Las Vegas
History of Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada was given its name by
Spaniards in the Antonio Armijo party, who used the water in the area
while heading north and west along the Old Spanish Trail from Texas. In
the 1800s, areas of the Las Vegas Valley contained artesian wells that
supported extensive green areas, hence the name Las Vegas, Spanish for
The Meadows.
Southern Paiutes
–
Moapa-
Las Vegas
Paiutes wearing traditional Paiute basket hats. Paiute cradleboard and
rabbit robe.
Prehistory
The prehistoric landscape of what is now the Las Vegas Valley and most of
Southern Nevada was a virtual marsh of abundant water and vegetation.
Over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, rivers that were present sank
into the ground, and the marsh receded. The valley evolved into a parched, arid
landscape that only supported the hardiest of animals and plants.
At some point in the valley's geologic history, the water that had been
submerged below the terrain sporadically resurfaced and flowed into what is now
the Colorado River. This helped proliferate luxurious plant life, creating a
wetland oasis in the Mojave Desert landscape.
Evidence of prehistoric life in Las Vegas Valley manifested in
1993 when construction workers discovered the remains of a Columbian mammoth.
Paleontologists estimate that the mammoth roamed the area some 8,000 to
15,000 years ago.
1800 - 1900 - Las Vegas' origins
John C. Frémont traveled into the Las Vegas Valley on May 3, 1844, while it was
still part of Mexico. He was a leader of a group of scientists, scouts and
observers for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On May 10, 1855,
following annexation by the United States, Brigham Young assigned 30 Mormon
missionaries led by William Bringhurst to the area to convert the Paiute Indian
population. A Fort was built near the current downtown area. The Mormons
abandoned the site in 1857, due to internal disagreements between Bringhurst and
new comers who had more liberal views. The skeleton staff that was left behind
mistreated the Paiute Indians. The Paiute retaliated and seized the upcoming
harvest, forcing the last of the settlers back to Salt Lake City.
The
U.S. Army, in an attempt to deceive Confederate spies in 1864, falsely
publicized that it reclaimed the Fort and had renamed it Fort Baker.
In 1865, Octavius Gass re-occupied the Fort, and started the irrigation works
renaming the area to Los Vegas Rancho. Due to his ability to make wine on his
ranch, Las Vegas was known as the best stop on the Mormon Trail. By 1872, Gass
was able to expand his ranch to 640 acres, and as a legislator, was able to have
the territory his ranch resided on included as part of Nevada instead of
Arizona. In 1881 as a result of mismanagement, Gass lost title to his ranch to
Archibald Stewart, who acquired it to pay off a lien he had on the property.
The property (which was expanded to 1,800 acres), stayed with the Stewart
Family despite Archibald's murder in
July of 1884 until it was traded in 1902 to Montana Senator William Clark for
his ownership of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad.
Las Vegas circa 1895
The State Land Act of 1885 offered land at $1.25 per acre ($309/km²) drawing
many, including farmers, to the area. As a result, farming became the primary
industry for the next 20 years as farmers used the wells to irrigate their
crops. The Mormons returned in 1895.
1900 - 1929 - The birth of Las Vegas
During the 1900s, water from the wells was piped into the town providing a
reliable source of fresh water and providing the means for additional growth.
The increased availability of water in the town area allowed Las Vegas to become
a water stop, first for wagon trains and later railroads, on the trail between
Los Angeles, California, and points east such as Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In 1905 the railway from Southern California and Salt Lake City was completed
and run by William Clark's brother. That year also set the stage of the two Las Vegases.
The east-side Las Vegas (which encompassed the modern
Main Street and
Las Vegas Boulevard) was owned by Clark and the west-side Las Vegas (which
encompassed the area north of modern day
Bonanza Road) which was owned by J.T. McWilliams, who was hired by the Stewart
family during the sale of the Los Vegas Rancho and bought available land west of the ranch. In 1905 both
auctioned lots on their land.
With the revenue coming from the rails and the mining town of
Bullfrog, Las Vegas took off. On May 15, 1905,
Las Vegas was founded as a city, when 110
ac (445,000 m²), in
what would later become downtown, were auctioned to ready buyers.
Las Vegas was the driving force in the creation of
Clark County, Nevada in 1909 and the city was incorporated in 1911 as a part of
the county.
Las Vegas continued to grow until
1917 when the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad went broke. Although William Clark
sold the remains of the company to the Union Pacific Railroad, a nationwide
strike in 1922 left Las Vegas
in a desperate state.
With
U.S. Highway 91 reaching Las Vegas in 1926, Vegas was finally connected to
California with a road. Even the addition of a modern road did not help
revitalizing Las Vegas. In 1929, John Calhan, a newspaperman, said People in the
city of Reno, or northern Nevada would have been very happy if Las Vegas had
seceded from
the state ...
