The
Beginning
In the beginning there was Ice.
This ice which covered
most of north America some twelve and a half thousand years ago
began melting as the
last ice age ended, and southern Nevada gradually became a desert.
Native Americans (Southern
Paiutes) are known to have lived in the
area for many years before
the first Europeans arrived in 1829.
------
Early sketch and photograph
of Southern Paiutes.
The Paiute tribe are still
around today, operating two Smoke shops.
One is downtown on Main
street, the other over at Snow mountain.
Main Street Smoke Shop.
They also own and run the Snow Mountain golf course, in north west Las Vegas.
Snow Mountain Golf Course.
The
Discovery
The man acknowledged with discovering Las Vegas was a young Spanish scout named Rafael Rivera.
He was part of an expedition that was looking to find a new trail between New Mexico and California.
He got separated from the rest of the party and continued alone for the next two weeks.
He camped on top of a piece of elevated land from where he saw springs and meadows.
"An oasis in the desert"
The Spanish named this
area "Las Vegas" meaning "The Meadows" in Spanish.
Rafael Rivera statue.
Located at the city of
Las Vegas Rafael Rivera community center.
Although Rafael Rivera
discovered Las Vegas, and the trail had been in use for
around 15 years, it was
captain John Fremont who put it on the map, literally.
In 1844 he led a U.S.
military expedition through the valley
and mapped the route
he called the Spanish Trail.
This trail stretched 1,200
miles connecting New Mexico to California, with Vegas somewhere in between.
Red
spot = Las Vegas
John Charles Fremont.
And yes, Fremont street
was named after him.
In 1855 a group of Mormons
led by William Bringhurst arrived from
Utah and made the first
permanent non native settlement in Las Vegas.
They built a 150 square
foot fort from sun dried adobe bricks along the Las Vegas creek as well
as
a post office, which
served as a way station for travelers making their way along the Spanish
Trail.
They successfully farmed
the area by diverting water from the creek.
Part of the fort still stands today as the oldest structure in Nevada.
In 1972 the Mormon fort was placed on the national register of historic places.
You can visit the old
Vegas Mormon state historic park, which is located in downtown
Las Vegas at the intersection
of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue.
But because of fallings
out between leaders, the summer heat and difficulty
growing crops, the missionaries
returned to Utah in 1857, abandoning the fort.
In 1865 the new owner
of the fort was Octavius D. Gass, a miner from El Dorado canyon.
He built a ranch house,
a small store and a blacksmith shop.
Gass mortgaged the property
a number of times over the next few years.
The last time in 1879
to Archibald Stewart for $5,000, only this time he could not repay it,
so he
defaulted on the mortgage
and the property passed over to Archibald Stewart and his wife. Helen.
Archibald, Helen and their
three kids lived 150 miles north of the property in Piocha, but decided
to move and make the
ranch and the 960 acres of land their new home, which they did in 1881.
A fourth child soon followed,
well there was no TV in these days...lol.
A short time later in
1884 Helen fell pregnant yet again.
It was while carrying
this fifth child that tragedy struck.
Her husband was killed
in a gunfight by a former ranch hand.
She named her new son
Archibald after her husband, and despite being only 30 years of age
and with five children,
she stayed and made a success of the ranch, with the help of her father.
Helen J. Stewart "First
lady of Las Vegas"
16th April, 1854 - 6th
March, 1926.
Stewart Street which is
located two blocks north of Fremont Street was named after her.
More tragedy struck Helen
in 1899 when her son Archibald fell off a horse and died.
She had got married in
the meantime to one of her foreman, but was now ready to sell up.
With rumours of a railroad
coming to the area she astutely
bought more land, taking
her total up to over 1,800 acres.
In 1902 she finally sold
the land and the water rights for $55,000 to Senator
William Clark, who owned
the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake railroad.
Clark county was named
after William Andrews Clark.
Clark was determined to
build a railway line that would connect Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.
This he did, in partnership
with the Union Pacific Railroad.
The Los Angeles to Salt
Lake City line was completed on the 30th of January, 1905.
All he needed now was
a place somewhere in-between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City where
the trains could stop
for repairs/maintenance, refreshments for passengers/crew, and most
importantly, somewhere
with a never ending supply of water for the steam engines.
