A History of Las Vegas and Environs

By: Director of Public Relations, Celebrity Centre, Las Vegas

January 31, 2011

January 31, 2011

A HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS AND ENVIRONS

The prehistoric landscape of what is now the Las Vegas Valley and most of southern Nevada was a virtual marsh of abundant water and vegetation. Over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, rivers that were present sank into the ground, and the marsh receded. The valley evolved into a parched, arid landscape that only supported the hardiest of animals and plants. The Las Vegas Valley is part of the Mojave Desert which occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona. Named after the Mohave tribe, a Native American people indigenous to the Colorado River in the Mojave Desert. At some point in the valley's geologic history, the water that had been submerged below the terrain sporadically resurfaced and flowed into what is now the Colorado River. This helped proliferate luxurious plant life, creating a wetland oasis in the Mojave Desert landscape. An oasis or cienega (Southwestern United States) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough. Evidence of prehistoric life in Las Vegas Valley manifested in 1993 when construction workers working on the proposed Tule Springs National Monument near North Las Vegas discovered the tusk of a Columbian mammoth. Paleontologists estimate that the mammoth roamed the area some 8,000 to 15,000 years ago. Thousands of fossils have been found in this area, which contains the single largest assemblage of Ice Age fossils in the Southwest, spanning geologic history from 7,000 to 200,000 years ago. Recent paleontology studies confirm the area's significance and draw attention to the increasing degradation in the region.

Native American tribes had inhabited Nevada for millennia before Euro-Americans arrived in the 18th century. The American Southwest has long been occupied by hunter/gatherers and agricultural people. This area, identified with the current states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada, and areas of northern Mexico, has seen successive prehistoric cultural traditions since approximately 12,000 years ago. The earliest habitation of Paleo-Indians in the American Southwest dates to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, and evidence from this tradition ranges from 10,500 BCE to 7500 BCE. These paleolithic people utilized habitat near water sources, including rivers, swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, and drew birds and game animals. Native Americans lived in the Las Vegas Valley, beginning over 10,000 years ago. Archeologists have discovered baskets, petroglyphs, pictographs and other evidence in diverse locations, including Gypsum Cave and Tule Springs.

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A HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS AND ENVIRONS

Gypsum Cave was inhabited between 8500 BC and 6500 BC by the giant ground sloth. Human habitation of the cave dates to around 3000 BC. Mark Harrington provided the first documentation of the contents of the cave following excavation in 1930-1931. Human habitation was at the same time as at other local sites like Tule Springs, Lake Mojave and the Pinto Basin. In 1933, the Tule Springs Expedition, led by Fenley Hunter, was the first major effort to explore the archaeological importance of the area. The Nevada State Museum explored the springs area in 1962 and 1963 confirming that the area was home to Ice Age species as well as early North American Paleo-Indian peoples. Animals discovered were ground sloths, mammoths, prehistoric horses and American camels and the first giant condors in Nevada. The springs site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 1979. As the climate warmed at the end of the Ice Age, mammoths and large animals such as horses and camels began to disappear. Hunter/gatherers gradually adapted to these changes. he Archaic time frame is defined culturally as a transition from a hunting/gathering lifestyle to one involving agriculture and permanent, if only seasonally occupied, settlements. In the Southwest, the Archaic is generally dated from 8000 years ago to approximately 1800 to 2000 years ago. During this time the people of the southwest developed a variety of subsistence strategies gathering cactus fruits, mesquite beans, acorns, and pine nuts and establishing camps at collection points, returning to these places year after year. Late in the Archaic Period, corn, probably introduced into the region from central Mexico, was planted near camps with permanent water access. After planting, it appears the hunter-gatherers moved on to other territory to gather wild foods, and returned later in the season to harvest the ripened grain. About 3,500 years ago, climate change led to changing patterns in water sources. The population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. However, family-based groups took shelter in caves and rock overhangs within canyon walls, many facing south to capitalize on warmth from the sun during winter. Occasionally, these people lived in small semi-sedentary hamlets in open areas. Tudinu Paiutes, known as the "Desert People" moved into the area as early as AD 700, migrating between nearby mountains in the summer and spending winter in the valley, near Big Springs.

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A HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS AND ENVIRONS

Typical Paiute mother and children. Their traditional territory is the Colorado River region of southeastern Nevada, southeastern California, and Utah. DISCOVERY OF LAS VEGAS - "THE MEADOWS" Francisco Hermenegildo Toms Garcs was reportedly the first European in the area. He was a Spanish Franciscan missionary who explored much of the southwestern part of North America, Garcs was born in Spain in 1738, and was ordained in 1763. In 1768, when the King of Spain expelled the Jesuits from their extensive mission fields in northwestern New Spain, present-day Baja peninsula Mexico and the Southwestern United States), Garcs was among their replacements. He was assigned to Mission San Xavier del Bac near present-day Tucson, Arizona. T The Franciscans in upper Las Californias (present day California) like the Jesuits in Baja California before them, recognized the desirability of establishing on overland connection with New Spain through the region of the Colorada Desert crossing the lower Colorado River. Garcs became a key player in that effort. He conducted extensive explorations in the intervening, unsettled region of the Colorado and Mojave deserts American mountain men were in Washoe (the early name for Nevada) as early as 1827. Jedediah Strong Smith entered the Las Vegas valley in 1827. He was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century. Smith was the first United States citizen to explore and eastwardly cross the Sierra Nevada near Ebbetts Pass. The party traveled through the Great Basin and reached the north shore of the Gulf of California in Baja California Peter Skene Ogden traveled the Humboldt River in 1828 for the Hudson Bay Company. Ogden explored looking for new territories to hunt for furs, the Great Salt Lake and the Weber River drainage, where the Ogden River, and the Great Basin, following the Humboldt River to its dry sink in modern-day Nevada. The maps and routes discovered by Smith and others later were stolen by Mexican authorities and combined with other maps created by the Pike Expedition which previously had been captured by Spanish authorities in 1807. The combined map was then confirmed in 1829 by a trade caravan of 60 men led by the Mexican merchant Antonio Armijo charged with establishing a trade route to Los Angeles. By following the Pike and Smith routes through a tributary of Colorado River they came upon the Las Vegas Valley.

