The fabulous Las Vegas Strip and its founding
On May 15, 1905 — 120 years ago today — a U.S. senator from Montana began selling lots along a growing railroad line. He promised his buyers a town would grow around the settlement and the value of their properties would increase.
The lots sold quickly. And the value went up, too. The area grew into one of the nation’s most lucrative resort areas: Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Origin of 'Sin City'
Las Vegas — the city of gamblers, vacationers and showgirls — was first settled by Mormon missionaries in 1855. They built an adobe fort to serve as a mail stop between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, but the settlement was abandoned three years later.
In 1902, the area caught the eye of U.S. Sen. William Clark of Montana. Clark paid $55,000 for 2,000 acres of land and the surrounding water rights from a woman who owned a ranch on the former Mormon settlement. His plan was to develop a town around a rail line that was being built.
Construction on the rail line began in 1904. The next year, Clark announced he would auction off lots east of the rail line, priced between $150 and $750. Shortly afterward, a competing developer bought land on the west side of the line and attempted to draw buyers his way.
Clark formed a utility company and promised buyers he would provide road, sewer and water to the lots he sold. “Get into line early,” he advertised. “Buy now, double your money in 60 days.”
Clark’s auction was held out of a train car parked at the end of what is now Fremont Street. More than 3,000 prospective buyers showed up for the sale. The prices for lots shot up quickly. With tempers flaring, Clark canceled a second day of auctions and sold the remaining lots for market price.
By the time he was done, Clark had made more than $265,000 selling 600 lots, earning his investment back five times over.
The railroad line was completed and Las Vegas became a railroad company town — until 1927, when Union Pacific closed down its maintenance facility there. The future looked bleak for Vegas.
In 1931, however, work began on a massive hydroelectric project just east of town. That same year, gambling was legalized in Nevada. Thousands of workers hired to build the dam flocked to Las Vegas to spend their paychecks in casinos and show venues.
Small hotels in the area began to give way to larger ones. In 1941, a “resort hotel” — the El Rancho Vegas — opened along U.S. 91, just outside the city limits. It was the birth of what would become the Vegas Strip.
Organized crime began investing in Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s, building gigantic resort complexes with row after row of slot machines and gaming tables and bringing in performers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Elvis Presley to headline their shows.
By the 1970s, organized crime had handed off to corporate America as the prime mover on the Vegas Strip. Hotel complexes became even larger, with thousands of rooms, linked to shopping complexes and offering options for family entertainment and recreation.
Las Vegas started in 1905 with the development of Fremont Street. Later, casinos and resorts would be built south of the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated cities of Paradise and Winchester. Photo Credit: City of Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is a 4.2-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard where some of Vegas’ largest and best-known hotels and casinos are located. Although it’s known as the Las Vegas Strip, it’s located south of the city limits of Las Vegas.
