Las Vegas

What do you say about Las Vegas? Well it certainly is different!

The name Las Vegas was given to the place in 1829 by Rafael Rivera, a member of the Spanish explorer Antonio Armijo’s trading party that was traveling to Los Angeles, and stopped there for water on the Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico. At that time, several parts of the valley contained artesian wells surrounded by extensive green areas; Las Vegas means "the meadows" in Spanish.

The settlement of Las Vegas, Nevada was founded in 1905 after the opening of a railway that linked Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. The stopover attracted some farmers (mostly from Utah) to the area, and fresh water was piped in to the settlement. In 1911, the town was incorporated as part of the newly founded Clark County. Urbanization took off in 1931 when work started on the Boulder Dam (now the Hoover Dam), bringing a huge influx of young male workers, for whom theatres and casinos were built, largely by the Mafia. Electricity from the dam also enabled the building of many new hotels along the Strip. The arrival of Howard Hughes in 1966 did much to offset mob influence and helped turn Las Vegas into more of a family tourist centre, now classified as a Mega resort.