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A HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS AND ENVIRONS

OASIS DISCOVERED
Armijo, leading a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles in 1829, had veered from the accepted route. While Armijo's caravan was camped Christmas Day about 100 miles northeast of present day Las Vegas, a scouting party rode west in search of water. An experienced young scout, Rafael Rivera, left the main party and ventured into the unexplored desert. Within two weeks, he discovered Las Vegas Springs. The exact date is unknown, but Rafael Rivera became the first known non-Indian to set foot in the oasis-like Las Vegas Valley. Las

Vegas was given its name by Rafael Rivera, a scout for a Mexican trading party headed to Los Angeles, in 1829[1] The valley was later described by Smith, who used the water in the area while heading north and west along the Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico, as the best point to re-supply before going onto California. Rivera gave the area it name. Between 1830 and 1848, the name "Vegas," as shown on maps of that day, was changed to Las Vegas which means "The Meadows" in Spanish. The abundant artesian spring water discovered at Las Vegas shortened the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, eased rigors for Spanish traders and hastened the rush west for California gold. Some 14 years after Rivera's discovery, John C. Fremont led an overland expedition west and camped in the Las Vegas Valley on May 3, 1844, while it was still part of Mexico. He was appointed by the President to lead a group of scientists, scouts, and spies for the United States Army Corps of Engineers who were preparing for a possible war with Mexico. Upon arriving in the valley they made camp at the Las Vegas Springs, establishing a clandestine fort there. A war with Mexico did occur, resulting in the region becoming United States territory. The fort was used in later years by travelers, mountain men, hunters, and traders seeking shelter, but was never permanently inhabited.

Colonel John C. Fremont

His name is remembered today in neon as well as museums and history books. The Fremont Hotel-Casino in Downtown Las Vegas bears his name as does Fremont Street -- the main thoroughfare through the heart of casino-lined Glitter Gulch. MORMON INFLUENCE A permanent American presence began in 1851 when the Mormons set up way stations en route to the California gold fields. In the absence of any governmental authority, some 50 Mormons and Gentile prospectors and cattle ranchers drew up the "Washoe code" to deal with land claims; its coverage eventually covered other governmental issues.
Brigham Young,

Mormon settlers from Salt Lake City traveled to Las Vegas to protect the Los Angeles-Salt Lake City mail route and in 1855 began building a 150-square-foot fort of sun-dried bricks made of clay soil and grass, a substance known as adobe. The Mormons planted fruit trees, cultivated vegetables and mined lead for bullets at Potosi Mountain. On May 10, 1855, Brigham Young Prophet of the Latter Day Saints and Governor (1851-1857) of the then Utah Territory assigned 30 Mormon militiamen led by William Bringhurst to go to the area and purchase land from the Indians and convert the Paiute Indian population. They secured the purchase of land from the converted Paiutes around the fort. In the next year the Mormon soldiers and Indians expanded the fort and planted a harvest in the tribal areas. James Buchanan, a Democrat and last antebellum President of the United States, was under intense pressure from the newly formed Republican Party, which had campaigned strongly in 1856 on a platform opposed to those twin relics of barbarismpolygamy and slavery. Slavery was not only legal, but a significant economic asset to fifteen states at the time; Mormon polygamy, practiced by several families in the Mormon Church in far-off Utah territory, made a much softer target. Some federal appointees to territorial offices in Utah had turned out to be either incompetent or corrupt, or both. When the worst offenders were expelled from the territory and told that they were not wanted, a group of them formed a committee and accused the Mormons of rebelling against the authority of the United States. This gave Buchanan the pretext he needed. He removed Brigham Young as governor and appointed Alfred Cumming in his stead, and ordered five thousand troops to accompany the new governor to the territory, under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston. American authorities arrived at the site in 1857, determined to restore tribal rights. Bringhurst's land purchase was declared invalid on the basis of an existing treaty which forbade purchase of Indian land by whites. The skeleton staff that was left behind took out their anger at being thwarted by harassing and pushing the Paiute Indians off the land the Mormons considered their own. The Paiute retaliated and seized the upcoming harvest which had been gathered, forcing the last of the settlers back to Salt Lake City.

Members of the Bannock tribe. The Bannock led a raid on the Latter-day Saint mission of Fort Limhi in February 1858. There still was no federal presence in the area and Mormon relations with the other settlers worsened and petitions of complaint went to Washington. Many settlers sought annexation to California. Utah Territory countered this by incorporating the area as a county. When Federal troops were sent to Utah in 1857, the Mormon pioneers abandoned the settlement in 1858, partly because of Indian raids, and other settlers took over the area and launched a move for separate territorial status. (A portion of the "Mormon Fort" has
withstood the ravages of time and is an historic site today near the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard North and Washington Avenue. Scientists began an archeological dig on the site in November 1992. Members of the

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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) currently make up about 12 percent of the Southern Nevada population and in December 1989 dedicated a Mormon Temple in Las Vegas. The temple spires are visible in the foothills of Sunrise Mountain to the east of the city.)