1930 - 1946 - Hoover Dam and the beginning of the resort casinos
On July 3, 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the appropriation bill for
the Boulder Dam. Work started on the dam in 1931 and Las Vegas' population
swelled from around 5,000 citizens to 25,000, with most of the newcomers looking
for a job building the dam. Las Vegas tried hard to put on a respectable air
when the Secretary of the Interior Lyman Wilbur visited in 1929 to inspect the
site. However one of his subordinates came to him with alcohol on his breath
(this was during the time of Prohibition) after a visit to Block 16. It was
decided that a federal-controlled town, Boulder City, would be erected for the
dam workers. This still did not stop the flow of federal and dam worker money
into Las Vegas and the city was recharged, literally, when the dam was completed
in 1935. In 1937, Southern Nevada Power became the first utility to supply power
from the dam, and Las Vegas was its first customer. After much discussion the
name of the dam was changed from Boulder to Hoover Dam.
With gambling legalized in
1931, Las Vegas started its rise to world fame as the gambling capital of the
world. Gambling (although already legal in Las Vegas) became organized and
regulated. The city issued the first gambling license in 1931, to the Northern
Club. As other casinos were licensed on
Fremont Street like the
Las Vegas Club and the Apache Hotel. Fremont Street developed its nickname as
Glitter Gulch from all of the lights that were powered by electricity from
Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam and its reservoir, Lake Mead, turned into tourist
attractions on their own and the need for additional higher class hotels became
clear. Fremont street received the city's first traffic light in 1931.
In 1940, U.S. Highway 95 was finally extended south into Las Vegas, giving
the city two major roads that provided access from the rest of the country. Also
in 1940 Las Vegas's first permanent radio station, KENO, began broadcasting replacing the niche occupied earlier by transient
broadcasters.
On January 25, 1941 the U.S. Army moved into Las Vegas when Las Vegas Mayor,
John L. Russell, signed over land to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps for the
development of a flexible gunnery school for the United States Army Air Corps.
The gunnery school would become Nellis Air Force Base. The U.S Army was not
pleased with prostitution being legal in Las Vegas and in 1942 used its clout to
force Las Vegas to outlaw the practice, handing Block 16, which since the inception of Las Vegas, was the equivalent of the
city's "Red Light District," its death sentence.
On April 3, 1941, hotel owner, Thomas Hull opened the El Rancho Vegas. It was
the first resort on what would become the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel gained much
of its fame from the all you can eat buffet that it offered.
Three years later, on
October 30, 1942, R. E. Griffith rebuilt on the site of a nightclub called Pair
O’Dice, that first opened in 1930, and renamed it Hotel Last Frontier. A few
more resorts were built on and around Fremont Street but the next hotel on The
Strip showed pubilcly the influence of organized crime on Las Vegas. Bugsy
Siegel, with help from Meyer Lansky built
The Flamingo in
1946.
1947- 1966 - The Strip explodes—as well as nuclear bombs
The Flamingo lost money and
Siegel died in a hail of gunfire. However, organized crime still saw the
potential that gambling offered in Las Vegas. From 1952 to 1957, they built
the
Sahara, the
Sands,
the New
Frontier, the
Royal Nevada, The Showboat,
The Riviera,
The Fremont,
Binion's Horseshoe (which was the
Apache Hotel), and finally
The Tropicana.
All these casinos were run by different organized crime organizations, but
Meyer Lansky was the guiding force. Even with the public knowledge of the
dubious owners of these casino resorts by
1954, over 8 million people were visiting Las Vegas yearly pumping 200 million
dollars into the casinos. Gambling was no longer the only attraction; the
biggest stars of film and music like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,
Abbott and Costello, Bing Crosby, Carol Channing, and others perfomed in intimate settings. After coming to
see these stars, the tourists would resume gambling, and then eat at the gourmet
buffets that have become a staple of the casino industry.
While The Strip was booming, the
Atomic Energy Commission on January 27, 1951 detonated the first of over a
hundred atmospheric explosions at the Nevada Test Site. These atmospheric tests
would continue until enactment of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 when the
tests moved underground. The last test explosion was in 1992. Despite the
dangers and risks, greatly under-estimated at the time, of radiation exposure
from the fallout, Las Vegas advertised the explosions as another tourist
attraction and offered Atomic Cocktails in Sky Rooms that offered a great view
of the mushroom clouds.
The influx of government employees for the Atomic Energy Commission and from
the Mormon-controlled
Bank of Las Vegas spearheaded by Parry Thomas during those years funded the
growing boom in casinos. But Las Vegas was doing more than growing casinos. In
1948,
McCarran Field was established for commercial air traffic. In
1957 The
University of Las Vegas was established. In
1959 the Clark County Commission built the
Las Vegas Convention Center, which would become a vital part of the area's
economy. A new utility company,
Southwest Gas exapnded into Las Vegas in 1954.
