The History of Las Vegas

Aaron assembled the following cohesive history by re-editing information gathered from a dozen or so web sites. His primary purpose for generating this history was to gain an understanding of why anyone would ever build house in Las Vegas in the first place. With average summer temperatures at 105-degrees and few if any natural resources what could have been the original draw? How could Las Vegas be the fastest growing city in America? Answers to these and other questions can be found below.

Dispelling a Popular Myth

The 1991 film "Bugsy" propagated a myth that Las Vegas was invented by Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. The story and photographs of the execution of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel in the Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, in June of 1947, became fixtures in the newspapers of the time, and made a lasting connection between Siegel and Las Vegas, however Siegal’s Flamingo hotel was not the first resort-hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

On Dec. 26, 1946, the Flamingo became the third major hotel to open on the Los Angeles Highway (later named the “Strip”). It followed the El Rancho Vegas in 1941 and the Last Frontier in 1942. Siegel’s career path included extortion, bootlegging, and murder; he had never built anything in his life. The Flamingo was, in fact, conceived and begun W. R. “Billy” Wilkerson.

Before we go any further let’s get an understanding of how Vegas came to be in the first place. Native Americans 


Prehistory

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.


Native Americans Lived in the Region for 1000 Years

In 1924, located along the Muddy River 65 miles east of Las Vegas Springs a Lost City was “discovered”. Water was life to the first Nevada community. The Muddy River formed a network of braided streams and much of the valley floor was described as swamp land by Spanish explorers nearly 1000 years later. Years of excavation followed revealing what was arguably Nevada's first community. 

In 1855 when Mormon settlers moved to the area they saw remnants of homes, storerooms, and community plazas covered by drifting sands. Many houses were clustered together and occupied for many years, sometimes for many generations. Food was grown and stored for future use and sharing. Corn was the main crop and the remains of ancient varieties are found in shelters and storage sites. Farming in the 120 degree heat of the Mojave Desert was never an easy proposition and food had to be stored to insure against crop failure. Houses and storage rooms were carefully prepared with adobe walls and clay floors. Many crafts and valuable goods were produced to trade with other groups. Cotton cloth has been recovered from sites. Cotton plants were probably grown on the valley floor but little evidence of farm fields remains on the flood plains of the Muddy River.

The community was not isolated. Hundreds of sites extend 26 miles along the Muddy River from Warm Springs in the north to the area now covered by Lake Mead in the south. Evidence exists of extensive trade or distribution of pottery, shells, turquoise, salt, and obsidian for knives and arrow points. Pottery found in the area can be traced to the Arizona Strip to the east, to Kanab, Utah, and even as far as the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Shell bead necklaces, clam shell bracelets and pendants originated in the Gulf of California and were transported or traded by foot over 600 miles of desert. 

Mining in Nevada began long before the silver of the Comstock Lode was even known. Just a few miles from the adobe pueblos salt was mined with stone tools. Ancient miners used torches to light the work of chipping salt disks from the hard rock salt mass. Farther south miners chipped turquoise from veins in the stone. Stone hammers broke the rock and "shovels" of animal bone and tortoise shells scooped the precious green stone. Many hand drilled turquoise beads have been recovered from sites across the Muddy River valley. 

Artifacts and remains of pueblo houses of this community are preserved for all to see at the Lost City Museum in Overton, Nevada. Opening in 2005 will be the Las Vegas Springs Preserve museum.


1829 - The Spanish "Discover" Las Vegas

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. At the time, the Spaniards referred to the route through the valley as "jornada de muerte," journey of death. 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.

The exact date is unknown, but Rafael Rivera became the first known non-Indian to set foot in the oasis-like Las Vegas Valley, a valley with abundant wild grasses growing and a plentiful water supply which reduced the journey to Los Angeles by several days. This new route 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, Captain John C. Fremont and Kit Carson led an overland expedition west and camped at Las Vegas Springs on May 13, 1844. Other than Spanish explorers and missionaries and the indigenous Indian population Fremont was the first to know of the valley.


