History of Las Vegas
The arrival of Howard Hughes in 1966 did much to offset mob influence and helped turn Las Vegas into more of a family tourist center, now classified as a Mega resort.
[citation needed] Evidence of prehistoric life in Las Vegas Valley has been found at the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument.
[9] Frémont was appointed by President John Tyler to lead a group of scientists, scouts, and spies for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which was preparing for a possible war with Mexico.
However, because of tensions rising among leaders of the small Mormon community, the summer heat and difficulty growing crops, the missionaries returned to Utah in 1857, abandoning the fort.
The property (increased to 1,800 acres (730 ha)), stayed with the family (despite Archibald Stewart's murder in July 1884) until it was purchased in 1902 by the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad, then being built across southern Nevada.
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 Clark County in honor of the railroad tycoon and Senator.
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 combination of local Las Vegas business owners and Mafia crime lords helped develop the casinos and showgirl theaters to entertain the largely male dam construction workers.
[12] 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 Ray Lyman Wilbur visited in 1929 to inspect the dam site.
This changed in post-war Las Vegas when gangster Bugsy Siegel, with help from friend and fellow mob boss Meyer Lansky, poured money through locally owned banks for cover of legitimacy and built the Flamingo in 1946.
Gambling was no longer the only attraction; the biggest stars of films and music like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Liberace, Bing Crosby, Carol Channing, and others performed in intimate settings.
[citation needed] On November 15, 1950, the United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce (known at the Kefauver Hearings) met in Las Vegas.
Moe Sedway, manager of the Flamingo Hotel and a friend of mobster Bugsy Siegel, Wilbur Clark representing the Desert Inn, and Nevada Lieutenant Governor Clifford Jones were all called to testify.
Despite the dangers and risks of radiation exposure from the fallout, which were greatly underestimated at the time, Las Vegas advertised the explosions as another tourist attraction[25][page needed][26] and offered Atomic Cocktails in the Sky Room restaurant at the Desert Inn that provided the highest 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.
With almost all of the businesses owned and operated by whites, Black Americans were barred from entering the venues, which remained focused, regardless of their legitimacy or criminality, on entertaining a white-only clientele.
An attempt was made 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 German-Jewish gangster Dutch Schultz.
[citation needed] Aside from seeing no business advantage to excluding non-white customers from casinos and clubs, the organized crime groups were composed of people of ethnicities (Jewish and Italian) that faced discrimination from WASP America and thus could understand the plight of blacks.
[citation needed] Another big force for equality was Mayor Oran Gragson, who hired black workers and held meetings in West Las Vegas.
[31] 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.
[citation needed] On a percentage basis, Las Vegas and Clark County experienced incredibly high growth rates starting in the 1930s and lasting until the late 2000s recession.
[38][39] The "Mafia/Rat Pack" Las Vegas of the mid-20th century came to a gradual end in the 1980s with the aging out of the World War II generation, the decline of organized crime elements, and the rise of baby boomer entrepreneurs who began a new chapter in the city's history, the corporate era.
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 Strip.
[68][69] The Wet 'n Wild water park and a Scandia fun center both opened in 1985, on and near the Strip respectively, in an effort to attract more families to Las Vegas.
[78][79] Promotional efforts in the early 2000s featured a renewed focus on the adult demographic,[80] with the slogan "What Happens Here, Stays Here",[81] although family attractions would remain popular as well, despite the decreased marketing.
[139][140][141] During the late evening of October 1, 2017, Las Vegas became the scene of the deadliest mass shooting committed by a single gunman in the history of the United States.
[168] Later that year, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians became the first Native casino owner in Las Vegas with its acquisition of the Palms, located west of the Strip.
The driver and alleged perpetrator was identified as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an American-born, active-duty United States Army Special Forces soldier from Colorado Springs, who was on leave from overseas duty.
Livelsberger wrote two letters, recovered by the FBI from his burnt phone, in which he denied being a terrorist but admitted using explosives to convey a political message and ease his mental burdens.
