Las+Vegas+History

"10,000 years ago the Paleo- Indians first visited the Las Vegas Valley hundreds of years ago. They lived as nomads who traveled and camped in different places." **(Lasvegasnevada.org)** 8000 years later the Anasazi Indians moved into Southern Nevada and lived along the muddy and virgin rivers. The lost ruins of the Anasazi can be found in Overton, Nevada. The Indians always lived here but it wasn't until 1829 that Rafael Rivera who was the first person with a European background to find the valley, and named it Las Vegas which was Spanish for "the meadows". **(Lasvegasnevada.org See [|rule 8] for what goes in the parentheses)** 14 years after Rivera found the Las Vegas valley John C. Fremont had an overland expedition to the west of Las Vegas and stayed at Las Vegas Springs on May 13, 1844. **(History of Las Vegas)** He kept a journal that described the two springs he found and the writings became popular which brought many people to the area. Members of the Mormon Church choose to make a fort at Las Vegas and it was halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The remainder of the fort is still in the same place and can be seen from the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. **(Lasvegasnevada.org)** "The fort was abandoned several years later." **(Lasvegasnevada.org)** Las Vegas was founded in 1905 after a railroad company auctioned off 110 acres of land and the population started off with about 1000 people and it received a city charter in 1911. **(Zobell)** Before Las Vegas was admitted as a city, Nevada was admitted into the union as the 36th state and that day is recognized annually as a state holiday. What probably helped with the city being founded was the discovery of minerals including precious metals, which lead to the beginning of the mining industry. In 1930 the Las Vegas population grew to 5165 so in 25 years about 4,200 people came to Las Vegas. Then in about 70 years of huge expansion in the city of Las Vegas the U.S Census reports the population of Las Vegas as 478,434 over a land area of 113 sq miles. **(Lasvegasnevada.org)** The most celebrated and famous of the early resorts was the __f__lamingo __h__otel, which was built by the mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegal, a member of the Meyer Lansky crime organization. "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 resorts third floor Sky room." **(History of Las Vegas)** "A 4000 room colossus opened on June 19, 1990. The imaginative medieval castle was developed by Circus Circus __e__nterprises Inc. __far__ between $260 and $290 million. 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." **(History of Las Vegas)**
 * __ Las Vegas a Long Time Ago.... __**
 * __ Las Vegas __****__ Improvement __**
 * __ Current Las Vegas __**

"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."**(History of Las Vegas**) We all know how famous Las Vegas is for gambling today. Las Vegas is the nation's gambling capitol. Gamblers quickly set up underground games where patrons who knew the proper password again gambled day and night with lady luck. Illegal gambling flourished till 1931 where the Nevada legislature approved a legalized gambling bill authored by Phil Tobin, who was a rancher and had never visited Las Vegas. Las Vegas was only recently passed by a city in __c__hina as the world's gambling capitol. It's hard to think of Las Vegas without poker. (**History of** **Las Vegas**)
 * __ Gambling __**

**__Works Cited __** City of Las Vegas." __LasVegasNevada.gov__. 2007. Lasvegasnevada.gov. 8 May 2009 <[]> History of Las Vegas." __Charleston__ __Communications__. 1995-2008. www.ivol.com. 8 May 2009 <[|http://www.Ivol.com/Ivoleg/hist/lvhist.html]> “West Minister College” [] Zobell, Charles. "Las Vegas." __World Book Advanced__. 2009. SD State library. 6 May 2009 <[]>