Thanks to the underground
springs and the snow melt from the
Charleston mountain range,
Clarks advisors chose Las Vegas.
Railway line from Los
Angelas to Salt Lake City, via Las Vegas.
Clark promised to build
a train depot and railroad repair shops to provide jobs.
What he needed now was
to create a town site around the
railway stop to accommodate
the railway workers.
He intended doing this
by selling lots of land east of the railway tracks.
These lots will be sold
at auction on the 15th of May, 1905.
BUT, there is already a town site in Las Vegas, established a year earlier in 1904.
Its the McWilliams town
site and its located in the west side of Las Vegas.
So called because its
location is the west side of the railway tracks.
The below map shows the
location of the McWilliams town site, which is already here.
It also shows the location
where the Clark town site will be in a few months.
As you can see the railway
track runs north to south between both sites.
The pink
line is Fremont Street, the green line is Main Street.
The train depot will
be built on the ground that the Plaza now sits on.
Canadian born John T.
McWilliams was a surveyor who had previously worked for
the railway company and
knew of their plans to build a town site in Las Vegas.
His plan was to beat
them to it.
Early in 1904 he had bought
80 acres of land and called it
"The Original Townsite
of Las Vegas".
He divided the land into
lots and started selling them for between $100 and $250.
McWilliams
advert in the Las Vegas Age newspaper.
The lots sold like wildfire
and within months the Las Vegas townsite had 1,500 residents and numerous
businesses, including
four restaurants, two bakeries, general store, meat market, theater, bank,
blacksmith, drug store,
ten saloons and gambling houses, and amazingly three newspapers.
The Las Vegas Advance, The Las Vegas Times and The Las Vegas Age.
The Advance closed after
a few weeks, The Times decided
to move elsewhere, which
left just The Las Vegas Age.
The Las Vegas Age - 1905.
McWilliams Las Vegas
townsite residents and buildings - 1904.
The building second from
the left is the very first bank in Las Vegas.
But, and its a big BUT.
McWilliams had two major
problems, first he was up against Clark and the railroad, who obviously
had a lot more money
than he had, but worse yet, Clark owned the water rights to all of the
land.
Without water McWilliams
was doomed to failure.
No such problems for
Clark though.
As the Clark land auction
sales neared McWilliams tried to put people off
by telling them that
they could double their money by buying his land.
He also placed adverts
in various newspapers in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
McWilliams advert in
the Los Angeles Herald newspaper - May 1905.
BUT, there is that word again.
Clark, his brother and
their chief executive officer had formed the
Las Vegas land and water
company to operate the new town.
The new company promised
to build a train depot and railroad repair shops to provide jobs,
upgrade and maintain
all roads, and provide precious water to each and every lot purchased.
To encourage people to
come from further afield, the railroad offered them a deal.
If they traveled to Las
Vegas for the land auction and bought a lot they would get
their ticket money returned.
Return tickets from LA were $16, from SLC $20.
Clark onboard the first
train to arrive in Las Vegas in 1905.
On the 15th of May, 1905,
1,200 lots of land around the railroad tracks were put up for sale.
Approximately 3,000 people
turned up for the auction.
The bidding began at 10.00am
and continued after a lunch break until 3.00pm.
By then the temperature
was 110*, so they decided to stop and resume the next day.
Auctioneers have removed
their jackets because its boiling hot.
Prospective buyers gather
around the auction stand.
By the end of the day
176 lots had been sold, ranging from $100 up to $750 for corner lots.
A few corner lots located
on Fremont Street went for a massive $1,750.
The amount raised by the
days auction was $79,566.
Already over $20,000
more than Clark had paid for it.
The next morning the auction
began again at 8.00am, by the time it finished later in
the day around half of
the 1,200 lots had been sold, bringing in a total of $265,000.
Almost five times more
than Clark had bought the land for three years previously.
So the 15th
of May, 1905
is commonly recognized/accepted as the birth date of
One of the men who had
come to Las Vegas to buy some lots was Charles P. Squires.
He arrived from California
in February, and stayed in the Ladds tented hotel.
The tent was owned by
captain James Ladd, and was located
opposite the railway
track on Main and Carson Streets.
Squires and his partners
had $25,000 and intended starting up various
businesses, including
a bank, real estate firm and a hotel.
The hotel was quickly erected in time for the people arriving for the auctions in May.
