History of Las Vegas facts,
This History of Las Vegas covers both the Las Vegas, Nevada and the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Las Vegas was given its name by Rafael Rivera, a scout for a Mexican trading party headed to Los Angeles, in 1829 who used the water in the area while heading north and west along the Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico. In the 1800s, small parts of the Las Vegas Valley contained artesian wells that supported extensive green areas, hence the name Las Vegas, Spanish for The Meadows. The flows from these wells fed the Las Vegas Wash which ran to the Colorado River,.
Las Vegas 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.
Native Americans lived in the Las Vegas Valley, beginning over 10,000 years ago. Archeologists have discovered baskets, petroglyphs, pictographs and other evidence in diverse locations, including Gypsum Cave and Tule Springs. Paiutes moved into the area as early as AD 700, migrating between nearby mountains in the summer and spending winter in the valley, near Big Springs,.
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Las Vegas 1829–1905: origins,
The Las Vegas valley was found by American explorer and mountain man Jedediah Smith and his party in 1827. The maps and routes discovered by Smith and others later were stolen by Mexican authorities and combined with other maps created by the Pike Expedition which previously had been captured by Spanish authorities in 1807. The combined map was then confirmed in 1829 by a trade caravan of 60 men led by the Mexican merchant Antonio Armijo charged with establishing a trade route to Los Angeles. By following the Pike and Smith routes through a tributary of Colorado River they came upon the Las Vegas Valley described by Smith as the best point to re-supply before going onto California. The travelers named the area "Las Vegas" which was Spanish for "The Meadows".
John C. Frémont traveled into the Las Vegas Valley on May 3, 1844, while it was still part of Mexico. He was appointed by the President to lead a group of scientists, scouts, and spies for the United States Army Corps of Engineers who were preparing for a possible war with Mexico. Upon arriving in the valley they made camp at the Las Vegas Springs, establishing a clandestine fort there. A war with Mexico did occur, resulting in the region becoming United States territory. The fort was used in later years by travellers, mountain men, hunters, and traders seeking shelter, but was never permanently inhabited.
On May 10, 1855, in an attempt to secure a vast Empire for himself and his Church upon the lands taken during annexation by the United States, Brigham Young Prophet of the Latter Day Saints assigned 30 Mormon militiamen led by William Bringhurst to seize the area. Charged principally with purchasing land from the Indians under the cover of missionaries to convert the Paiute Indian population, they secured the purchase of land from the converted Paiutes around the fort. In the next year the Mormon soldiers and Indians expanded the fort and planted a harvest in the tribal areas. However, the Young plan disintegrated in the defeat of the Mormon rebellion during the Utah War. After forcing out Young from the position of Territorial governor, American authorities arrived at the site in 1857, determined to restore tribal rights. Bringhurst's purchase was declared invalid on the basis of an existing treaty which forbade purchase of their land by whites. The skeleton staff that was left behind took out their anger at being thwarted in their illegal activities by harassing and pushing the Paiute Indians off the land the Mormons considered their own. The Paiute retaliated and seized the upcoming harvest which had been gathered, forcing the last of the settlers back to Salt Lake City. Today the fort and surrounding area are commemorated in the fort in the current downtown area.
For the next few years the area remained unoccupied by Americans except for travelers and traders. Then 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, briefly recalling the area to national attention. Subsequently at the end of the war in 1865, with a commission from the Federal government, Octavius Gass re-occupied the fort. The Paiute nation had declined in numbers and negotiated a new treaty with the United States, ceding the area around the fort to the United States in return for relocation and supplies elsewhere. Consequently, Gass started irrigating the old fields and renamed the area 'Los Vegas Rancho.' Gass produced wine at his ranch and Las Vegas became known as the best stop on the Mormon Trail. By 1872, Gass expanded his ranch to 640 acres (260 ha), and used his position as a legislator to have the territory his ranch occupied included as part of Nevada instead of Arizona. In 1881, as a result of mismanagement and intrigue with a Mormon syndicate, Gass lost the title to his ranch to Archibald Stewart, who acquired it to pay off a lien he had on the property. In 1884, Archibald's wife, Helen J. Stewart became the Las Vegas Postmaster.
