotels, attracts 33 million visitors
per year (100,000 of whom get married
there), and earns over 5250000000 in annual
gaming revenue. A serious disruption to
the city's well-honed reputation as a
capital of low culture was the 2001 arrival
of a Vegas branch of the Guggenheim museum.
It's moved in, but it won't have truly
arrived until the names Picasso and Cezanne
go up in flashy lights on the Strip. There
are other cities with terrific entertainment
and gaming opportunities, but there is
no place in the world like Las Vegas,
and no city even pretending to be.
Las
Vegas - Hotels - Casinos - Shows
Las
Vegas, Nevada (Official City of Las Vegas
Web Site) The City of Las Vegas (Official
Government Site) ... Thousands of residents
lined the streets of downtown Las Vegas
for the Helldorado Parade last year.
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