Places
Las Vegas News Bureau
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
After World War II the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, in an effort to boost tourism, launched a Live Wire Fund promotional campaign. Steve Hannagan and Associates, the last of three public relations agencies to handle the publicity effort, established the Desert Sea News Bureau in 1947, which... more
Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Places: Virginia City, Reno, Storey County, Washoe County, Northern Nevada
Walter Van Tilburg Clark is considered one of the most distinguished Nevada writers of the twentieth century. An author, poet, lecturer, and teacher, Clark's interpretations of the American West are his greatest legacy.Clark was born August 3, 1909 in East Orland, Maine, to Walter Ernest, an... more
Las Vegas Mormon Temple
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
More sacred than a meeting house, a Mormon temple provides its members with a refuge from the secular world and allows the faithful to partake in important ceremonies. Not every city has a temple, but church leaders try to make them as accessible as possible. To serve its growing Mormon population... more
Las Vegas Mob
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Few American cities are more mythic than Las Vegas, and no issue has been more central to the creation of those myths than organized crime. Thanks to entertaining if historically dubious films—The Godfather trilogy, Bugsy, and Casino stand out—the public developed an image of what the... more
Ward Charcoal Ovens
Places: White Pine County, Northern Nevada
The Ward Charcoal Ovens are the main attraction of a state park in White Pine County fifteen miles south of Ely. The ovens take their name from Thomas Ward who founded a local mining district in 1872. The local gold and silver ore required the high burning temperature of charcoal for milling,... more
Las Vegas Illusionists
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
In October 2003, a white tiger attacked magician Roy Horn onstage at Las Vegas's Mirage Hotel-Casino, nearly killing him and subsequently ending the storied careers of Horn and long-time partner Siegfried Fischbacher. After nearly 6,000 shows at the resort, the duet billed as Siegfried &... more
Washoe Basket Weavers
Places: Northern Nevada
The people of the Washoe tribe of Nevada and California have long practiced the art of weaving. Both men and women created the tools and products necessary to make a living in a land that required seasonal movements. Heavy pottery or bulky wooden items were not suited to this environment nor to the... more
Las Vegas Family Fare
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Casinos and "kids"—namely anyone younger than the legal gambling age of twenty-one—have long been at odds in Las Vegas. Even so, some resorts offer large arcades, thrill rides, elaborate swimming pools, and other youth-oriented distractions, hoping to attract parents toting... more
Las Vegas Entertainment Headliners 1980-2000
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
The Strip malaise of the 1980s—characterized by older crowds and aging artists—prompted hotel entertainment executives to ponder an uncertain future. True, there was the one-time specialty act in the Tropicana, