NEAT-O
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS

Given the theme of this week’s issue, I thought it appropriate to include a very brief history of the Mecca of licentiousness, everyone’s favorite city: Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, the city did not always look and behave as it does today, and had its humble beginnings in the early 19th century as a desert oasis.
               For many years, Spanish and Mexican traders traveled between Santa Fe and Los Angeles along a well-used route known as the Spanish Trail. The “trail” was actually comprised of numerous routes, which looped northward into present day Colorado and Utah, then dived back down through Nevada and into Los Angeles. The more direct, westerly route was known as the jornada de muerte, or “journey of death” by the Spaniards, for it traveled through many miles of inhospitable desert.
               Sometime in 1829, a party of 60 men led by Mexican trader Antonio Armijo left Santa Fe and drove west in an effort to blaze a new, more direct path to Los Angeles. After a time, Armijo and his band set up camp and sent out a scouting party to search for water. One of these scouts was Rafael Rivera, who became separated from the scouting party and got lost. As luck would have it, he came upon a meadow fed by a desert spring—the site of present day Las Vegas. Two weeks later, Rivera found his group and led them to the spring.
               The discovery of water by Rivera shortened the journey to California by several days and provided an impetus for settlers to move west, since the journey was now less severe. The area became known as Las Vegas, which is Spanish for “the meadows.” It was not until 1844, however, that anyone other than Spanish missionaries, traders, and indigenous peoples knew of the Las Vegas valley.
               In 1842, famed American icon John C. Fremont was instructed by the U.S. War Department to lead an expedition west to explore the Rocky Mountains. This he did, and afterward explored much of the area between the Rockies and the Pacific. Sometime in the spring of 1844, Fremont camped near Las Vegas springs and wrote of the area.*
               Mormon settlers established a fort in the area in 1855, both to protect the overland Salt Lake City/Los Angeles mail route, and to teach local Indians farming techniques. The Indians rejected the teachings and raided the fort until it was abandoned in 1857.
               Las Vegas did not experience rapid growth until it became a railroad town in 1905. The location of the area and its abundance of water made it an ideal stopping and refueling place for trains on their way from Salt Lake City to southern California.** On May 15, 1905, the city was founded when 110 acres of land were auctioned off in a single day.
               The city as we know it today owes much of its influence to events that happened in 1931. In this year, gambling was legalized in the state of Nevada, and laws making it easier to obtain a “quickie” divorce were passed. A mere six weeks of residency were required to qualify for a quickie divorce; those who stayed for this short period lived in “dude ranches,” the predecessor of the modern day casino-hotels.