LAS VEGAS

city, seat (1909) of Clark county, southeastern Nevada, U.S. It is the principal city of Nevada. Mormons from Utah were the first settlers (1855), attracted by the artesian springs in the arid valley along the Old Spanish Trail, hence the name Las Vegas (the meadows). The Mormons abandoned the site in 1857, and the U.S. Army built Fort Baker there in 1864. With the coming of the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad in 1905, Las Vegas became a railroad town. Its growth was stimulated by legalized gambling (1931) and by construction in the 1930s of the Hoover Dam (29 miles east) and Lake Mead, which, with the nearby Mount Charleston Recreation Area and the Death Valley National Park, have become popular tourist attractions. Las Vegas is famous as a unique year-round desert resort. The city's commercial core is The Strip, an array of luxury hotels, casinos, and nightclubs featuring gambling and exotic entertainment. The buildings along The Strip, which stretches along part of Las Vegas Boulevard South, are notable for their bright neon signage, colourful electronic billboards, and extravagant facades and interiors. Las Vegas first began to grow rapidly after 1940. The city's connections to the national crime syndicate began in 1946, when gangster Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel with financing by his associate Meyer Lansky and others. Gambling had been legalized in Nevada in 1931, and from the late 1940s Las Vegas began to earn a reputation as a popular tourist destination and to attract notoriety as a sin city. The city's growth surged in the mid-1950s as more casinos were built and again in the mid-1960s when the industrialist Howard Hughes bought many local businesses and properties. Another economic boom began in the mid-1980s with a new spate of extravagant hotel-casino complexes, this time emphasizing family entertainment. As a result, Las Vegas was one of the fastest-growing American metropolitan areas in the second half of the 20th century. The city is also the hub of a commercial and mining area. Nellis Air Force Base and Small Arms Range are adjacent to North Las Vegas. Nellis Air Force Range and Nuclear Testing Site (established during World War II) and Indian Springs Gunnery Range lie 60 miles (100 km) northwest. The city has a branch of the University of Nevada (1957). Inc. 1911. Pop. (1992 est.) city, 295,516; Las Vegas MSA, 936,084. city, seat (1862) of San Miguel county, north-central New Mexico, U.S. It lies along the Gallinas River, at an elevation of 6,435 feet (1,961 m) in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The original settlement (1835) developed as the Mexican port of entry on the Santa Fe Trail. It was claimed by General Stephen Kearny for the United States on Aug. 15, 1846, and Fort Union (now a national monument), 20 miles (32 km) northeast, was built in 1852. When the Santa Fe Railway arrived in 1879 another settlement sprang up around its depot, one mile away. The new and old communities of Las Vegas (meaning the meadows) were incorporated as a city and town respectively in 1881. They were unified under one city charter in 1970. Las Vegas is a shipping point for wool, livestock, lumber, and dairy products and is a tourist base for a scenic resort area including the Santa Fe National Forest. It is the home of New Mexico Highlands University (founded as a teacher's college in 1893). Las Vegas was reunion headquarters for the Teddy' Roosevelt Rough Riders to the last man, an event that concluded in 1969 and is commemorated by the Rough Riders' Memorial and City Museum. Pop. (1992 est.) 15,064.