930 - 1946 - Hoover Dam
and the Beginning of the Resort Casinos
On
July 3,
1930, President
Herbert Hoover signed the appropriation bill for
the
Boulder Dam. Work started on the dam in
1931 and Las Vegas' population swelled from
around 5,000 citizens to 25,000, with most of the
newcomers looking for a job building the dam. Las
Vegas tried hard to put on a respectable air when
the
Secretary of the Interior
Lyman Wilbur visited in
1929 to inspect the site. However one of his
subordinates came to him with alcohol on his breath
(this was during the time of
Prohibition) after a visit to
Block 16. It was decided that a
federal-controlled town,
Boulder City, would be erected for the dam
workers. This still did not stop the flow of federal
and dam worker money into Las Vegas and the city was
recharged when the dam was completed in
1935. In
1937,
Southern Nevada Power became the first utility
to supply power from the dam, and Las Vegas was its
first customer. After much discussion the name of
the dam was changed from Boulder to
Hoover Dam.
With gambling legalized in
1931, Las Vegas started its rise to world fame
as the gambling capital of the world. Gaming
(although already legal in Las Vegas) became
organized and regulated. The city issued the first
gaming license in
1931, to the
Northern Club. As other casinos were licensed on
Fremont Street like the
Las Vegas Club and the
Apache Hotel. Fremont Street developed its
nickname as
Glitter Gulch from all of the lights that were
powered by electricity from Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam
and its resevoir,
Lake Mead, turned into tourist attractions on
their own and the need for additional higher class
hotels became clear. Freemont street received the
city's first traffic light in
1931.
In
1940,
US 95 was finally extended south into Las Vegas,
giving the city 2 major roads that provided access
from the rest of the country. Also in 1940 Las
Vegas's first permanent radio station
KENO began broadcasting replacing the niche
occupied earlier by transient broadcasters.'
History of Las Vegas
On
January 25,
1941 the U.S. Army finally moved into Las Vegas
when Las Vegas Mayor,
John L. Russell, signed over land to the U.S.
Army
Quartermaster Corps for the development of a
flexible
gunnery school for the
Army Air Corps. The
gunnery school would become
Nellis Air Force Base. The U.S Army was not
pleased with prostitution being legal in Las Vegas
and in
1942 used it's clout to force Las Vegas to
outlaw the practice, handing
Block 16, which since the inception of Las
Vegas, was the equivalent of the city's "Red Light
District", it's death sentence.
On
April 3,
1941, hotel owner,
Thomas Hull opened the
El Rancho Vegas. It was the first resort on what
would become the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel gained
much of its fame from the all you can eat buffet
that it offered.
Three years later, on
October 30,
1942,
R. E. Griffith rebuilt on the site of a
nightclub called [[Pair O’Dice], that first opened
in 1930, and renamed it
Hotel Last Frontier. A few more resorts were
built on and around Fremont Street but the next
hotel on The Strip showed pubilcly the influence of
Organized Crime on Las Vegas. Bugsy Siegel, with
help from Meyer Lansky built
The Flamingo in
1946.
Continue to History of Las Vegas pg#3
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