After the Mexican Cession (1848) and the subsequent California Gold Rush that used Emigrant Trails through the area, the early 1860s saw the end of an Indian war, the great Comstock mining boom of 1859 in Virginia City and the coming of the Civil War. The state's area evolved first as part of the Utah Territory, then the Nevada Territory (March 2, 1861; named for the Sierra Nevada. RAILROAD TYCOONS START BOOM For the next few years the area remained unoccupied by Americans except for travelers and traders. Then the U.S. Army, in an attempt to deceive Confederate spies in 1864, falsely publicized that it reclaimed the fort and had renamed it Fort Baker, briefly recalling the area to national attention. Subsequently at the end of the Indian war in 1865, with a commission from the Federal government, Octavius Gass re-occupied the fort. The Paiute nation had declined in numbers and negotiated a new treaty with the United States, ceding the area around the fort to the United States in return for relocation and supplies elsewhere. Consequently, Gass started irrigating the old fields and renamed the area 'Los Vegas Rancho.' Gass produced wine at his ranch and Las Vegas became known as the best stop on the Mormon Trail. By 1872, Gass expanded his ranch to 640 acres, and used his position as a legislator to have the territory his ranch occupied included as part of Nevada instead of Arizona. In 1881, as a result of mismanagement and intrigue with a Mormon syndicate, Gass lost the title to his ranch to Archibald Stewart, who acquired it to pay off a lien he had on the property. In 1884, Archibald's wife, Helen J. Stewart became the Las Vegas Postmaster. The property, expanded to 1,800 acres, stayed with the Stewart Family (despite Archibald's murder in July 1884) until it was acquired in 1902 by the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad, then being built across southern Nevada. The railroad was a project of Montana Senator William Andrews Clark. Clark enlisted Utah's U.S. Senator and mining magnate Thomas Kearns to ensure the line's completion through Utah to Las Vegas. Settlement increased after the completion of the railroad and the State Land Act of 1885 offering land at $1.25 per acre. Clark and Kearns promoted the area to American farmers who quickly expanded the farming plots of the areas displacing the Paiute tribes. (A local ranch owner, Helen J. Stewart deeded 10 acres in downtown Las Vegas to the Paiutes on December 30, 1911, creating the Las Vegas Indian Colony.) Not until 1895 did the first large-scale migration of Mormons begin in the area, at long last fulfilling Brigham Young's early dream. 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 in honor of the railroad tycoon and Senator, Clark County, Nevada.

Land Sale

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A HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS AND ENVIRONS

Railroad developers had determined the water-rich Las Vegas Valley a prime location for a stop facility and town. Work on the first railroad grade into Las Vegas began the summer of 1904. The tent town called Las Vegas sprouted saloons, stores and boarding houses. Rails were connected with the eastern segment of track in October 1904. The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, later absorbed by its parent the Union Pacific, made its inaugural run from California to points east on Jan. 20, 1905. The railroad yards were located at the birthplace of a partially paved, dusty Fremont Street. Jackie Gaughan's Plaza Hotel, located at Main and Fremont streets in Downtown Las Vegas, today stands on the site of the original Union Pacific Railroad depot. Freight and passenger trains still use the depot site at the hotel as a terminal -- the only railroad station in the world located inside a hotel-casino. By the early 20th century, water from wells was piped into the town, providing both a reliable source of fresh water and the means for additional growth. The increased availability of water in the area allowed Las Vegas to become a water stop, first for wagon trains and later railroads, on the trail between Los Angeles, California, and points east such as Albuquerque, New Mexico. Andrews Clark was the majority owner of the railroad, which was a corporation based in Utah. Among its original incorporators were Utah's U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns and his business partner David Keith. Kearns, one of the richest and most powerful men in Utah and David Keith were the owners of Utah's Silver King Coalition Mine, several mines in Nevada and owners of The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper. Kearns and Keith helped Clark ensure the success of the new railroad across Utah and into Nevada to California. Curiously, for Advent of the railroad led to the founding of Las a time there were two towns named Las Vegas. Vegas on May 15, 1905. The SanPedro, Los The east-side Las Vegas (which encompassed the Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, owned by modern Main Street and Las Vegas Boulevard) Montana Senator Williams Andrews Clark, was owned by Clark, and the west-side Las Vegas auctioned off 1,200 lots in a single day in an area (which encompassed the area north of modern day which today is casino-lined Glitter Gulch. Bonanza Road) was owned by J.T. McWilliams, who was hired by the Stewart family during the The San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad sale of the Los Vegas Rancho and bought was completed in 1905, linking Salt Lake City to available land west of the ranch. It was from their southern California. U.S. Senator William property that Las Vegas took form. Las Vegas was the driving force in the creation of Clark County, Nevada in 1909 and the city was incorporated in 1911 as a part of the county. The first mayor of Las Vegas was Peter Buol who served from 1911 to 1913. NEVADA GAMBLING GLITCH Nevada was the first state to legalize casino-style gambling, yet it was the last western state to outlaw gaming in the first decade of the 20th Century. At midnight, Oct. 1, 1910, a strict antigambling law became effective in Nevada. It even forbid the western custom of flipping a coin for the price of a drink. The Nevada State Journal newspaper in Reno reported: "Stilled forever is the click of the roulette wheel, the rattle of dice and the swish of cards." "Forever" lasted less than three weeks in Las Vegas. Gamblers quickly set

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up underground games for patrons who knew the proper password. Las Vegas had a diversified economy and a stable and prosperous business community, and therefore continued to grow until 1917. In that year, a combination of economics and redirection of resources by the Federal government in support of the war effort forced the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad to declare bankruptcy. William Clark sold the remains of the company to the Union Pacific Railroad, but a nationwide strike in 1922 left Las Vegas in a desperate state. Prohibition was ratified in 1919, yet liquor continued to flow in Las Vegas. Then welcome relief arrived with U.S. Route 91 reaching Las Vegas in 1926, and Las Vegas was finally connected to California with a road. Nonetheless, that did not fully revitalize Las Vegas and the city became known as a place for speakeasies catering to tourists and traveling businessmen. With these illicit saloons, crime figures with connections to the Irish mob, Italian, and Jewish mafias began arriving in significant numbers. In November 1922 the Colorado River Compact was signed by Nevada and six other western states to divide water equally.

Illegal but accepted gambling flourished until 1931 when the Nevada Legislature approved a legalized gambling bill authored by Phil Tobin, a Northern Nevada rancher. Tobin had never visited Las Vegas and had no interest in gambling. He said the legalized gambling legislation was designed to raise needed taxes for public schools. Today, more than 43 percent of the state general fund is fed by gambling tax revenue and more than 34 percent of the state's general fund is pumped into public education. Legalized gambling returned to Nevada during the Great Depression. It legitimized a small but lucrative industry. The young town of Las Vegas virtually was insulated from economic hardships that wracked most Americans in the 1930s. Jobs and money were prevalent because of Union Pacific Railroad development, legal gambling and construction of Hoover Dam 34 miles away in Black Canyon on the Colorado River.

