History of Las Vegas

So young, powerful and changing that, talk of history, does not seem the most appropriate. Let's try to summarize the evolution that Las Vegas has had since its discovery in the 19th century.

The beginnings
History of Las Vegas, The Strip
The Strip at night
History of Las Vegas, The Game
How about getting home on wheels?
Las Vegas is in the Mojave Desert, where there were a number of wetlands, which the Spanish adventurer Antonio Armijo in 1829, called Las Vegas.

The area was sparsely inhabited by Paiutes Indians. The first whites to settle were the Mormons around 1855, the date on which it became part of the United States, since until then it belonged to Mexico.

In 1864 the army built Fort Baker giving a boost to population settlement, but it would not be until May 15, 1905 with the arrival of the railroad when in fact the city of Las Vegas was born.

In 1900, the springs that watered the moist areas that had given rise to its name were channeled and allowed a stable population around the Fort and supplying trains that traveled between Los Angeles and Albuquerque.

The expansion of Las Vegas
With the legalization of the game in 1931 begins the expansion of Las Vegas. In 1941 they began to build large hotels with gambling casinos. The first were "El Rancho Las Vegas" and "The Last Frontier". It is known that many of the early investors came from the crime syndicate; The Flamingo, the first big hotel and one of the most emblematic, was built by the gangster Bugsy Siegel.

Las Vegas is the city that has grown the most in the United States. In 1940 it did not reach 40,000 inhabitants, in 1954 it had 54,000 inhabitants, in 1995 its metropolitan area reached a million inhabitants, in 2003 to 1,580,000 and in 2008 it already exceeds the 1,800,000 inhabitants. Every month thousands of people settle in Las Vegas.

As a complement to the gaming rooms around 1950, the musical activity is added to the offer, then the theater, and the circus has now been incorporated. The famous Circus of the Sun has fixed shows in Las Vegas. It is a city that needs to always offer something new to attract tourists. In the thirties was gambling, alcohol and prostitution, then came musical performances, weddings and express divorces, today family entertainment and other hooks like the suppression of taxes, such as income. It was always a city on the verge of legality offering to its Los Angeles neighbors what it forbade them