Not too long ago, Las Vegas was just a 24 hour
adult gambling town, with cheap budget rooms, cheaper buffets, lounge acts and 99 cent
shrimp cocktails. Remnants of the old “Las Vegas” are there you can still gamble
and eat at all hours of the day and night. But other forms of amusement have
come alive in the desert: an erupting volcano, the
Sirens of TI,
roller coasters and theme parks. The
Entertainment Capital of the World now offers something for both young and
old. To attract not only gamblers but everyone to their casino resorts,
developers have torn down hotel after hotel, obliterating Las Vegas’ short
history to make way for newer, bolder and more stylish creations. A few years
ago New York's skyline was replicated in smaller scale. One of the latest
offering is The Venetian, which reproduces landmarks of Venice to actual
scale, complete with outdoor canals. Other new resorts are the Bellagio,
Mandalay Bay and Paris, Steve Wynn, in 2005 opened Wynn Las Vegas (formerly
called Le Rêve, French for "The Dream"), a $2.4 billion resort and casino, on
the site of the former Desert Inn, each one bidding for vacationers in search of the
ultimate Vegas spectacle.
Hoover Dam and
Lake Mead
Few dams are artistic achievements, but Hoover Dam is an architectural gem.
Seen from below, the sensuous geometry of the 725ft (220m) high concrete
wall contrasts sharply with the rugged red rock of the canyon walls. You can
see exhibits on the dam's construction and inner workings at the visitors'
center. A 50-story elevator ride takes you down to the turbine room at the
bottom of the dam. The view from the base brings home the fact that the dam
is one of the highest in the world. Guided tours are available.
Stretching to the north and east of the dam is the artificial body of water
it created: the 110 mile long (180km) Lake Mead. The Lake Mead National
Recreation Area provides lots things to do. Lake Mead caters to boaters,
swimmers, sunbathers, and fishermen while its desert rewards hikers, wildlife
photographers, and roadside sightseers. Three of America's four deserts - the
Mojave, the Great Basin, and the Sonoran Deserts-meet in Lake Mead. Hoover Dam is an
hour's drive southeast of downtown Las Vegas, where several companies offer
bus tours.
Red Rock Canyon
Fewer than 20 miles west of the Strip, Red Rock Canyon is everything
Vegas isn't: raw, natural and very old - 65 million years old. Red Rock
encompasses 197,000 acres within the Mojave Desert. A 3000ft
(900m) escarpment rises on the western edge of the valley. The canyon's most
striking features - Joshua trees, multicolored sandstone, jagged peaks - can
be seen from a 13 mile (20km) loop drive. Oh and by the way, watch out for the
roadrunners. There are many spots for
picnicking, hiking and climbing along the way. There's a good visitors'
center at the start of the loop.
Overton
If the flashing lights of Vegas blow your circuits, the funky, laid-back
little town of Overton is less than two hours' drive from Glitter Gulch.
Settled in the 1880s, Overton hasn't changed much since. Aside from a few
motels, bars and stores, there isn't much to do here aside from the museum,
but it's a good place to escape the hubub of the Strip.
Just north of Overton are 1000 year old Anasazi Indian pueblos - actually,
they're reconstructions on the original foundations. The pueblos are part of
the Lost City Museum, which features a collection of locally found artifacts
dating back 10,000 years. Overton is about 50 miles (80km) northeast of
downtown Las Vegas.
Grand Canyon
Just a few hours' drive east from Las Vegas is America's most popular
national park. The south rim of the Grand Canyon is an easy overnighter from
the Strip (the north rim is an additional five hours). The canyon is 225
miles (365km) long and nearly 10 miles (16km) wide, and the multicolored
rock strata go down a mile to the Colorado River below. You may think your
life is complete just to stand at the edge and look down at one-third of the
earth's geologic history (though from the top you can't see the 1.7 billion
year old rocks at the bottom). The canyon offers excellent hiking, horse
riding and rafting.
The summers are hot and the winters are cool, making spring and fall the
best times to visit. The daily high averages around 100°F (38°C) from June
to September, and around 55°F (13°C) from December to January; the rest of
the year is temperate. It's pretty dry most of the time, but thunderstorms
are most common in the summer (June to August) and can cause dangerous flash
floods.
Las Vegas is in the southern part of the state of Nevada, about 50 miles
(80km) east of the California BORDER="1"and 30 miles (50km) west of the Arizona
border. The city is divided into two main parts: a compact downtown called
Glitter Gulch, centered on the intersection of Highway 95 and Interstate 15;
and the Strip, a corridor of hotels and casinos lining I-15 a few miles
south of downtown.
The casinos are divided between downtown's
Glitter Gulch and the Strip; most hotels are on or near the Strip. McCarran
International Airport is located at the southern end of the Strip, about 5
miles (8km) south of downtown. The Greyhound bus and Amtrak railway stations
are downtown (the railway station is located inside Gaughan's Plaza Hotel
and Casino).
Quick Facts about Las Vegas Nevada:
Population: 1,650,671
Area: 85 sq mi (215 sq km)
Elevation: 2175ft (650m)
State: Nevada
Time Zone: Pacific Time (GMT/UTC minus 8 hours)
Telephone area code: 702
Las Vegas History
The only natural feature to account for
the location of Las Vegas is a spring north of downtown. Once used by Paiute
Indians on their seasonal visits to the area, it was re-discovered by
Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829. The area became known to overland
travelers as Las - Vegas - 'the meadows' - a place with reliable
water and feed for horses. Las Vegas became a regular stop on the southern
emigrant route to California, the Spanish Trail. In the 1850s, Mormons built
the town's first structures, a small mission and fort; the fort became a
ranch house, but there was little development until 1902, when much of the
land was sold to a railroad company. The area that is now downtown was
subdivided when the tracks came through, with 1200 lots sold on 15 May 1905
alone - a date now celebrated as the city's birthday.
As a railroad town, Las Vegas had machine
shops, an ice works and a good number of hotels, saloons and gambling
houses. The railroad laid off hundreds in the mid 1920s, but one
Depression-era development gave the city a new life. The huge Hoover Dam
(then known as Boulder Dam) project commenced in 1931, providing jobs and
growth in the short term and water and power for the city's long-term
growth.
Also in 1931, Nevada legalized gambling
and simplified its divorce laws, paving the way for first big casino on the
Strip, El Rancho, which was built by Los Angeles developers and opened in
1941. The next wave of investors, also from out of town, were mobsters like
Bugsy Siegel, who built the Flamingo in 1946 and set the tone for the new
casinos - big and flashy, with lavish entertainment laid on to attract high
rollers.
The glitter that brought in the high
rollers also attracted smaller spenders, but in larger numbers. Southern
California provided a growing market for Las Vegas entertainment, and
improvements in transport made it accessible to the rest of the country.
Thanks to air conditioning and reliable water supplies, Vegas became one of
the country's most popular tourist destinations. In recent years, Vegas has
bent over backwards to remake itself into a family resort destination,
building theme parks inside its hotels. Hotels have outdone each other with
working volcanoes, million-gallon fish tanks and miniature Manhattans. All
of which - along with dozens of artificial lakes in the suburbs - has put a
huge strain on the city's water supply, but it hasn't slowed the development
juggernaut.