Since 1966
Bumps along the way
The first bump for Las Vegas was that The Strip did not reside in Las Vegas
proper. Because of this, tax revenue was lost to the city. There was a push to
annex The Strip by the City of Las Vegas, but
The Syndicate used the Clark County Commissioners to pull a legal maneuver by
organizing The Strip properties into an unincorporated township called Paradise
City. Under Nevada Law, an incorporated town, Las Vegas, cannot
annex an unincorporated township.
The second was the
Las
Vegas Sun. Editor Hank Greenspun led a crusade in those days to expose
all the criminal ties, activities, and government corruption in Las Vegas. His
investigative reporting and editorials led to the exposure of Clark County
Sheriff Glen Jones' ownership of a brothel and the resignation of Lieutenant
Governor Clifford Jones as the state's national committeeman for the Democratic
Party.
The last hurdle was when a two-year investigation by Senator
Estes Kefauver and his Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in
Interstate Commerce concluded that Organized Crime money was incontrovertibly
tied to the Las Vegas casinos. This led a porposal by the Senate to institute
federal gambling control. Only through the power and influence of Nevada's
Senator Pat McCarran did the proposal die in committee.
Las Vegas - The Mississippi of the West
As Las Vegas grew, racial tensions grew with it. Organized crime-owned
casinos were off-limits to
African Americans except those who provided the labor for low-paying menial
positions or entertainment. They were confined to frequenting businesses and
clubs on the "west-side" of the tracks. Hispanics fared worse and their
population actually decreased ninety-percent from 2,275 to just 236. There was a
bright spot during that decade. On May 24, 1955, Wil Max Schwartz, and some
investors, opened the Moulin Rouge. It was a very upscale and racially
integrated casino that actually competed against the resorts on The Strip. By
the end of the year though, the casino closed as Schwartz and his partners had a
falling out. But the seeds for racially integration were sown. Along with the
rest of the country, Las Vegas experienced the struggle for civil rights.
Activists like James B. McMillan, Grant Sawyer, Bob Bailey, Charles Keller dragged Las Vegas to racial integration.
Another big force for equality was Mayor
Oran Gragson. Spurred into local politics by a crooked ring of cops who
repeatedly broke into his appliance store, he implemented infrastructure
improvments for the minority neighborhoods in Las Vegas. He championed the cause
of the Pauite tribe that owned a small portion of Las Vegas and stopped the U.S.
government from evicting the tribe and actually make infrastructure improvements
for them. His work helped reverse the trend of minority population decreasing.
Local legislation kept up with the national legislation and integration was
established. The only real violence was school integration with violent riots
and fights occurring from 1969 to 1971.
On
November 21, 1980 the
MGM Grand Hotel and Casino (today called
Bally's Las Vegas) suffered a
devastating fire. A total of 87 died and 785 were injured in what remains
the worst disaster in Nevada history.
Construction boomed in the
1990s as Las Vegas became one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. Numerous
landmark hotels and other structures were razed to make way for ever-larger and
more opulent resorts. In April 2005, Wynn Resorts Limited opened its new flagship, the
Wynn Las Vegas, constructed at a cost of US$2.7 billion.
Sources
-
Las Vegas website
- Ainlay Jr., Thomas & Gabaldon, Judy Dixon. "Las Vegas The Fabulous First
Century", Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
- Denton, Sally & Morris, Howard. "The Money and the Power - The Making of
Las Vegas and It's Hold on America - 1947-2000". Knopf, Borzoi Books, 2001.
- Land, Barbara & Land, Myrick. "A Short History of Las Vegas". University
of Nevada Press, Reno, 1999
- Paher, Stanley W. " Las Vegas -As It Began - As It Grew", Nevada
Publications, Las Vegas, NV, 1971.
Recommend This Page To A Friend!
Home | Up | History of Las Vegas | Aviation Nation | Boulder Highway | Citizens Area Transit | Fashion Show Mall | Floyd Lamb State Park | Fremont Street | Fremont Street Experience | Golden Gate Hotel and Casino | Golden Nugget Companies | Lance Burton Theatre | Las Ramblas Resort | Las Vegas Boulevard | Las Vegas Convention Center | Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority | Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department | Las Vegas Monorail | Las Vegas Review-Journal | Las Vegas Sun | List of Movies Set in Las Vegas | List of Movies Shot in Las Vegas | List of Television Shows Set in Las Vegas | Mystère (Cirque du Soleil) | O (Cirque du Soleil) | Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park | Le Rêve (Show) | Rum Jungle | Studio 54 | Tamares Real Estate Investments | Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard Intersection | Vega$ | Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas | World Market Center | YESCO | Zumanity
Las Vegas Entertainment, made by MultiMedia | Free content and software
This guide is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
|