Its classed as the first
hotel in Las Vegas, although in reality its just a great big tent.
But unlike Ladds tent,
his is 140 feet long and has a wooden structure, so its a hotel.
He named it the Hotel
Las Vegas, and its located on Main and Stewart Streets.
Roughly opposite to where
the Main Street Station hotel/casino sits today.
It has 30 rooms, a kitchen
& dining room and a beer & cigar bar.
Inside the Hotel Las
Vegas - Early 1905.
A bit more about Mr Squires
in a while.
But before we continue,
what about the McWilliams townsite on the other side of the tracks.
Well, sadly for McWilliams
a lot of his residents were soon deserting him in droves, moving
southeast to the new
bigger better Las Vegas, taking their businesses and premises with them.
The final nail in the
towns coffin came on the 5th of September, 1905, when
a fire engulfed the wooden/tented
town, destroying the vast majority of it.
"As if not satisfied
with the commercial and social death of Ragtown, the
fire fiend has stepped
in and added devastation to the desertion.
In a little more than
30 minutes Tuesday night, every building and
shack on Railroad
Street, save one, was burnt to the ground.
The fire started in
J.S.Wisners building, and is likely the work of a firebug."
The west side town site
was now history, although in years to come it would become
home to 15,000 African
Americans, who would live there in segregation.
But that's a whole new
story, so back to 1905 for us.
The Las Vegas land and
water company kept their promises and right away built a
beautiful Spanish style
train depot on Main Street, right across from Fremont Street.
Train
Depot.
Amazing to think that
if you took this same photograph today, that wagon would be standing
right beneath the Fremont
Street canopy, with the Golden Gate on one side of it (our left) and
the Las Vegas Club (our
right) on the other, and of course, The Plaza right behind it.
The first hospital in
Las Vegas was this tent below, which was erected in 1904 for the railroad
workers.
Las Vegas Hospital.
Within days of the land sales being completed buildings and businesses were springing up all over the place.
Some of these were just
tents, others were small one floor wooden shacks.
It was only a matter of
months before Las Vegas got its first brick building.
Located on North Main
Street, it was home to the Las Vegas
drug store and the Crowell
& Abbotts general store.
First brick building
in Las Vegas.
At the time of the auctions
the Las Vegas land and water company stated that
alcohol could not be
sold in any of the 40 blocks, except in blocks 16 & 17.
But a loophole in the
law did allow an establishment with a hotel room to
sell alcohol too, after
a few court cases to decide what passes for an hotel.
At least that explains
why there are so many hotels in Las Vegas today (:-))
Block 16 soon becomes
notorious, because apart from being
able to drink and gamble
here, prostitution is also legal.
This modern day map shows
the location of blocks 16 & 17 in 1905.
Block 16 Saloons in 1905.
The Arizona Club Saloon
and Gambling Hall soon gains a reputation as the best in town.
Although located in block
16, the Arizona Club, along with the Gem,
Red Onion Club, Turf
and Favorite did not offer prostitution.
The Arcade, Double O and
Star did, they had rooms in the rear known as cribs "brothels"
In 1912 the Arizona Club
was sold, the new owner added a second floor which became a brothel.
New swanky Arizona Club.
The Arizona Club became known as the "Queen of Block 16"
Drinking and Gambling takes place on the ground floor.
While upstairs, use your
imagination (:-0
A couple of "Escorts"
Block 16 is where the saying "Sin City" came from.
Drinking, Gambling and Prostitution.
Nice to see nothing has
changed since these days (:-))
Inside the Arizona Club.
Postcard years later.
Back to Mr Squires now.
As I said earlier, one
of the reasons he came to Las Vegas was to set up a bank.
Well, that bank opened
on the 8th of May, 1905 in the same building as the
Kuhn Mercantile Company,
which was located on Main Street, opposite the track
Share and share alike.
After a short time the
First State Bank moved out of their temporary home and
into their new two story
premises on the corner of First Street and Fremont Street.
New location.
This was the first two
story building built in Las Vegas.
Binions now stands on
this corner.
But its still a bit flimsy
for a bank, so right away construction starts
on a more sturdy building,
and it won't take long to complete.
Before we leave 1905. A few other notable firsts for Clark's Las Vegas this year.
10th of June - The first fire broke out at 10.30 at Chop House Bills.