1855 - The Mormons Come and Go 

In 1855, Brigham Young assigned 30 Mormon missionaries to build a fort in the Las Vegas valley. The 150-square-foot adobe fort constituted the first non-Indian settlement in the region. Their primary purpose was to teach the Paiute Indians farming techniques, but also to protect the Los Angeles-Salt Lake City mail route. The Mormons planted fruit trees, cultivated vegetables and mined lead for bullets at Potosi Mountain. They grazed their cattle at Big Springs. Big Springs fed Las Vegas Creek which in turn created the “vegas”(meadows) a couple of miles downstream to the east. The Paiutes rejected the teachings and occasionally raided the fort until it was abandoned in 1857. The Mormons had been overwhelmed by the rigors of desert life. Oh, and there was that problem of the raids.


1904 - The Railroad – Las Vegas Becomes a City

By 1890 railroad developers had determined the water-rich Las Vegas Valley would be an ideal refueling point and rest stop. The railroad would be the principal industry in the area for the next 25 years. Work on the first railroad grade into Las Vegas began the summer of 1904. The San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, commonly called the Salt Lake Route, was one of the last major railroad lines constructed in the American West. Completed in 1905, it connected the "City of Saints" (Salt Lake City, Utah) with the "City of Angels" (Los Angeles, Calif). More importantly for Nevada, the new route ended the isolation of the southern part of the state. The tent town called Las Vegas sprouted hotels, saloons, stores and boarding houses all to meet the needs of railroad workers. 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 January 20, 1905. On May 15 of that year, the city was incorporated when 110 acres of land situated between Stewart Avenue on the north, Garces Avenue to the south, Main Street to the west, and 5th Street (Las Vegas Boulevard) to the east, were auctioned off. Later the Union Pacific auctioned off 1,200 lots in a single day in an area which today is casino-lined Glitter Gulch. 

The city was governed as part of Lincoln County until 1909 when it became the county seat for the newly established Clark County. Las Vegas adopted its first charter on March 16, 1911. At the time of incorporation, the city encompassed 19.18 square miles, and had approximately 800 inhabitants, less than 1 percent of the states total population. Clark County had a population at the time of 3,321.


Gambling - Legal, Then Illegal, Then Legal Again

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 March 19, 1931 when, during the Great Depression, the Nevada Legislature approved a legalized gambling bill authored by Phil Tobin, a Northern Nevada rancher. At the time the bill legitimized a small but lucrative industry. In April of 1931, a month after the bill was passed into law, the city issued six gambling licenses. 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, but that it would also cut down on bribery. 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. 

Divorce laws were liberalized in the State of Nevada, making residency easier to attain. A "quickie" divorce could be attained after six weeks of residency. These short-term residents stayed at "dude ranches" which were the forerunners of the sprawling Strip hotels. 


1931 - The Hoover Dam Project

By 1930, Las Vegas had grown to a population of 5,165. Las Vegas was still just a small city and other than a railroad station, and a few hotels and saloons, there wasn’t much to spurn any growth. Indeed the local economy was saw little hope for any optimism. To top this the country was in the grips of the Great Depression. But Las Vegas always seemed to have it’s fortunes turn just when things were looking grime. 25 years earlier the railroad had come through and saved the city from extinction. This time the federal government would present the next boon. 

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 in 1931 construction of Hoover Dam 34 miles away in Black Canyon on the Colorado River brought an influx of construction workers which started a population boom and gave the Valley’s economy a needed boost. At its peak the Hoover Dam Project employed 5,128 people. Thousands of unemployed men came looking for work. The government built a tent camp near the Hoover Dam work site. This was for the workers, however drinking was not permitted at this site. During days off the workers would travel to nearby Las Vegas for drink, gambling, and women. This is where they would spend their money. Hotels sprung up and gambling dollars flooded the town.

One myth still predominates regarding the construction of the Hoover Dam, that is that workers buried there in concrete. According to the story, on several occasions during the dam's construction a worker slipped, fell, and was covered by concrete as it was being poured. Unable to stop the cascade of concrete before the worker suffocated, supervisors had no choice but to allow the concrete to continue flowing, covering the worker and sealing him in the dam. This happened seven times during construction, according to the tale's most popular version. Actually, the dam was poured in small sections, so all a fallen worker had to do to get his face clear of the rising concrete was to stand up. Officially, 96 dam workers died of various causes, but none were buried in concrete.


