History Of Las Vegas

Part One:



You can follow the episodes from there. I'm a Las Vegan, born and raised here and I thought I knew this town. I learned quite a bit more than I though I would though I do have to admit I'm no scholar about my town.

This doc, I believe, ties in with the new HBO doc about a news channel from Pahrump, Nevada. I don't know what I was watching on Youtube where the algorithm came up with this but it's a recent doc, even mentions Covid so I gotta think the two have a connection as there's no channel 2 here in LV.

It ain't perfect, it seems to not give the Mormon's any credit for what happened here, which I know was more than a little substantial.

But, I learned the streets Lewis and Clark had nothing to do with the famous explorers, which I had always believed to be. They actually have no ties here, but just because the streets are right next to each other, I just figured. Helen Stewart, possibly the first female elected to an office in America. Also a street named after her.

There's a whole lot more, this was a railroad town and the strife and strike hit here, this wasn't a pleasant place to live before air conditioning. There was water here, hence "Las Vegas", or, The Meadows which is the mall around the corner from me. Lorenzi park, lol, so close to home and I haven't even gotten to the mob part of the series, I'm only in episode two, The Twenties.

I'll give the station credit for doing this well. The photos are amazing and the video is even more amazing. I still don't know whom McCarren International Airport is named for though.

This post is off the rails, but this history is really quite fascinating. Don't get me started about Tule Springs which is right close to where my mom is in her dementia home. I haven't been there since I was a kid but there have been dinosaur bones found out at this idyllic oasis. There's glyphs out at Red Rock Loop. There's history here, folks, even though no one knows it.

OK: Part Three - Dude says he was born on the 100'th block of south 5'th street. That's totally gone, it's where the "Strip" meets downtown and is a tourist trap. Almost all of what is shown up to this point is gone, overgrown by development.

OK, I'm watching and responding but now we have come to the newspaper, the Las Vegas Review Journal, of whom I worked for from "88 to "93. Ok, I'll have to respond later, time to go to sleep.

Was stationed at Nellis in early '10s. Lived in North Vegas, just south of the 215.

When talking to civilian Vegas natives, it blew my mind that Craig Road used to be about as north as Vegas got.

Kinda like I remember 1604 here in San Antonio being two lane with stop signs on west side of town in mid-90s and 151 not extending all the way to 1604. People new to San Antonio tend to be in just as much awe as I was about Craig Road.

And the pig farm was out in the middle of nowhere, not in the middle of a residential area. Just heard the pig farm ended up selling out at some point. Always kind of ticked me off that residents b'ed and moaned about the smell. Well you dumb shifts, don't move next to a pig farm. Morons.

A lot of people I knew called Vegas Little Salt Lake. I never knew Vegas was actually settled by Mormons (so I was told).

McCarran airport named for a Nevada US Senator that was apparently an advocate of aviation.

Thanks for the post. Will check out the vids.

Been to Vegas once. You could spend $1000 a minute everyday there. The shows and food, wow. Who would think they got such fresh, good seafood in the middle of the desert. David Copperfield and Cirque De Sole were amazing.

The mob museum was pretty cool too. They got the actual wall from the Valentine's Day massacre in there, bullet holes and all. And it's the actual building and courtroom that some famous mobsters stood trial in back in the day.

Might be neat to find out what's on the sites today from those old films !! 😃

a reply to: davegazi2

I always thought of Vegas as the ugly step-sister of Smell A. But that's from a sports perspective as they had the Lakers, Dodgers, later on the Kings won a couple of Cups. We had UNLV basketball and that was torn down nearly thirty years ago.

Pig farm, I never came across that. Much too far to drive to see a pig farm lol. But now I have rediscovered where Tule Springs is at as Mom is in a home right around the corner from there. Haven't been there since I was a young lad. Can't wait to see the peacocks.

a reply to: SuicideKing33

Yeah, the food rocks. My foodie friend want's to try Nigerian food. I say what the hell, I'm in. Already had a sausage with kimchi on it, spicy um yeah.

The Mob Museum is the old post office. Not sure if it really was the old courthouse. Guess I gotta take their word for it, I wasn't around at that time. I used to pick up the LVRJ's mail on Saturday mornings from them. I wen't in the exit, breaking laws but there was no one around. I'm such a rebel.

a reply to: xuenchen

The old Mormon fort is right next to Cashman field but it's been moved from it's original spot. Lorenzi park is still there but it's a shell of what it was in days of yore. I remember catching crawfish there with a friend(whom did all the catching) in the pond there.

The only cool things you find here from them days is in the old housing projects like the Scotch '80's, where Jerry Lewis family is at - used to deliver a lot of cheese steaks to them - the Rancho's, there's places that the old Vegas can be seen and can't forget downtown, the houses in the number streets go way back but most are full of lawyers these days.

There's areas of this city that are quite pretty, these old areas. Go behind the Wildfire on Rancho and check out all those old homes.

They do touch on briefly, just a mention of his name, the Japanese guy who came here and figured out how to grow things here. He had a farm that fed Boulder Dam workers in the '30's near Pecos and Flamingo. He's the godfather of cultivation here in the desert and damned if I can remember his name.