It set fire to neighboring
buildings, including the real estate office,
the coffee house, the
barber shop and the confectionery store.
A total loss of $3,600, but at least no one died or was seriously injured.
2nd of October - The first school opened, although it had to close six months later due to lack of funds.
7th of October - The first
baby born, a boy, the son of J A. Lytle.
On the 13th of January,
1906 the 54 room Hotel Nevada opens, with the address of One Fremont Street.
I made the map below of
the main Clark townsite area to give an idea of
where all the hotels/casinos
that will open in the future were located.
The photograph at the
top of the map is the train depot which was
built in 1905, and is
now where the Plaza hotel/casino sits.
The railway track was
located just behind the train depot.
To see how the same area
looks today (2010) compared to now (1906)
Click on "Fremont Street"
on the map above.
Do the same to return
back to 1906.
1906.
Newspaper Advert - 1906.
Hotel Nevada - 1906.
This is one Fremont Street, looking from where the Plaza is located today.
The above photograph taken
in 1906 shows owner John F. Miller seated in
the buggy, with his future
wife Rosa standing in the second story opening.
The rooms were 10ft x
10ft, had electric lighting, ventilation and steam radiators.
Very luxurious for the
times.
It was sold a few years
later and the new owners made it even better.
Hotel Nevada - 1920's.
Hotel Nevada - 1925.
Hotel Nevada - 1930.
In 1931 it was expanded with a third floor and renamed Sal Sagev.
SAL SAGEV.
A weird name you might
think, but spell it backwards and all becomes clear.
Sal Sagev.
Gambling was re-legalized
in this year, and it seems that there was some blackjack and roulette
taking place here for
a while, despite the fact that the place never had a known gaming license.
Sal Sagev Postcard.
But things are a bit sketchy
and it appears that the owner of the time
Abe Miller, stopped this
sometime in 1934, and removed the tables.
Sal Sagev Chip.
Its known that there was
a poker table here in the 1940's and early
1950's, but it was not
until 1955 that things became "official".
That's because this is
the year when a group of Italian Americans came to
Las Vegas and opened
a casino on the ground floor of the Sal Sagev hotel.
Those men were Italo Ghelfi, Robert Picardo, Al Durante, Dan Fiorito and Leo Massaro.
The fact that they came
from San Francisco explains the name. Golden Gate.
Sal Segav Hotel and Golden
Gate Casino.
In 1959, Italo Ghelfi,
one of the original partners introduces the
famous 25¢ Shrimp
Cocktail to the Golden Gate, and Las Vegas.
Golden Gate Shrimp Cocktail.
In 1964 the hotel is expanded
and given a more modern look.
A metal facade
covers the historic exterior of the building.
Golden Gate casino and
Sal Sagev hotel - 1960's.
In 1974, the owners of
the Golden Gate casino buy the Sal Sagev
hotel and it becomes.
The Golden Gate Hotel and Casino.
In 1990 Italo's sons,
Mark and Craig, become the new owners
of the Golden Gate when
they buy out their former partners.
First thing they do is
remove the metal facade and restore the historic appearance of the building.
The below photograph is
the only one I have taken of the Golden Gate.
Or at least the only
one I can find.
Golden Gate - 2007 (Citys
oldest hotel)
It's also the smallest
hotel on Fremont Street, with just 106 rooms.
The two photographs below
were taken 101 years apart, but you can
still imagine Rosa Miller
standing in the bottom pic window today, if
she was still alive,
and the window was not bricked up (:-))
Golden Gate - 1906 &
2007 (Citys oldest hotel)
In 1991 the Golden Gate sells its 25 millionth Shrimp Cocktail.
That was achieved over
32 years and the four Majors of Las Vegas
who were in charge over
that period all attend the celebration.
Even today its still only
$1.99.
Golden Gate Casino.
Later this year the Hotel
Overland opens, opposite the Hotel Nevada.
With all these Fremont
Street maps you can click on the words
"Fremont Street" and
it will show what's there today.
As you can see from the
photograph below, the Hotel Overland
was directly across from
the Hotel Nevada on Fremont Street.
Hotel Overland (Las Vegas
Club)-------------------------------------Hotel
Nevada (Golden Gate)
The photograph was taken
from in front of the train depot, if you took this photo today
from in front of the
Plaza you would see the Las Vegas Club and the Golden Gate.
