Las Vegas History

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Spaniards were the ones who gave Las Vegas its name, and they used the water from the area while they headed west and north from Texas on the Old Spanish Trail.  During the 1800s, parts of the valley had artesian wells in them that supported the extensive areas of meadows, which is how Las Vegas got its name, as vegas means meadows in Spanish.

On May 3, 1844, John C. Frémont went to the valley of Las Vegas while the area was still a part of Mexico. Frémont was the leader of an observer, scout, and scientist group of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.  After the annexation, Brigham Young sent 30 missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the area, with William Bringhurst as their leader, on May 10, 1855.  They were to convert the population of Paiute Indian into Mormonism.  There was a fort built close to what is now the downtown area, which served as a place for travelers to stop on the Mormon Corridor.  However, the Mormons abandoned the city in 1857.

On May 15th,1905, Las Vegas was founded as a railroad town.  This was the staging point for the mines in the area, especially the ones around Bullfrog, a town that shipped goods to other parts of the country.  Las Vegas declined in importance with the rapid growth of the railroads, but the Hoover Dam's completion caused a significant growth of tourism, of which led to the building of hotels and casinos which made Las Vegas famous. The American mafia is responsible for the current reputation and status of the city, as the original casinos were either managed or funded by mob figures Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel.

Gambling became legal with the opening of these casinos and with the opening of Flamingo Hotel of Bugsy Siegel, on what is now known as the Las Vegas Strip, which was named at the end of 1946. 

A variety of events affected the city, with the completion of the Hoover Dam and the testing of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere being conducted between 1951 and 1962 in Nevada. A hotel fire in November 1890 at the MGM Grand had a devastating effect on both the city and the state.  However, The Mirage's opening in November 1989 began the megaresort casino era.