Oh, and go check out the pond at Sunset Park. It's got a real Moai from Easter Island. Just like Vegas, gotta have something from elsewhere to prop up the culture that is largely unknown, even to a born and raised Las Vegan like myself. These docs are a really nice document of what this town was when it began, what it became along the way and hasn't even really dug into gambling and how that transformed the town.

I say town, as it was. When I was a kid it was a town of 250,000 or so. I 15 ran through us but the only other freeway went from Jones, where I'm at, to E. Charleston. That was I 95. Rainbow was two lanes of dirt. All of Summerlin off of Charleston was the towns dump. So much trash that had to be hauled off to create that area.

I like to watch old movies and it is interesting seeing how much
Vegas has changed over the years.

Some old history still alive .....😎


Nevada’s oldest casino turns 90

Railroad Pass casino sits on the outskirts of Henderson, not far from Boulder City, the only incorporated Nevada town where gambling is illegal.

It’s a small, unassuming property — nothing like the swanky, upscale resorts that line the Las Vegas Strip. But it’s proved resilient, carving its place in history and holding on tight.

The state’s oldest operating casino turned 90 on Sunday. It’s a milestone worth celebrating, historians say, given its origins and role in the earliest days of Nevada gaming.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Ha, I lived in Pahrump for a short while (some wild stories!) and have an old friend who owns a gold mine on the outskirts. Haven't watched the vid so I'll see if I learn anything interesting. Thanks for posting it!

I lived there from 1995 until 2007 and spent my years there as a union painter.

I enjoyed the work but the heat finally got to me and the wife.

thanks for sharing though, good stuff and fun learning new things!

originally posted by: TheSpanishArcher
a reply to: davegazi2


Pig farm, I never came across that. Much too far to drive to see a pig farm lol.

Wasn't really anything ya went to see. More something ya smelled. lol. Just something a lot of North LV residents fussed about. If IRC, it was Ann Rd/Pecos Rd area. Wind blew the right way, could smell it at my house a few miles away.

Literally tons of food waste was brought up to the farm. Those pigs ate like kings apparently.

a reply to: davegazi2

That explains why I've never seen it, it's in the northeast region which I never visit. I live on the west side so no need to go out there.

It's like going to Henderson. There's no need for me to go out there for anything. Although recently Mom's friend wanted to go to a place out there for lunch - which was awesome, the fish taco was to die for - and that downtown area hasn't changed much but I barely recognize Henderson. I know stuff has been built there over the years after the Pepco blast leveled what now I assume is apartments and homes. By the god's they were so lucky no one lived near that blast at the time, it would have killed so many.

I remember a native from Phoenix when I lived there talking trash about Tuscon. There's no need to go there, we have everything we need up here in Phoenix. Same goes for Henderson. I can easily access any car dealership on Sahara road, no need to go to the automall out there.

It's a big city but things like the pig farm that have been here for ages that I didn't know about. Delivering pizzas a few years ago I came across the Hideaway bar, which is huge and literally hidden away. Near there is the Roadkill Cafe where you can take your hunt and they will chop it up for you. I've never been to that old steak house, Bob's? I think that's the name. Ok, looked it up it's Bob Taylor's place way out there.

I come across to people from outside of Vegas as an expert on this city but these docs have given me a view of the town I've never seen. There is actual really interesting history here. Heck, from the time we were illegally created we've been a state that no one wanted to come to unless they wanted to lose their money. That's the only reason Nevada exists as it does because of gambling. Las Vegas would be middle of nowhere if it weren't for that.

Just for the record, it's Nev-AD-a, ad as in like advertising. Can we please get that right? I don't care about the origins and it's a Spanish word, we don't do that here. Don't tell me how to pronounce the name of the state I was born in.

A blast from the past. A few minutes of footage from 1983. The Strip was so incredibly different. All the little places that are gone, rental car places, convenience stores and what not. Saw The Mickey Finn band advertised, their drummer used to live next door to me and I hung out with his son so we'd get free tix to see them. They were a real cool old timey band.



Here's a television show The Mickey Finn band did if anyone is interested. From Magic Mountain in 1982- I don't think they got second billing to a puppet show - and features Debbie Reynolds.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I like the old Castaways that later became The Mirage !!

😎

a reply to: xuenchen

Yeah, also saw La Concha and El Morocco. I think it was LC that had a really upscale steak house in it that a friend worked at. I was across the street at Circus Circus and got off at 11. So did he but he'd always have some side work to do before leaving so I'd wait for him there. Bunch of old guys looking down on me cause of my long nappy hair.

I can't see the LC sign it's hidden behind the EM sign but you can see prime on it for prime rib but without the rest of the sign I won't have the steak house name which is kinda bugging me now. I did find this on a blog, "Jack Dennison's Copper Cart Restaurant was next door in a Morrocan themed building that had once been Ash Resnick's Morrocan Restaurant." That sounds right and looking at LC it doesn't seem to be right but both buildings had the arches or whatever those are called on the front.

Also saw the Landmark. I never went in there as a customer but used to deliver stuff from the newspaper to them. Never should have torn that place down, it really was a landmark.

Never went into the Castaways either as it was gone before I hit drinking age.