1930-1941: HOOVER DAM AND THE FIRST CASINOS

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On July 3, 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the appropriation bill for the Boulder Dam. The dam was later renamed the Hoover Dam during the Truman administration. Work started on the dam in 1931 and Las Vegas' population swelled from around 5,000 citizens to 25,000, with most of the newcomers looking for a job building the dam. However, the demographic of the work force consisting of males from across the country with no attachment to the area created a market for large scale entertainment. A combination of local Las Vegas business owners, Mormon financiers, and Mafia crime lords helped develop the casinos and showgirl theaters to entertain the largely male dam construction workers. 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. However a subordinate was found with alcohol on his breath (this was during the time of Prohibition) after a visit to Block 16 in Las Vegas. The government ultimately decided that a federal-controlled town, Boulder City, would be erected for the dam workers.

Boulder Dam Hotel built in 1933

FIRST GAMING LICENSE - THE NORTHERN CLUB Realizing that gambling would be profitable for local business, the Nevada state legislature legalized gambling at the local level in 1931. Las Vegas, with a small but already well established gambling industry, was poised to begin its rise as the gambling capital of the world. On March 20, 1931, the Northern Club received the first Nevada gaming license issued by Clark County. Opened as the Las Vegas Coffee House, Mayme Stocker renamed the place the Northern Club in 1920 offering liquor and gaming before both were legal. Soon other casinos were licensed on Fremont Street, the Las Vegas Club and the Apache Hotel. Fremont Street was the first paved street and received the city's first traffic light.

Gaming: Gamblers at the Apache Casino on Fremont Street during the 1930s.

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After the federal government restricted movement of the dam workers, smuggling and circuitous routes to Las Vegas began to be developed. In 1934, to curtail these activities and the influence of criminal figures the city purged the gambling dens. This only emboldened some dam workers who still contrived to visit Las Vegas. A celebration of this era has become known as Helldorado Days. Although the suppression efforts resulted in declines at gambling venues and resulted in a business downturn, the city was recharged, literally, when the dam was completed in 1935. In 1937, Southern Nevada Power became the first utility to supply power from the dam, and Las Vegas was its first customer. Electricity flowed into Las Vegas and Fremont Street became known as Glitter Gulch due to the many bright lights powered by electricity from Hoover Dam. Meanwhile, although the dam worker population disappeared, Hoover Dam and its reservoir, Lake Mead, turned into tourist attractions on their own and the need for additional higher class hotels became clear. In 1940, U.S. Route 95 was finally extended south into Las Vegas, giving the city two major access roads. Also in 1940 Las Vegas's first permanent radio station, 'KENO', began broadcasting replacing the niche occupied earlier by transient broadcasters.

1941 - 1945: THE WAR YEARS On January 25, 1941 the U.S. Army established a flexible gunnery school for the United States Army Air Corps in Las Vegas. Mayor John L. Russell signed over land to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps for this development. The gunnery school later would become Nellis Air Force Base. The U.S Army was not pleased with the legal prostitution in Las Vegas and in 1942 forced Las Vegas to outlaw the practice, putting Block 16, the local red light district permanently out of business. On April 3, 1941, hotel owner Thomas Hull opened the El Rancho Vegas. It was the first casino-resort hotel on what would become the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel gained much of its fame from the gourmet buffet that it offered. On October 30, 1942, R. E. Griffith rebuilt on the site of a nightclub called Pair-O-Dice, that first opened in 1930, and renamed it Hotel Last Frontier. A few more resorts were built on and around Fremont Street but the next hotel on the Strip publicly demonstrated the influence of organized crime on Las Vegas. Although individual organized crime figures had been involved in some of the operations, the hotels and clubs remained monopolized by hard-bitten local Las Vegas families who were strong enough to push back. This changed in post-war Las Vegas when Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel, with help from friend and fellow mob boss Meyer Lansky poured money through Mormon owned banks for cover of legitimacy and built The Flamingo in 1946.

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1946 - 1963: POSTWAR BOOM AND ORGANIZED CRIME Funded by $6 million in mob money, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel opens the Flamingo Hotel with a giant pink neon sign and replicas of pink flamingos on the lawn, on New Year's Eve 1946. dubbed so for the nickname of his mistress, Virginia Hill. In response to building contractor Del E. Webb's concern over an influx of mobsters on the site, Siegel laughs and assures Webb, "We only kill each other." It would prove to be a prophetic statement. Just six months after he opened the Flamingo, Siegel was murdered by a shotgun blast as he sat in the living room of the Beverly Hills, California home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. Aa slaying reportedly ordered by Siegel's mafia bosses to effect a change in management at the Flamingo. The Flamingo was by far the most celebrated of the early resorts, nevertheless the Flamingo initially
lost money.

business legitimacy and people involved with organized crime who provided unreported income and street muscle, such as Meyer Lansky, these crime hotels became regarded as the epitome of gambling entertainment.

Local police and Clark County Sheriff deputies were notorious for their heavy-handed tactics toward mobsters who "grew too big for their pants." However, many mobsters saw the potential that gambling offered in Las Vegas. From 1952 to 1957, through money and institutional lending provided by the Teamsters Union and some Mormon bankers they built the Sahara, the Sands, the New Frontier, the Royal Nevada, the Showboat, The Riviera, The Fremont, Binion's Horseshoe (which was the Apache Hotel), and finally The Tropicana. The Flamingo, after numerous ownership changes, is now owned and operated by the Hilton Hotel Group as the Flamingo Hilton. Only the Flamingo Hotel name has survived the 1940s era of Las Vegas Strip development. Owned and operated by a joint combine of Mormon elders who provided political and

Even with the general knowledge that some of the owners of these casino resorts had dubious backgrounds, by 1954, over 8 million people were visiting Las Vegas yearly pumping 200 million dollars into casinos. Gambling was no longer the only attraction; the biggest stars of films and music like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Abbott and Costello, Bing Crosby, Carol Channing, and others performed in intimate settings. After coming to see these stars, the tourists would resume gambling, and then eat at the gourmet buffets that have become a staple of the casino industry.