1940 - World War II - Nellis Air Force Base

By 1940 Las Vegas' population had grown to 8,422. The outbreak of World War II brought the defense industry to the valley. The isolated location, along with plentiful water and inexpensive energy, made Las Vegas an ideal site for military and defense related industries. Nellis Air Force Base grew into a key military installation. The site for Nellis was located in the northeast. Originally built to train B-29 gunners, it later became the training ground for the nation's ace fighter pilots. Many military personnel assigned to Nellis during World War II later returned as civilians to take up permanent residency in Las Vegas. The Basic Management Complex, providers of raw materials, was located in the southeastern suburb of Henderson. The defense industry continues to employ a significant number of valley residents as thousands of people serve as active duty personnel, civilian employees, military dependents and military retirees. 

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.


1941 - The Strip

The Strip began in 1941 when Thomas Hull built the El Rancho hotel, a 100 room motel with a Western-theme casino, off the highway from Las Angeles. After World War II, the resort hotels began to sprout up and brought A-list performers to the city. 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 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.

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.

By the late 1940’s tourism and entertainment had taken over as the largest employer in the valley.

Resort building continued to accelerate in Las Vegas in the 1950s. Wilbur Clark, once a hotel bellman in San Diego, Calif., opened the Desert Inn in 1950. Two years later, Milton Prell opened the Sahara Hotel on the site of the old Club Bingo. The Sands Hotel opened that same year, 1952. Those hotel names have survived but the properties have undergone numerous ownership changes.

In 1955, the Riviera Hotel became the first Strip high-rise in at nine stories. Previously, Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn had offered guests the highest unobstructed panoramic view of the Las Vegas Valley from the resort's third-floor Skyroom, a cocktail and dancing haunt of visitors, residents and celebrities.

Other resorts that opened during the building boom begun in the 1950s included the Royal Nevada, Dunes, Hacienda, Tropicana and Stardust hotels on the Strip and the Downtown Fremont Hotel-Casino. The Royal Nevada later was absorbed into the adjoining Stardust Hotel property.

In another part of the city, the Moulin Rouge Hotel-Casino opened in 1955 at a time when blacks were not welcomed guests at Strip casinos and black entertainers were required to live off- premise while entertaining Strip audiences. The Moulin Rouge, frequented by all races, was built to accommodate the growing black population.

Joe Louis, the late heavyweight champion of the world, was a Moulin Rouge owner-host. The Moulin Rouge has had a stormy past, closing and re-opening many times over the years. As times and attitudes changed, Louis became a much loved casino host at Caesars Palace on the Strip. The Moulin Rouge was declared a national historic site in 1992 when plans for its revival were announced.

During the 50s and 60s, casino lounges also provided continuous entertainment from dusk to dawn at no charge to the customer except the cost of a drink. These lounges, which became major entertainment attractions in their own right, spawned the names of Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene, Alan King, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, the Mary Kaye Trio and many others.

City and county community leaders also realized in the 1950s the need for a Las Vegas convention facility. The initial goal was to fill hotel rooms with conventioneers during slack tourist months.

A site was chosen one block east of the Las Vegas Strip and a 6,300-seat, silver-domed rotunda with an adjoining 90,000-square- foot exhibit hall opened in April 1959 on the site of the current Las Vegas Convention Center.

The silver dome was demolished in 1990 to make room for convention center expansion to a 1.6-million-square-foot facility of which 1.3 million square feet is exhibit space. It is currently one of the largest single-level facilities in the world.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, supported mainly by room tax revenues, today is a major player in attracting more than 28.2 million visitors to Las Vegas in 1994, including more than 2 million convention delegates.