A little bit more about
the Hotel Overland in just a few years.
The First State Bank of Las Vegas opens its new premises.
Its still in the same place on the corner of First Street and Fremont Street.
It just replaced the previous
wooden building, which was sold and relocated.
This photograph taken
a few years later shows the bank on the right.
Inside the Bank.
1911 Advert.
The bank would remain
at this location for the next 50 years.
Although it would change
its name in a few years to the Bank of Nevada.
Also in 1906 Las Vegas
got its first street lights.
The very first telephone
is installed inside the office of
Mr Charles Pember
Squires, at the Hotel Nevada.
The second telephone is installed at his home, four blocks east on Fremont Street.
Phone number is 1.
Las Vegas turned 75 in
1980 when this plaque was dedicated to the
first telephone installed
in the Nevada Hotel, now the Golden Gate.
You will notice that name
has popped up again. Charles Squires.
That's because he played
a big part in the growth, development and survival of Las Vegas.
He is often referred to
as "The Father of Las Vegas" or "Mr Las Vegas"
Before Wayne Newton nicked
that name - lol.
Anyway, apart from building
the first hotel here, setting up the First State Bank and
opening other businesses,
he also helped set up and run the consolidated power and
telephone company, which
brought electricity and telephones to Las Vegas.
There were a lot of fires
in the town site in the early days, not surprising
as most of it was made
of canvas and wood, and of course lamps
used for lights were
filled with inflammable substances.
He was also owner and
publisher of the Las Vegas Age newspaper
for more than 30 years,
which he bought in 1905 for $2,300.
The newspapers office
was located at 411 East Fremont Street.
The Squires family lived
at 407 Fremont Street.
But his biggest success was the part he played in getting the Hoover Dam built.
I won't go into detail,
but suffice to say that if there was no
Hoover Dam, there probably
wouldn't be a Las Vegas today.
He lived in Las Vegas
for more than 50 years, he died aged 93.
Clark County is created on the 1st of July.
Las Vegas becomes the county seat.
Before the formation of
Clark County, Southern Nevada was part of Lincoln County.
1910 was Not a good year
for Las Vegas.
Nevada reluctantly bans gambling when a strict country wide anti gambling law becomes effective.
Its the last state to enforce this law, and as of 12.00am on the 1st of October 1910, gambling is illegal.
Even the old custom of
flipping a coin for the price of a drink is forbidden.
Newspaper Headline.
Won't be needing these
anymore
On top of the gambling
ban a flood destroys more than 100 miles of track on the
Nevada route to Salt
Lake, it was over five months before the line was operating again.
These two events came
close to wiping out Las Vegas.
The
population of Las Vegas in 1910 is 945.
Peter Buol is elected
the first Mayor of Las Vegas.
(June 1911 - May 1913)
Peter Buol.
Although he only spent
around 20 years in Las Vegas, by the time he left he had
helped promote and speed
up the progress of the city, as well as convincing
most people that Las
Vegas had the brightest future of any town in the west.
He died in 1939, but if
he could see the place now, he would be amazed and proud.
The City of Las Vegas is incorporated.
This means that the city
has a "Home Rule" charter from the state and has control
over its own taxes, and
can create laws and ordinances for itself and by itself.
Just before Las
Vegans voted on whether to incorporate their city, a fire burned
down the Overland Hotel
and this event helped convince voters that
incorporation would improve
city services, such as fire protection.
Overland Hotel - 24th
of May, 1911.
Las Vegas residents looking
at the remains of the Overland Hotel after the fire.
New Overland Hotel.
It was soon rebuilt after the fire and remained here until 1949.
What happened to it in
1949 will be revealed in a short time.
The Majestic Theater opens
on the 16th of April, promising
to present the best in
motion pictures and vaudeville acts.
Newspaper Advert.
Majestic Theater on the
left.
Below is another view
very similar to the above one.
It shows Fremont Street
looking west towards Main Street.
Obviously the Red indicates
what stands on that spot today.
Give or take a few feet
(:-))
Las Vegas went through
a relatively quiet and uneventful time over the next few
years, with very little
of note happening, so lets fast forward to the roaring twenties.
In the past ten years
the Las Vegas population increased from 945 to 2,304.