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The confluence of various groups such as Jews, Sicilians, and Mormons into the gambling enterprises and the cornering of the gambling market sparked a two-year investigation by Senator Estes Kefauver and his Senate Special in 195051. The hearing concluded that organized crime money was intimately tied to the Las Vegas casinos and was becoming the controlling interest in the city thereby giving the groups vast amounts of income, strengthening their influence in the country. This led to a proposal to institute federal gambling control. Only through Nevada's Senator Pat McCarran did the proposal die in committee. With connections in Hollywood and New York City, these groups used publicity provided by these media capitals to steer the rapid growth of tourism into Las Vegas thereby dooming Galveston, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and other illegal gaming centers around the nation. Nevada's legal gaming and the increased scrutiny by local and federal law enforcement in these other locales during the 1950s made their demise inevitable. During World War II, nearby Nellis Air Force Base grew into a key military installation, training ground for the nation's ace fighter pilots. Many key military personnel assigned to Nellis in World War II later returned as civilians to take up residency. Today thousands of people are connected to Nellis in the form of active duty personnel, civilian employees, military dependents and military retirees. WORLD-FAMOUS STRIP STARTS years of his life pursuing his dreamThe Stardust. The Stardust was to be a 1,000 room casino resort, idealized as a departure from many of the sawdust joints operating in Las Vegas at the time. Cornero has a vision of fine carpet, chandeliers, and a classy vibe. Corneros vision of The Stardust was about 70% complete when on July 31st, 1955, Tony Cornero collapsed. He died of a heart attack while playing craps at the Desert Inn, literally seconds after throwing the dice. Tonys vision did finally open on July 1, 1958, after the project had been taken over by Desert Inn boss Moe Dalitz.

Tony Cornero Tony Cornero was a man truly in the mold of the early Las Vegas trailblazer. A hustler, and prohibition era bootlegger, Cornero was the first to dream of the super hotel, and indeed spent the last

Moe Dalitz with Elvis, Juliet Prowse, Wilbur & Toni Clark, Cecil Simmons and Joe Franks (standing behind) on the set of G.I. Blues, Hollywood, 1960. Moe Dalitz worked in his family's laundry business early on, but began his career in bootlegging when Prohibition began in 1919, capitalizing on his access to the laundry trucks in the family business. His investments in Las Vegas began in the late 1940s with the Desert Inn when

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the original builder of the resort, Wilbur Clark, ran out of money, and Dalitz took over the construction. When it opened in 1950, Clark remained the public face and frontman of the resort, while Dalitz quietly remained in the background as the real owner. He also ran the Stardust Resort & Casino for a time after the death of Tony Cornero. Dalitz owned the Desert Inn until 1967, when he sold it to businessman Howard Hughes. Since he had been under constant pressure from law enforcement for many years, selling the resort was seen as an opportunity to get the authorities off his back. Dalitz had ties to both Jimmy Hoffa and Lew Wasserman of MCA, both of whom were subject to extensive criminal and anti-trust investigations in the 1960s. Hoffa had testified to his longtime relationship with Dalitz through union representation of his dry cleaners. Wasserman had first worked at a Cleveland club owned by Dalitz and his associates. Moe Dalitz was also a longtime friend of Meyer Lansky, one of the main architects of modern organized crime. The FBI believed Dalitz played a vital role inside Lansky's powerful organization. In 1982, Dalitz received the "Torch of Liberty" award from the Anti-Defamation League. In the 1970s Dalitz filed a massive defamation suit against Penthouse magazine over an article written by Lowell Bergman about Rancho La Costa, a resort funded by the Teamsters. Dalitz was an associate of Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, and contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns. The last casino that Dalitz owned was the Sundance Hotel Casino, later renamed the Fitzgerald which currently belongs to Don Barden. Dalitz built the Las Vegas Country Club, Sunrise Hospital, and many other important Las Vegas institutions. He was a frequent donor to the Las Vegas Public Library system along with other community organizations in Las Vegas. He counted among his frequent visitors in his later years such well known personalities as Barbara Walters, Harry Reid, Suzanne Somers, Wayne Newton, Buddy Hackett, and Frank Sinatra. Dalitz was proud of helping performers like Frank Sinatra get their first big breaks in show business. The El Rancho Vegas was razed by fire on June 17, 1960. As time passed, many other first-generation Strip resorts lost their identity through absorption by new owners, demolition, extensive renovation and name changes. ATOMIC TESTING IN NEVADA explosion was in 1992. Despite the dangers and risks, greatly under-estimated at the time, of radiation exposure from the fallout, Las Vegas advertised the explosions as another tourist attraction and offered Atomic Cocktails in Sky Rooms that offered a great view of the mushroom clouds.

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission on January 27, 1951 detonated the first of over a hundred atmospheric explosions at the Nevada Test Site. These atmospheric tests would continue until enactment of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 when the tests moved underground. The last test