The property (which was expanded to 1,800 acres (730 ha)), stayed with the Stewart Family (despite Archibald's murder in July 1884) until it was acquired in 1902 by the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad, then being built across southern Nevada. The railroad was a project of Montana Senator William Andrews Clark. Clark enlisted Utah's U.S. Senator and mining magnate Thomas Kearns to ensure the line's completion through Utah to Las Vegas. The State Land Act of 1885 offered land at $1.25 per acre ($309/km²). Clark and Kearns promoted the area to American farmers who quickly expanded the farming plots of the areas. Not until 1895 did the first large-scale migration of Mormons begin in the area, at long last fulfilling Brigham Young's early dream. Through wells and arid irrigation, agriculture became the primary industry for the next 20 years and in return for his development, the farmers named the area in honor of the railroad tycoon and Senator, Clark County, Nevada,.
Las Vegas 1905–1929: birth, growth and crisis,
St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church near 4th and Bridger in downtown was founded in 1910.
By the early 20th century, water from wells was piped into the town, providing both a reliable source of fresh water and the means for additional growth. The increased availability of water in the 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.
The San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad was completed in 1905, linking Salt Lake City to southern California. U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark was the majority owner of the railroad, which was a corporation based in Utah. Among its original incorporators were Utah's U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns and his business partner David Keith. Kearns, one of the richest and most powerful men in Utah and David Keith were the owners of Utah's Silver King Coalition Mine, several mines in Nevada and owners of The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper. Kearns and Keith helped Clark ensure the success of the new railroad across Utah and into Nevada to California. Curiously, for a time there were two towns named Las Vegas. 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) 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. It was from their property that Las Vegas took form.
With the revenue coming from the rails and the mining town of Bullfrog, the area was quickly growing. On May 15, 1905, Las Vegas officially was founded as a city, when 110 acres (45 ha), 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. The first mayor of Las Vegas was Peter Buol who served from 1911 to 1913.
Shortly after incorporation, the State of Nevada reluctantly became the last western state to outlaw gaming. This occurred at midnight, October 1, 1910, when 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. Nonetheless, Las Vegas had a diversified economy and a stable and prosperous business community, and therefore continued to grow until 1917. In that year, a combination of economic influences and the redirection of resources by the Federal government in support of the war effort forced the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad to declare bankruptcy. 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.
A welcome relief arrived with U.S. Route 91 reaching Las Vegas in 1926, and Las Vegas was finally connected to California with a road. Nonetheless, even the addition of a modern road did not help to fully revitalize Las Vegas. Instead, the city became notorious as a place for speakeasies catering to tourists and traveling businessmen. With these illicit saloons, crime figures with connections to the Irish, Italian, and Jewish mafias began arriving in significant numbers. With its seedy reputation, 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, ...
Las Vegas 1930–1941: Hoover Dam and the first casinos,
Hoover Dam in 1942
On July 3, 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the appropriation bill for the Boulder Dam. The dam was later renamed the Hoover Dam during the Truman administration. 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. However, the demographic of the work force consisting of males from across the country with no attachment to the area created a market for large scale entertainment. A combination of local Las Vegas business owners, Mormon financiers, and Mafia crime lords helped develop the casinos and showgirl theaters to entertain the largely male dam construction workers.
Despite the influx of known crime figures, the local business community tried to cast Las Vegas in a respectable light when the Secretary of the Interior Lyman Wilbur visited in 1929 to inspect the dam site. However a subordinate was found with alcohol on his breath (this was during the time of Prohibition) after a visit to Block 16 in Las Vegas. The government ultimately decided that a federal-controlled town, Boulder City, would be erected for the dam workers.