In 1956, the city of Las Vegas annexed one square mile of land, its first such addition since incorporation 45 years earlier. By 1960, Las Vegas encompassed 25 square miles and had a population of 64,405. Las Vegas had more than 22 percent of Nevada’s total population on less than .02 percent of the State's land. At the same time, Clark County had a population of 127,016. During the 1960s, a phenomenon lead by Howard Hughes, occurred in Las Vegas. Corporations were building and/or buying hotel/casino properties. They had the capital necessary and the profitability made entrance into the casino industry extremely attractive. Gambling had become "gaming" and was starting the transition into legitimate business.


The 1960's - Modern Gambling Machines

Nevada gambling styles, games and machines evolved to keep pace with more sophisticated, affluent players. Baccarat, known in France as chemin de fer, appeared in high-roller Strip casinos. Keno writers no longer used black indelible ink brushes to mark tickets. Mechanical slot machines, once affectionately termed "one- armed bandits," became antique collector items in the age of electronic gaming. Blackjack dealers no longer dealt single decks but switched to "shoes" that held multiple decks. Silver dollars, once the coin of the realm in Nevada, disappeared and were replaced in casinos with silver-dollar-size tokens.

In the 60s, multiple coin slot machines debuted. Mechanical penny and nickel slot machines that took one coin at a time evolved into the popular computerized dollar slot machines capable of accepting multiple tokens simultaneously. High-roller slot players today can find machines that accept $500 tokens. The size of jackpots grew from a few hundred dollars to $10 million dollar progressive jackpots paid on a computerized statewide network of slot machines.

In the 70s, video machines that substituted television screens for reels, were introduced. Computerized slot machines now feature poker, keno, blackjack, bingo and craps. Some slot machines accept credit-card style gambling. Casinos continue their evolution toward high-tech wagering with every applicable breakthrough in modern technology.


The 1970's - Mega-Resorts Take Over

In 1976, when casino-style gaming was legalized in Atlantic City, N.J., it became apparent to Las Vegas casino owners that Nevada no longer could claim exclusive rights to gambling casinos. It perhaps hastened the beginning of another era for the Strip -- the mega-resort. Hotel-casinos began the race to become full-blown destination resorts for travelers, vacationers, gamblers, conventioneers and all members of the family.

Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., in October 1968 already had opened a circus-tent-shaped casino complete with midway games and rides for youngsters. A hotel was added in 1972. Owners of the resort have developed a $90 million water theme park called Grand Slam Canyon on five acres adjoining the Circus Circus Hotel-Casino.

The entertainment park, a takeoff on the Grand Canyon, includes 140-foot mountains, a 90-foot Havasupai Falls, and a coursing river where the adventuresome can assault river rapids, plunge over a 50-foot waterfall, fly through the canyon and caverns in a double-loop, cork-screw roller coaster or lounge on beach- rimmed, lagoon-like pools.

Grand Slam Canyon, which opened Aug. 23, 1993, is climate- controlled and enclosed by a vented pink space-frame dome.

The 3,049-room Mirage Hotel-Casino opened in the fall of 1989 at a construction cost of $630 million. It features a white tiger habitat, a dolphin pool, an elaborate swimming pool and waterfall and a man-made volcano that belches fire and water.

Mirage owner Steve Wynn, who also owns the Golden Nugget Hotel-Casino in Downtown Las Vegas, constructed the 2,900-room Treasure Island adjacent to The Mirage at a cost of $430 million. The hotel features Buccaneer Bay where a full scale pirate ship and British frigate engage in a battle of cannon fire. In the end, the pirates blast the British and the frigate slowly sinks beneath the churning waves.

With Treasure Island, which opened Oct. 27, 1993, and the Mirage side by side on the Las Vegas Strip, Wynn has nearly 6,000 rooms on a 100-acre site.

Additionally, Wynn purchased the 164-acre Dunes Hotel and Country Club on the Las Vegas Strip for $75 million in 1992. He spent $1 million renovating the country club on the golf course. In October 1993, the flamboyant casino owner staged a $1.5 million spectacular in which the north tower of the Dunes Hotel was imploded and the famous Dunes Hotel sign destroyed amid a shower of fireworks never before equaled west of the Mississippi. More than 200,000 people crowded onto the Strip to witness the spectacular.