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. But Las Vegas was doing more than growing casinos. In 1948, McCarran Field was established for commercial air traffic. In 1957 The University of Las Vegas was established. In 1959 the Clark County Commission built the Las Vegas Convention Center, which would become a vital part of the area's economy. BUILDING BOOM SWEEPS LAS VEGAS In 1955, the Riviera Hotel became the first Strip highrise at nine stories. Previously, Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn had offered guests the highest unobstructed panoramic view of the Las Vegas Valley from the resort's third-floor Skyroom, a cocktail and dancing haunt of visitors, residents and celebrities. Other resorts that opened during the building boom begun in the 1950s included the Royal Nevada, Dunes, Hacienda, Tropicana and Stardust hotels on the Strip and the Downtown Fremont Hotel-Casino. The Royal Nevada later was absorbed into the adjoining Stardust Hotel property. In another part of the city, the Moulin Rouge Hotel-Casino opened in 1955 at a time when blacks were not welcomed guests at Strip casinos and black entertainers were required to live off- premise while entertaining Strip audiences. The Moulin Rouge, frequented by all races, was built to accommodate the growing black population. Joe Louis, the late heavyweight champion of the world, was a Moulin Rouge owner-host. The Moulin Rouge has had a stormy past, closing and re-opening many times over the years. As times and attitudes changed, Louis became a much loved casino host at Caesars Palace on the Strip. The Moulin Rouge was declared a national historic site in 1992 when plans for its revival were announced. City and county community leaders also realized in the 1950s the need for a Las Vegas convention facility. The initial goal was to fill hotel rooms with conventioneers during slack tourist months. A site was chosen one block east of the Las Vegas Strip and a 6,300-seat, silver-domed rotunda with an adjoining 90,000-square- foot exhibit hall opened in April 1959 on the site of the current Las Vegas Convention Center. The silver dome was demolished in 1990 to make room for convention center expansion to a 1.6-millionsquare-foot facility of which 1.3 million square feet is exhibit space. It is currently one of the largest singlelevel facilities in the world. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, supported mainly by room tax revenues, today is a major player attracting more than 36,351,469 million visitors to Las Vegas in 2009. ENTERTAINMENT IS LAS VEGAS Entertainment, along with gambling, built Las Vegas' reputation as a playland getaway of the world. People began to flock to the city not just to play slot games, but also for the fantastic entertainment that was provided. When the El Rancho Vegas was the only resort on the Las Vegas Strip in 1941, singers, comedians, strippers, instrumentalists, dancers and a wide variety of performers were booked to entertain hotel guests in the resort's small, intimate showroom. The hotel-casinos that followed copied the successful star format for a number of years.

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The Stardust was the first hotel to break with the star policy by debuting a stage spectacular as its main entertainment feature. The resort imported the Lido de Paris from France. It was acclaimed by critics as a more spectacular version than the Paris original. The Lido had a 31-year run at the Stardust Hotel. It was replaced in 1991 with a new spectacular entitled Enter The Night. The success of Lido encouraged other resorts to adopt a production show policy. The Dunes, which disappeared from the skyline in a fiery, dusty staged implosion in 1993, engaged Minsky's Follies in 1957, the first time that topless showgirls debuted on the Las Vegas Strip. The Tropicana Hotel bought the American rights to the spectacular Folies Bergere. It remains a showroom favorite to this day. Backstage tours are a hot Las Vegas attraction. During the 50s and 60s, casino lounges also provided continuous entertainment from dusk to

dawn at no charge to the customer except the cost of a drink. These lounges, which became major entertainment attractions in their own right, spawned the names of Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene, Alan King, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, the Mary Kaye Trio and many others. 'The Rat Pack' - Below: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop, performing in 1960 at The Sands.

NO HOLDS BARRED In the initial years of the Las Vegas Strip, "no" was a big word -- no cover, no minimum, no state speed limit, no sales tax, no waiting period for marriages, no state income tax and no regulation of gambling as it is known today. In modern times about the only "no's" remaining are no state income tax and no waiting period to obtain a marriage license. No cover charge is still the rule in some casino lounges. The state legislature has imposed sales taxes and strict gambling regulation laws. The federal government has forced Nevada, as well as other states, to adopt highway speed limits. Nevada gambling styles, games and machines evolved to keep pace with more sophisticated, affluent players. Baccarat, known in France as chemin de fer, appeared in high-roller Strip casinos. Keno writers no longer used black indelible ink brushes to mark tickets. Mechanical slot machines, once affectionately termed "one- armed bandits," became antique collector items in the age of electronic gaming. Blackjack dealers no longer dealt single decks but switched to "shoes" that held multiple decks. Silver dollars, once the coin of the realm in Nevada, disappeared and were replaced in casinos with silver-dollarsize tokens. In the 60s, multiple coin slot machines debuted. Mechanical penny and nickel slot machines that took one coin at a time evolved into the popular computerized dollar slot machines capable of accepting multiple tokens simultaneously. High-roller slot players today can find machines that accept $500 tokens. The size of jackpots grew from a few hundred dollars to $10 million dollar progressive jackpots paid on a computerized statewide network of slot machines.

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In the 70s, video machines that substituted television screens for reels, were introduced. Computerized slot machines now feature poker, keno, blackjack, bingo and craps. Some slot machines accept credit-card style gambling. Casinos continue their evolution toward high-tech wagering with every applicable breakthrough in modern technology. Chicago-born Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal was one of the nation's top sports handicappers, but it was in Las Vegas where he became a legendary figure in the gambling industry. By the mid-1970s, Rosenthal was hosting a Las Vegas-based television variety show, had introduced Vegas' first sports book and was running four Las Vegas casinos -- the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda and Marina. He also was reputed to be the mob's inside man, directing skimming operations at those casinos. It was this reputation that prevented him from receiving a gaming license and in 1988 earned him a place in Nevada's Black Book , a list of people prohibited from entering the state's casinos. But before the state took action against him, Rosenthal was subject to trouble from his mafia associates. On Oct. 4, 1982, Rosenthal exits Marie Callender's restaurant at 600 E. Sahara Ave. He gets into his vehicle only to have it explode a few moments later. Rosenthal escapes the attempt on his life with injuries and leaves town a short time later. His life and the bombing were immortalized in "Casino," the book by Nicholas Pileggi, as well as the movie of the same name. Today, Rosenthal still handicaps sports and lives in Florida. DAWN OF MEGARESORTS In 1976, when casino-style gaming was legalized in Atlantic City, N.J., it became apparent to Las Vegas casino owners that Nevada no longer could claim exclusive rights to gambling casinos. It perhaps hastened the beginning of another era for the Strip -- the megaresort. Hotel-casinos began the race to become full-blown destination resorts for travelers, vacationers, gamblers, conventioneers and all members of the family. In 1969, billionaire Kerkorian built the International Hotel, now the Las Vegas Hilton. However, mob connections still play a part. The FBI conducts a Valentine's Day raid on the Tropicana Hotel after gaming executive Carl Thomas' link to Kansas City's Civella mob family is revealed. Several convictions help to break organized crime's control of the Tropicana, leading to an upheaval in the gaming industry. In the late 1980s, the megaresort era was ushered in by Wynn opening the Mirage, followed by the Treasure Island and the $1.7 billion Bellagio. The fabled Desert Inn was closed after Wynn purchased it and imploded it in 2004 to make room for Wynn Las Vegas. And though Kerkorian and Wynn can rightfully take their places among the pantheon of legendary Las Vegas builders including the Desert Inns Wilbur Clark, Caesars Palaces Jay Sarno and the Saharas Del Webb, one name stands out above them all: Howard Hughes. In the late 1960s, Hughes acquired major casinos, including the Desert Inn, Frontier and Sands, as tax shelters to offset the windfall he had received for selling a major airline. Without fanfare, Hughes came into town on Thanksgiving night in 1966, and, whether he intended to or not, proceeded to give birth to the corporate age of Las Vegas gaming.

