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From its earliest beginnings, Las Vegas has catered to the
traveler. A nomadic tribe of Indians called the Paiutes settled the area
around the turn of the last millennium and occupied most of the area from
Mt. Charleston to the Colorado River. Several traders and explorers
including Jedediah Smith in 1826 and John C. Fremont in 1844 traveled
through the area and made contact with the Paiutes. By 1851, Mormon
president, Brigham Young, in his endeavor to create the State of Deseret
stretching from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, made Las Vegas one of his
important stopovers. To this end, he sent missionaries to colonize the
region and convert the Paiute. The location they selected to establish
their fort was on a promontory overlooking the Las Vegas Valley, which is
now the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington. The
Old Mormon Fort still has remnants of its original building,
and is in the process of being restored. Eventually the settlement
disbanded and most of the Mormon settlers returned to Utah.
However, a mining boom at nearby Mt. Potosi fostered a new influx of
travelers, mainly miners who used Las Vegas as a center for food and
supplies. There was no permanent settlement there until 1865, when a group
of prospectors, including Octavius Decatur Gass, acquired the rights to
the Old Mormon Fort. For the rest of that decade, Gass ran a prosperous
business at the Fort, rebuilding many of the structures and farming the
land, offering food and shelter to the travelers on the "Old Mormon
Trail" (the Salt Lake-Los Angeles wagon road), as well as offering
provisions to the nearby miners. Gass was less of a businessman than a
prospector at heart and eventually bad business deals forced him to turn
the property over to Archibald Stewart and his wife, Helen, who had only
intended to stay there temporarily. However, after a feud at nearby Kiel
Ranch, which ended in the murder of Stewart, his widow stayed on to run
the ranch and see it prosper. This period was from 1882 to 1902, when she
sold the ranch to Montana Senator William Clark. Clark was instrumental in
overseeing the establishment of the railroad from Utah to California.
Acquiring the rights to the Ranch and its abundant water supply ensured
that Las Vegas was to become a major stop for railroad travelers. In 1905
an ad was placed in prominent major newspapers concerning "first
class inside lots" going for as little as $200 apiece in Clark's Las
Vegas Townsite. This encouraged squatters and investors alike, and the
auction on May 15, 1905 produced a flurry of sales. Soon hotels and homes
sprouted up all along the main downtown area of Fremont Street, as well as
schools, a hospital and other essential businesses for the time such as
ice plants.
Las Vegas essentially thrived for the next 20 years because of the
railroad; it played host to travelers by providing entertainment and
liquor. The liquor was restricted to a certain area, Blocks 16 and 17.
This area naturally evolved into a red light district as well. During
Prohibition, this section was especially popular. During this period, the
city founders realized that as the roads were improved from Los Angeles to
Las Vegas, this would promote more tourism and they began to build ranches
to appeal to the potential visitors. Kiel Ranch became a popular dude
ranch and gained notoriety as a place where people came to wait out their
quicky Nevada divorces. In 1931, the combined advent of the building of Boulder
Dam (later renamed Hoover), the creation of Boulder City plus
the legalization of gambling, ensured a new boom in the prosperity of
southern Nevada.
World War II increased the Las Vegas economy even more. In 1940, an air
base was established (now known as Nellis Air Force Base) in the northeast
part of town. A huge plant, Basic Magnesium, was built for the manufacture
of bullets and bomb casings, etc. The plant was instrumental in the
establishment of Henderson, just southeast of Las Vegas and now the
fastest-growing community in Nevada. In the early 1950s a new kind of
entertainment was born: watching the atomic bomb testing, which took place
at the nuclear test site, just 70 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A famous Life
Magazine photo captured one of the mushroom clouds rising above the
waving cowboy, "Vegas Vic" of Fremont Street. In fact, the
opening of the now closed Desert Inn was timed to coincide with one of the
blasts.
Over the past two decades the hotel industry has re-invented itself again
and again. Just when everyone was predicting a severe depression,
especially when Atlantic City emerged as a gambling destination in the
early 80s, Las Vegas managed to come up with a new twist. Even today, with
the proliferation of gambling in many of the 50 states, Las Vegas only
seems to become more popular. Its latest ventures have been in theme
hotels, starting with the Mirage in
the late 80s, followed by the Excalibur.
Treasure Island, the Luxor
and the MGM Grand soon followed. And
more recently the Stratosphere and the
Monte Carlo were built. The newest
include the fabulous Bellagio and the Paris
Las Vegas. The Venetian and
Mandalay Bay are also new and exciting
venues. When will the boom end? |
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