Realizing that gambling would be profitable for local business, the Nevada state legislature legalized gambling at the local level in 1931. Las Vegas, with a small but already well established gambling industry, was poised to begin its rise as the gambling capital of the world. The county issued the first gambling license in 1931 to the Northern Club, and soon other casinos were licensed on Fremont Street like the Las Vegas Club and the Apache Hotel. Fremont Street became the first paved street in Las Vegas and received the city's first traffic light in 1931.
In reply, the federal government restricted movement of the dam workers to Las Vegas. Smuggling and circuitous routes then were developed. In 1934, to curtail these activities and the resulting growth of criminal figures in the gambling industry the city's leading figures purged gambling dens and started an effort to stem the flow of workers from the dam. This only emboldened some dam workers who still contrived to visit Las Vegas. A celebration of this era has become known as Helldorado Days.
Although the suppression efforts resulted in declines at gambling venues and resulted in a business downturn, 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. Electricity flowed into Las Vegas and Fremont Street became known as Glitter Gulch due to the many bright lights powered by electricity from Hoover Dam. Meanwhile, although the dam worker population disappeared, Hoover Dam and its reservoir, Lake Mead, turned into tourist attractions on their own and the need for additional higher class hotels became clear.
In 1940, U.S. Route 95 was finally extended south into Las Vegas, giving the city two major access roads. Also in 1940 Las Vegas's first permanent radio station, KENO, began broadcasting replacing the niche occupied earlier by transient broadcasters,.
Las Vegas 1941–1945: war years,
On January 25, 1941 the U.S. Army established a flexible gunnery school for the United States Army Air Corps in Las Vegas. Mayor John L. Russell signed over land to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps for this development. The gunnery school later would become Nellis Air Force Base. The U.S Army was not pleased with the legal prostitution in Las Vegas and in 1942 forced Las Vegas to outlaw the practice, putting Block 16, the local red light district permanently out of business.
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.
On October 30, 1942, R. E. Griffith rebuilt on the site of a nightclub called Pair-O-Dice,[8] 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 publicly demonstrated the influence of organized crime on Las Vegas. Although ethnic organized crime figures had been involved in some of the operations at the hotels, the mafias never owned or controlled the hotels and clubs which remained monopolized by hard-bitten local Las Vegas families who were unwilling to accede ground to the crime bosses and proved strong enough to push back. This changed in post-war Las Vegas when Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel, with help from friend and fellow mob boss Meyer Lansky poured money through Mormon owned banks for cover of legitimacy and built The Flamingo in 1946,.
Las Vegas 1947–1963: postwar boom and organized crime,
The Flamingo initially lost money and Siegel died in a hail of gunfire in Beverly Hills, California. Additionally, local police and Clark County Sheriff deputies were notorious for their heavy-handed tactics toward mobsters who "grew too big for their pants." However, many mobsters saw the potential that gambling offered in Las Vegas. From 1952 to 1957, through money and institutional lending provided by the Teamsters Union and the Mormon Church 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.
Owned and operated by a joint combine of Mormon elders who provided political and business legitimacy and people involved with organized crime who provided unreported income and street muscle, such as Meyer Lansky these crime hotels became regarded as the epitome of gambling entertainment. Even with the general knowledge that some of the owners of these casino resorts had dubious backgrounds, by 1954, over 8 million people were visiting Las Vegas yearly pumping 200 million dollars into casinos. Gambling was no longer the only attraction; the biggest stars of films and music like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Abbott and Costello, Bing Crosby, Carol Channing, and others performed 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.
However, the confluence of various marginal and/or suspected groups such as Jews, Sicilians, and Mormons into the gambling enterprises in Las Vegas and the subsequent cornering of the gambling market in the city by these groups sparked a two-year investigation by Senator Estes Kefauver and his Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce in 1950–51. The hearing concluded that organized crime money was incontrovertibly tied to the Las Vegas casinos and was becoming the controlling interest in the city thereby earning for the groups vast amounts of income which was strengthening their influence in the country. This led to a proposal 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.