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Hughes two-car private train arrived in Las Vegas. His aides whisked him to the Desert Inn penthouse. As the story goes, after 10 days Moe Dalitz, the DIs general manager, asked Hughes to vacate the penthouse because it was needed for the expected influx of New Years Eve guests. Instead, Hughes bought the hotel. Community officials bent the rules to accommodate their new resident, hoping he would be a great benefactor. Despite Hughes refusal to be photographed, fingerprinted or fill out financial disclosure papers, the tycoon got a license to operate the Desert Inn from the Nevada Gaming Commission in 1967.

Howard Hughes After buying the Desert Inn for $13 million, Hughes went on a roll. He bought the Sands for $14.6 million, the Frontier for $23 million and the unfinished Landmark, which had stood empty for eight years, for $17 million. His other on and off-Strip properties included the Desert Inn Country Clubs residential lots, the North Las Vegas Airport and all the land surrounding McCarran International Airport and several casinos that operated under the umbrella Summa Corp. A real estate empire then estimated at $300 million. A chronic insomniac, Hughes wanted to watch movies on television when most people were asleep, a habit harking back to his Hollywood days at RKO Studios. But Las Vegas had no all-night TV stations. Las Vegas Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun sold his television station (KLAS Channel 8) to Hughes in September 1967 for $3.6 million. The former movie mogul now had a 24/7 channel. Hughes withdrew into a world of movies on television, drugs and an obsession with germs and left abruptly on Thanksgiving Eve 1970 by private jet to the Bahamas. He never returned to Las Vegas. He died on April 5, 1976, on a plane flying from Mexico to Houston. Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., in October 1968 already had opened a circus-tent-shaped casino complete with midway games and rides for youngsters. A hotel was added in 1972. Owners of the resort have developed a $90 million water theme park called Grand Slam Canyon on five acres adjoining the Circus Circus Hotel-Casino.The entertainment park, a takeoff on the Grand Canyon, includes 140-foot mountains, a 90-foot Havasupai Falls, and a coursing river where the adventuresome can assault river rapids, plunge over a 50-foot waterfall, fly through the canyon and caverns in a double-loop, cork-screw roller coaster or lounge on beach- rimmed, lagoon-like pools. Grand Slam Canyon, which opened Aug. 23, 1993, is climatecontrolled and enclosed by a vented pink space-frame dome. The 3,049-room Mirage Hotel-Casino opened in the fall of 1989 at a construction cost of $630 million. It features a white tiger habitat, a dolphin pool, an elaborate swimming pool and waterfall and a man-made volcano that belches fire and water. In the early 1990s, Kerkorian opened the $1 billion MGM Grand, then the worlds largest hotel.

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Mirage owner Steve Wynn, who also owns the Golden Nugget Hotel-Casino in Downtown Las Vegas, constructed the 2,900-room Treasure Island adjacent to The Mirage at a cost of $430 million. The hotel features Buccaneer Bay where a full scale pirate ship and British frigate engage in a battle of cannon fire. In the end, the pirates blast the British and the frigate slowly sinks beneath the churning waves. With Treasure Island, which opened Oct. 27, 1993, and the Mirage side by side on the Las Vegas Strip, Wynn has nearly 6,000 rooms on a 100-acre site. Additionally, Wynn purchased the 164-acre Dunes Hotel and Country Club on the Las Vegas Strip for $75 million in 1992. He spent $1 million renovating the country club and the golf course. In October 1993, the flamboyant casino owner staged a $1.5 million spectacular in which the north tower of the Dunes Hotel was imploded and the famous Dunes Hotel sign destroyed amid a shower of fireworks never before equaled west of the Mississippi. More than 200,000 people crowded onto the Strip to witness the spectacular. Wynn plans to build a resort named Beau Rivage on the Dunes site and has announced a deal with Gold Strike Resorts to construct a hotel/casino on another part of the property north of the Tropicana Avenue and the Las Vegas Strip intersection. Kevyn Wynn, the 26-year-old daughter of casino mogul Steve Wynn, is kidnapped at gunpoint from her home in the affluent Spanish Trails community and held for ransom until her father pays the kidnappers $1.45 million. After releasing Wynn unharmed, kidnapper Ray Cuddy is arrested in California after foolishly paying cash for a Ferrari, and he and Jacob Sherwood (a third accomplice, Anthony Watkins, receives a softer sentence after turning stool pigeon) are convicted and sentenced to 24 years and 19 years in prison, respectively. The Excalibur, a 4,000-room colossus, opened June 19, 1990. The imaginative medieval "castle" was developed by Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. for between $260 and $290 million. Some floors are devoted solely to non-gambling entertainment for children and the young at heart. Court jesters perform in public areas. The showroom features jousting on horseback by knights of King Arthur's court. William Bennett, founder of Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., constructed the 2,526-room, pyramid-shaped Luxor a quarter mile south of the Excalibur. The Luxor, a modern marvel which cost $375 million dollars to build, is linked to the Excalibur by monorail. 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. It is visible to planes 250 miles away in Los Angeles. The atrium in the middle of the pyramid could hold nine Boeing 747s stacked one atop of another. The most ambitious resort project in the history of Las Vegas is located at the intersection of the Las Vegas Strip and Tropicana Avenue. It is the MGM Grand Hotel & Theme Park -- the largest resort hotel in the world and the dream of pioneer Las Vegas hotel developer and multimillionaire entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian. The $1 billion, 112-acre resort hotel, casino and theme park highlights the MGM Hollywood image. With the 33-acre theme park as the center piece, the 5,005-room hotel boasts a 171,500-square-foot casino, 12 theme restaurants, a 1,700-seat production showroom, a 630-seat production theater, three swimming pools, five tennis courts, a child care center and a 215,000-square-foot, 15,200-seat special events arena for concerts, sporting events and exhibitions. The MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park opened Dec. 18, 1993.

