About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 5: Bigger and Grander

In the 1990s, Vegas developers began thinking even bigger, and the arrival of the great pyramid of the Luxur Hotel and Casino in 1993 began an ostentatious decade of international icons arriving in reduced size along the Strip as new casinos sought to become the next big thing.

Where else can you find the Eiffel Tower, Venetian canals and New York skyscrapers all within walking distance?

Yet perhaps nothing catches the eye quite like the show-stopping, cutting-edge tech of the Sphere, the largest spherical structure on the planet, which opened as a concert venue in Vegas last year.  Such grandeur, often with a touch of gaudiness, defines the Strip. 

--DaCoot

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 3: The Coming of the Las Vegas Strip

The characteristically American mix of grit, graft and speculation turned a dusty desert road into the entertainment capital of the world, a 4.2-mile stretch that would eventually become known as the Las Vegas Strip.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Strip attracted shady characters right from the start.  In 1939, a cop named Guy McAfee arrived in Vegas after fleeing Los Angeles under accusations of corruption.  He quickly put down roots, buying and developing the Pair O' Dice Club and several others.  Inspired by his Los Angeles' Sunset Strip, he also bestowed the name upon Vegas' main drag.

Soon after, in 1941, California businessman Thomas Hull founded the area's first luxury resort, El Rancho Vegas, with blossoming gardens and a capacious swimming pool.  

The new adult playground caught the attention of the New York mob, who saw opportunities in both legal gambling and in less-legal money skimming.  In 1945, the infamous gangster Bugsy Siegel bullied his way into the development of the luxury Flamingo resort, creating a template for the super-casinos to come.  Until then, Vegas casinos typically sported Wild West themes, but Siegel ushered in an era of unbridled opulence.

--Cooter

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 2: Gambling and Quickie Divorces

Continued from June 13.

At the turn of the 20th century, the oasis town became a rest area for wagons and a stop on the new railroad connecting Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

This railroad was completed in 1905, and in 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a U.S. city.  Though gambling was prohibited at first, clandestine casinos opened for business.  Then, in 1931, everything changes when Nevada became the first state to legalize gambling, as well as the first to offer quickie divorces.

From then on, the Silver State was synonymous with American excess.

Around the same time, construction began on the Hoover Dam, which would supply water and power to the valley.  This monumental project brought in an influx of construction workers to the city of Las Vegas, and local entrepreneurs wasted no time in opening casinos to relieve these men of their spare cash.

--DaCoot

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 1: 'The Meadows'

From the March 2024, Smithsonian Magazine ""American Icon."

In 1829, a group of explorers led by Spanish merchant Antonio Armijo moved west toward Alta California through the arid Mojave Desert-- the ancestral lands of the Southern Paiute people.  

A young scout named Rafael Rivera discovered a particularly verdant area full of grassland irrigated by a natural spring: this lushness inspired the place's name: "The Meadows," or "Las Vegas." 

Though a couple dozen Mormon missionaries arrived here in 1855-- largely failing to convert the Paiute population-- the oasis remained something of a secret until four years later, when prospectors came to the valley.  They found gold and silver, and the ensuing rush sparked a population boom, with miners arriving in droves to dig by day before chancing new fortunes away in the saloons and bordellos at night.

--DaCoot

The Real Bonnie and Clyde Car

From the Whiskey Pete's site.

OK, from yesterday's post, you know that a fake Bonnie and Clyde death car is at the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois, but I got to wondering where the real one was.

THE BONNIE AND CLYDE GETAWAY CAR

You can see it for free at Whiskey Pete's Casino in Primm, Nevada, right on the California border off I-15. People traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas pass by the town.   It is the car they were in when they were killed in the roadside ambush May 23, 1934 (the other article said it was May 24th).  Over 100 shots were fired into it.

The display has the car and the shredded shirt Clyde was wearing that day as well as testimonies of people who witnessed it.

Bang. Bang.  My baby Shot Me Down.  --DaCoot

10 Coolest Archaeolgical Discoveries of 2013-- Part 1

From the Dec. 31, 2013, Yahoo! News/Live Science by Tia Ghose.

1. RICHARD III BONES-- discovered in Leicester, England, under a parking lot. How far the mighty have fallen.

2. ROYAL SQUASH?-- A gourd was found with images of the French Revolution that contained the blood of beheaded King Louis XVI of France. Legend has it that a bystander at the execution scoopd the blood up in their handkerchief and stashed it in the squash.

PRINCE...OOPS!-- Tomb of an Etruscan warrior prince and his wife found, but what they thought was the prince was actually a princess.

4. OLDEST ROCK ART-- Found at a dried-up lake in a Nevada desert dating back to 10,500 to 14,800 years. The oldest art found in North America.

More to Come. --Cooter