Lake Mead, a man-made lake 25 miles southeast of Las Vegas and created by the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935, is the largest reservoir in the United States. Located within the 1.5 million-acre Lake Mead National Recreation Area, this enormous lake stretches along a 140-mile section of the lower Colorado River Basin near the southern tip of Nevada and extends east into the edge of the Grand Canyon in western Arizona.

The Thunderbird, one of the first Las Vegas Strip casinos, was also one of the first to become involved in the federal-state controversy over mob involvement in Nevada gaming. In 1950, Thunderbird co-owner Clifford Jones, Nevada's lieutenant governor, was among a number of Las Vegas casino operators subpoenaed to testify before the United States Senate's Kefauver Committee. The committee was investigating organized crime in hearings held in a number of cities throughout the country.

In 1903, a pair of organized labor groups, the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, merged and created the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehouseman, and Helpers of America, also known as the IBT. Las Vegas barely existed as a dot on the map. They never could have imagined how their actions would affect the development of that city.

The Stardust Hotel became the dream of Tony Cornero, who in a sudden burst of inspiration while drinking with friends at the Louigi's bar on the Las Vegas Strip in the mid-1950s, determined to build the world's largest resort. Cornero would not live to see the completion of his dream, but his Stardust Hotel would survive for more than half a century as one of the aging icons of the Strip.