Along with their connections in Hollywood and New York City, these interests in Las Vegas were able to use publicity provided by these media capitals to steer the rapid growth of tourism into Las Vegas thereby dooming Galveston, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and other illegal gaming centers around the nation. Nevada's legal gaming as well as the paradoxical increased scrutiny by local and federal law enforcement in these other locales during the 1950s made their demise inevitable.
Las Vegas 1950s: atomic testing,
Las Vegas Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site,
While the Strip was booming, the U.S. 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 E. 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 expanded into Las Vegas in 1954.
1955–1980: the beginning of modern Las Vegas,
Las Vegas Howard Hughes,
In 1966, Howard Hughes, the eccentric hero of the American aviation industry, and noted American entrepreneurial financier with vast connections to long established networks in the country, moved to Las Vegas. Initially staying in the Desert Inn, he refused to vacate his room and instead decided to purchase the entire hotel. Hughes extended his financial empire to include Las Vegas real estate, hotels and media outlets, spending an estimated $300 million and using his considerable powers to take-over many of the well known hotels especially the organized crime connected venues and he quickly became one of the most powerful men in Las Vegas. He was instrumental in changing the image of Las Vegas from its Wild West roots into a more refined, cosmopolitan city,.
Las Vegas Hank Greenspun,
The local newspaper Las Vegas Sun and its 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 A. Jones as the state's national committeeman for the Democratic Party,.
Las Vegas Local government,
One problem for the City of Las Vegas was that the Strip did not reside in Las Vegas proper. Because of this, the city lost tax revenue. 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 Las Vegas Strip properties into an unincorporated township called Paradise. Under Nevada Law, an incorporated town, Las Vegas, cannot annex an unincorporated township. To this day, virtually all of the Strip remains outside the City of Las Vegas,.
Las Vegas Desegregation,
Much like other American settled counties and towns throughout the United States, entertainment venues were segregated between black and white owned businesses. With almost all of the businesses owned and operated by Americans, Black Americans were segregated from entry into the venues which remained focused, regardless of their legitimacy or criminality, on entertaining a white only clientele. As a result of property deeds, non-white owned or customer oriented businesses were confined to clubs on the "west side" of the tracks. This also was enforced in many of the work positions thus, African Americans except those who provided the labor for low-paying menial positions or entertainment and Hispanics were limited in employment occupations at the white owned clubs. However, because of employment deals with black worker groups, many clubs favored Black American workers and the Hispanic population actually decreased ninety-percent from 2,275 to just 236 by the middle 1950's.
However, organized crime-owned groups saw a business opportunity in not dividing their clientele by race and despite property deeds and city and county codes disbarring such activities, made several attempts at de-segregating their businesses in the hopes putting out of operation the non-white owned clubs and expanding their own market share. An attempt at forming an all-integrated night-club modeled on the Harlem Clubs of New York City during the 1920s and 1930s like those owned by Jewish gangster Dutch Schultz was made. On May 24, 1955, Jewish crime bossWil Max Schwartz, along with other investors, opened the Moulin Rouge. It was a very upscale and racially integrated casino that actually competed against the resorts on the Strip especially the non-white owned strips on the west side. However, by the end of the year, the casino closed as Schwartz and his partners had a falling out. But the seeds for racial integration were sown.
Many sources have credited the organized crime backed Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack as a significant driving force behind desegregation in the casinos. One famous story tells of Sinatra's refusal to perform at the Sands Hotel unless the hotel provided Sammy Davis Jr. with a room.The famed performing group made similar demands at other venues forcing owners to amend their policies over time.
However, it took political action most often supported by Jewish crime groups for racial desegregation to occur. In 1960, the NAACP threatened a protest of the city's casinos for their policies. A meeting between the NAACP, the mayor and local businessmen resulted in city wide casino desegregation first starting with the employees and many whites were attritioned from positions and their jobs given to the black unions. Along with the rest of the country, Las Vegas experienced the struggle for civil rights. Activists like James B. McMillan, Grant Sawyer, Bob Bailey, and Charles Keller dragged Las Vegas to racial integration.