Wynn plans to build a resort named Beau Rivage on the Dunes site and has announced a deal with Gold Strike Resorts to construct a hotel/casino on another part of the property north of the Tropicana Avenue and the Las Vegas Strip intersection.

The Excalibur, a 4,000-room colossus, opened June 19, 1990. The imaginative medieval "castle" was developed by Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. for between $260 and $290 million. Some floors are devoted solely to non-gambling entertainment for children and the young at heart. Court jesters perform in public areas. The showroom features jousting on horseback by knights of King Arthur's court. William Bennett, founder of Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., constructed the 2,526-room, pyramid-shaped Luxor a quarter mile south of the Excalibur. The Luxor, a modern marvel which cost $375 million dollars to build, is linked to the Excalibur by monorail. The Luxor features a full-scale reproduction of King Tut's Tomb. The world's most powerful beam of light shines from the top of the pyramid. It is visible to planes 250 miles away in Los Angeles. The atrium in the middle of the pyramid could hold nine Boeing 747s stacked one atop of another.

The most ambitious resort project in the history of Las Vegas is located at the intersection of the Las Vegas Strip and Tropicana Avenue. It is the MGM Grand Hotel & Theme Park -- the largest resort hotel in the world and the dream of pioneer Las Vegas hotel developer and multimillionaire entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian. The $1 billion, 112-acre resort hotel, casino and theme park highlights the MGM Hollywood image. With the 33-acre theme park as the center piece, the 5,005-room hotel boasts a 171,500-square-foot casino, 12 theme restaurants, a 1,700-seat production showroom, a 630-seat production theater, three swimming pools, five tennis courts, a child care center and a 215,000-square-foot, 15,200-seat special events arena for concerts, sporting events and exhibitions. The MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park opened Dec. 18, 1993.

In August 1994, MGM Grand Inc., and Primadonna Resorts Inc., revealed a joint venture to build a 1,500-room hotel/casino on 18- acres at Tropicana Avenue and the Las Vegas Strip. The $300 million resort, named New York, New York, will highlight the best the "Big Apple" has to offer. The property's skyline will feature replicas of such New York City landmarks as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. The resort is scheduled to open sometime in 1996.

The huge hotel conglomerate ITT Sheraton Corp. made it's first foray into Las Vegas and gaming in 1993 when it purchased the Desert Inn Hotel Casino from Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp.

Late in 1994, Sheraton announced a deal to purchase Caesars World Inc., the parent company of Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip for $1.7 billion. The deal was expected to be finalized sometime in 1995, pending approval from a host of state and federal regulatory agencies.

When New Year 1994 dawned in Las Vegas, the dusty railroad town that started its race toward the 21st Century in 1905 boasted more than 86,000 hotel and motel rooms and had become home to 13 of the 20 largest resort hotels in the world. By the start of 1995, the city was awash with more than 88,500 rooms.

Las Vegas - America's Fastest Growing City

Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, corporations continued to invest in the hotel/casino industry. Gaming had become a legitimate business and some properties had stock traded on the market. Las Vegas economy remained strong and the population increased to 164,674 by 1980. Clark County, meanwhile, had grown to a population of 463,087.

Starting in the mid 1980s, a period of unprecedented growth began. Annual population increases averaging nearly 7 percent caused the city's population to almost double between 1985 and 1995, increasing from 186,380 to 368,360 during that time, a 97.6 percent increase. That is equivalent to building a city larger than Reno in 10 years! At the same time, Clark County’s population increased from 562,280 to 1,036,180, an increase of 84.3 percent.

Contributing to the population growth was a 4 percent annual increase in hotel rooms and a 9.18 percent annual increase in jobs from 1990 through 1994.

Recently, the city has developed a more family-friendly identity, emphasizing its appeal as a complete entertainment destination, not just a gambling resort. The Vegas showgirls have faded to the background in favor of theme parks family-oriented diversions. The effort seems to be working. Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Hotel occupancy rates top 90%, and the pace of hotel construction has only increased. The convention business is booming. And, of course, the casinos never stop dealing. The latest population prediction in the Las Vegas Valley is 2 million people by 2005.