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Las Vegas Real Estate |
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Las Vegas Real Estate |
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Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Spanish for “the meadows,” was first settled in 1855 by Mormons from Utah. They were attracted mainly by the area’s natural artesian springs amid the arid desert. The Mormons abandoned the area in 1857, and a few years later it was adopted by the Army and turned into Fort Baker.
Gambling was legalized in Las Vegas in
1931, the same year that construction started on Hoover Dam. It was all downhill from
there – or uphill, depending on your perspective. While gambling has brought all of
the negative aspects some people complain 
about, it has indeed been a great boon to the economy of Las Vegas.
Nevada’s greatest industry is tourism, and the state has Las Vegas to thank for a
great deal of the associated revenue. The state’s more traditional industries, mining
and agriculture, are still important, but far outweighed by the glow of the cities, the
foremost being Las Vegas.
In 1990 Las Vegas had a population of just shy of 260,000 people in the city, with just over 740,000 in the metropolitan area. The city’s growth was spurred by the legalization of gambling, as well as by being a stop along the railroad. Other factors include the construction of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead in the 1930s and the development of the area into a military site. Fort Baker was built there in 1864. Today, Nellis Air Force Base and Small Arms Range is not far from North Las Vegas. Nellis Air Force Range and Nuclear Testing Site, created during World War II, as well as Indian Springs Gunnery Range, lie 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
After World War II Las Vegas’ big
resort hotels and casinos started popping 
up like Spring daisies. The country was happy to be out of war, and the
economy was booming. The attraction to Las Vegas was simple – it was something like
you’d never seen before. Slot machines, blackjack, and keno called people from far
away, and meanwhile the casinos and resorts raced against each other to see who could put
on the most glamorous, glitzy, gaudy production. The end result is a city whose beauty is
postmodern, confusing, even strangely spiritual for some. Las Vegas has a sunset that
lasts all night with the multicolored glow of neon and a sky that never quite turns to
black, but flows into the next morning’s brilliant dawn. Las Vegas seems to have a
hook in peoples’ 
brain stems, something primal that causes
them to experience it, to see the lights, the cars, the shows, the spectacle.
Las Vegas has about 250 sunny days per year. Daytime highs in the summer months (May to September) can get very hot, and during the peak months of June through August, daytime highs can reach well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. From November through February, temperatures range from the mid-20s to 75 degrees, and begin to increase in March. Las Vegas is in the desert and very dry, receiving only four inches of rain per year.