Another big force for equality was another criminally connected Jewish activist Mayor Oran Gragson. Spurred into local politics by a vigilante ring of cops who repeatedly broke into his appliance store, he implemented infrastructure improvements for the minority neighborhoods in Las Vegas, backed the NAACP in its actions, and promoted black workers for jobs. He also 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 made infrastructure improvements for them. His work helped reverse the decrease of minority populations in Las Vegas and resulted in the slow decrease of the American population. Local legislation kept up with the national legislation and integration was finally established. The only real violence came as a result of school integration, with violent riots and fights occurring in Clark High School when black gangs and youths began attacking the whites and sparking white flight from the schoold district from 1965 1971,.
Las Vegas MGM fire,
On November 21, 1980 the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, suffered a devastating fire. A total of 87 people died and 785 were injured in what remains the worst disaster in Nevada history,.
Las Vegas Since 1970: explosive growth,
On a percentage basis, Las Vegas and Clark County have experienced incredibly high growth rates since the 1930s; the population of the city more than doubled in each decade. The rate slowed down in the 1970s with the decrease of the white birth rate, but never dropped below 60% (1980–1990), and has even accelerated since 1990 due to immigration. By 2000, Las Vegas was the largest city founded in the 20th century, and by 2006 it was the 28th largest city in the US with a population of 552,000 in the city, and nearly 1.8 million in Clark County. The explosive growth has resulted in rapid development of commercial and residential areas throughout the Las Vegas Valley. The strong boom in the resort business led to many new condominium developments all across the strip and downtown area. Also suburban sprawl development of single-family homes continued across the valley building the areas of Henderson, North Las Vegas, Centennial Hills, and Summerlin. During this period of time, American author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote and published his seminal novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, detailing the experience of his 1971 trip to the city,.
Las Vegas Since 1989: the megaresort era,
The megaresort era began in 1989 with the construction of The Mirage. Built by developer Steve Wynn, it was the first resort built with money from Wall Street, selling $630 million in junk bonds. Its 3,044 rooms, each with gold tinted windows, set a new standard for Vegas luxury and attracted tourists in droves, leading to additional financing and rapid growth on the Las Vegas Strip. Numerous landmark hotels and other structures were razed to make way for ever-larger and more opulent resorts incldung:
1990: Rio and Excalibur
1993: MGM Grand Las Vegas, Treasure Island, and Luxor,
1996: Stratosphere Tower and Monte Carlo
1997: New York-New York
1998: Bellagio
1999: Mandalay Bay, The Venetian, and Paris
2000: Aladdin (now Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.)
2001: Palms
2005: Wynn Las Vegas (opened in April by Wynn Resorts Limited opened its new flagship, the constructed at a cost of US$2.7 billion.)
2007: The Palazzo, Las Vegas
2008: Encore
2009: CityCenter
Helldorado Days was resumed in 2005 for the City of Las Vegas' centennial celebration,.
Las Vegas Late 2000s towards 2010s: the economic bust,
Despite the success, the home mortgage crisis and the Late 2000s Recession affected the economic success. The explosive growth conflicted with the land holdings of Bureau of Land Management which restricted growth thus rasing the price of homes and tightening supply of new homes. As a result, unaffordability led to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac subprime mortgage lending that were unstable and risky, not to mention the speculation and extra loan borrowing influenced by the low interest rates of the Federal Reserve. Soon after, properties were foreclosed, new home construction was stalled, and construction projects were either canceled, postponed, or continued with financial troubles. Some of these projects included the MGM Mirage property of CityCenter, Fontainebleau, Echelon, and The Plaza. Even worse, the global financial situation had a negative effect on gaming and tourism revenue, thus allowing many of the companies to report net loss.
While the city seems to be weathering the unprecedented recession, a slow recovery is predicted, and future concerns such as the water supply in the ongoing drought, diversification of the area economy from tourism and competition from other gaming hot spots such in Macau continue to be major issues.
Las Vegas has still managed to host many conventions and major events. Las Vegas will be hosting the Latin Grammy Awards up until 2012.
- See also
- Las Vegas
(source:wikipedia)
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