The history of Las Vegas: From desert oasis to gambling capital of the world
It has a complicated origin story having started as a hidden rest stop that not many people knew about before its transformation.
Las Vegas has been called the city of glamour, elegance, and of course a prime hotspot for gambling! It’s got plenty of draws for people who want to go and have fun. They’ve got wealth, opulent hotels, great entertainment, and loose rules on marriage! So tourists will keep on coming no matter what.
Much like gambling websites like casinosouth.co.za, Las Vegas has a complicated origin story as to how it came to be the gambling den we know it as today. In fact, it started as a hidden rest stop that not many people knew about before its transformation. So how did Sin City, become Sin City? That’s what this article is going to tell you.
The start of Las Vegas
Las Vegas has been around in Clark County, Nevada for more than a century. It was originally inhabited by the Southern Nevada Native Americans, and it remained that way until the Mexicans arrived in the 19th century. They were lead by a man named Antoni Armijo, and they walked from New Mexico into California on the Old Spanish Trail. A man named Rafel Rivera took a scouting party out to find water and discovered an oasis in the desert.
This oasis was named ‘Las Vegas’ (or ‘the meadows’) in Spanish for its lush grass patches, and the history started there!
From oasis to gambling resort
Once the Las Vegas Springs were founded, the region became a rest stop for people travelling the Old Spanish Trail, mostly for Mormon and Mexican travellers. Several Mormon travellers built a small village on a postal route, but eventually abandoned the place once America took over the area. Things changed in 1890, where people in charge of the railroad saw the potential that this area had as a rest stop between other cities on the railway route.
Once the San Pedro railroad was created in 1905, Las Vegas was linked to the shore and the two major railways in the country, and it began to be heavily developed as a result.
The start of the establishment
As the 20th century loomed, ranchers, travellers, and those who worked on the railroad found themselves the biggest population demographics of Las Vegas, and since Las Vegas was a part of the old west, it became a haven for gambling, alcoholism, and prostitution where the law wasn’t respected. Even with the 1910 prohibition on gambling by Nevada, the underground world of Las Vegas still prospered, and criminal gangs flourished.
During the building of the Hoover Dam in 1931, the prohibition on gambling was lifted and gambling was made legal, to the delight of mob bosses and business people alike. With so many construction companies moving into the area, it was easy to have plenty of casinos, shops, and entertainment areas built up in the Vegas area, and soon the Vegas Strip began to take shape.
Despite the impact on the tourism front during the Second World War, the first guest house in Vegas: El Rancho Vegas, opened in 1941. More people kept on coming to Las Vegas, and the Strip just kept on growing.
Las Vegas today
While the mob can be credited for building Vegas, the tycoon and industrialist Howard Hughes had a large role when it came to building the city it is now. He bought the desert inn in 1966 and then bought more and more of the strip, pushing the mob out. Soon a man named Steve Wynn came in and began building mega hotels and resorts, which sent the Las Vegas Strip into a significant makeover.
Soon it became one of the best family tourist destinations, with countless attractions that aren’t just all about gambling and games of chance. Now there are golf courses, shopping centres, countless food options and restaurants, and the entire area has become a sparkling metropolis where people go to win it all and see what happens when they throw themselves at the feet of Lady Luck.
Even if you aren’t going to Las Vegas to gamble, going to Vegas can still be a once in a lifetime experience that will leave your wallet lighter but will also ensure that your heart and mind are full of some once in a lifetime memories. So if you have the chance to go to Vegas and add your story to the wonderful history of this area, do so. As long as you play smart, you won’t regret it.
