Las Vegas Origins In The 19th Century

When most people think about Las Vegas, they consider its modern atmosphere of entertainment and gambling; in fact, they think primarily of a few miles of road around which gigantic casinos are built — the Vegas Strip. Every year, millions of travelers make their way to the resorts to gamble and to watch fantastic shows, unaware of the history of this desert community — which, in and of itself, is as intriguing as anything that might take place upon the nightclub stages. Much of the area around Vegas, for instance, originated with Mormon settlers, who came to Nevada by way of Salt Lake City, Utah. While today's glitz and glamor causes people to overlook the early history of the city, many of these historic tales are worth a look, offering a great deal of fascinating information. Vegas, then, is an ideal choice for people interested in history as much as entertainment and gambling.

In the middle of the 19th Century, Mormon settlers came from Utah in order to keep secure the Salt Lake-Los Angeles mail route.

In 1855, they started to build an adobe dwelling that was composed of approximately 150 square feet of grass and sun-dried clay bricks. Three years later, they would leave this settlement, mostly because of Indian raids; however, during the short time the settlers were there, they grew vegetables and fruit and mined for lead.

The fort was re-discovered about eighteen years ago, in 1992, during a dig set up by archeologists. Today, the site is an historical landmark. A concierge in a Las Vegas hotel is a great source of information about the fort and other historic attractions in the area.

They can provide nformation about the main headliners and entertainment performances as well as the casinos, but they're also able to explain a bit about the early history of Vegas, including how its gaming industry first developed.

In the entire United States, Nevada was the first to make casino style gambling legal, and the last one to criminalize it in October of 1910, one hundred years ago.

It wasn't long, though, until gambling went underground, much the way liquor went underground during prohibition, and these games encouraged the city to later make gambling legal again once the Great Depression started.

The argument at the time for gambling was that the activity would bring in tax money that could be used for social services, such as schools.

The argument took hold. When Hoover Dam began construction, an extra five thousand people were added to the city; the dam and the legal gambling both helped to create people's interest in Las Vegas as a popular tourist spot.

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