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In August 1994, MGM Grand Inc., and Primadonna Resorts Inc., revealed a joint venture to build a 1,500room hotel/casino on 18- acres at Tropicana Avenue and the Las Vegas Strip. The $300 million resort, named New York, New York, will highlight the best the "Big Apple" has to offer. The property's skyline will feature replicas of such New York City landmarks as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. The resort is scheduled to open sometime in 1996. The huge hotel conglomerate ITT Sheraton Corp. made it's first foray into Las Vegas and gaming in 1993 when it purchased the Desert Inn Hotel Casino from Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. Late in 1994, Sheraton announced a deal to purchase Caesars World Inc., the parent company of Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip for $1.7 billion. The deal was expected to be finalized sometime in 1995, pending approval from a host of state and federal regulatory agencies. When New Year 1994 dawned in Las Vegas, the dusty railroad town that started its race toward the 21st Century in 1905 boasted more than 86,000 hotel and motel rooms and had become home to 13 of the 20 largest resort hotels in the world. By the start of 1995, the city was awash with more than 88,500 rooms. Driving to a nightclub with Death Row Records owner Marion "Suge" Knight after a Mike Tyson fight Sept. 7, 1996 hip-hop superstar Tupac Shakur is shot three times when a gunman opens fire from the back seat of a passing car. Shakur dies six days later at University Medical Center. His murder is never solved, though it is thought to be connected to an East CoastWest Coast hip-hop rivalry. "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein, once Chicago mobster Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro's untouchable top man in Vegas, is gunned down in his home by two hit men. Spilotro was murdered in Indiana in 1986, and Blitzstein was reduced to small-time racketeering and hustling in Vegas after serving time in a federal prison camp. Blitzstein's rackets -- run from his auto-repair shop -- eventually became lucrative enough to attract the attention of the Los Angeles and Buffalo, N.Y., crime families. At the time of his murder in 1997, Blitzstein was under investigation by the FBI (the sting was nicknamed "Operation Thin Crust"), though the FBI's mob informant, Johnny Branco, knew nothing of the murder before it happened. Former Binion's Horseshoe owner Lonnie "Ted" Binion is found dead in his Las Vegas home on Sept. 17, 1998 by his girlfriend, former stripper Sandy Murphy. The cause of death appears to be a drug overdose, but foul play is suspected, and in 2000, Murphy and her lover Rick Tabish (with whom she had an affair while living with Binion) are convicted of murdering Binion. The Nevada Supreme Court overturns the convictions, and after a second trial is held in 2004, the pair is found not guilty of Binion's murder, though they are convicted for conspiring to commit burglary and/or larceny, burglary and grand larceny. In 2003 now-former Clark County Commissioners Lance Malone, Dario Herrera, Erin Kenny and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey are charged with trading political influence for money and gifts from Michael Galardi, whose family owns several Las Vegas and San Diego strip clubs. Then Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald also is indicted in connection with the investigation, as he

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acknowledged being paid by strip club owner Mike Galardi to be a consultant on zoning and landplanning issues since being in office. However, McDonald supposedly is not a target in the investigation. Malone, Kincaid-Chauncey and Herrera all plead not guilty, but Kenny and Galardi plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors. DOWNTOWN BOOMS AGAIN Downtown Las Vegas, where it all began, has launched an extravagant project to keep pace with the booming Strip. The multimillion dollar project is called "The Fremont Street Experience." The Nevada Legislature passed enabling laws in 1993 to make the project financially feasible and construction was started in 1994. Created by The Jerde Partnership, a firm specializing in creating lively urban centers, "The Fremont Street Experience" is a public/private partnership between the Fremont Street Experience Company -- an entity owned and operated by a group of Downtown casino operators -- and the city of Las Vegas. Fremont Street was officially closed to vehicle traffic Sept. 7, 1994. On Sept. 8, state and city officials, prominent Las Vegans and members of the Fremont Street Experience participated in a "cruise through history," in a line-up of classic cars from the Nevada Car Club Council that made the last vehicular ride down Fremont Street to celebrate the next step in the evolution of Glitter Gulch. The Public grand opening of the Fremont Street Experience was on December 14, 1995. The Fremont Street Experience features Viva Vision, the world's largest video screen which is 1,500 feet long, 90 feet wide and suspended 90 feet above the urban pedestrian mall. Viva Vision features nightly spectacular light and sounds shows with 12.5 million LED lights and a 550,000-watt sound system. Fremont Street Experience is a oneof-a-kind venue which includes free nightly concerts and entertainment on two stages. With direct pedestrian access to 10 casinos, more than 60 restaurants and specialty retail kiosks, Fremont Street Experience attracts over 17 million annual visitors. From the modest beginnings of Las Vegas, Fremont Street initially was in the forefront of the gambling industry. It became the city's first paved street in 1925, the first street to have a traffic light and it is the site of the first Downtown highrise -- the Fremont Hotel, built in 1956. The Apache Hotel on Fremont Street in 1932 was the first Las Vegas resort to have an elevator. The Horseshoe was the first casino to install carpet. In the 19th century, small parts of the Las Vegas Valley contained artesian wells that supported extensive green areas, hence the name Las Vegas, Spanish for The Meadows. The flows from these wells fed the Las Vegas Wash which ran to the Colorado River.

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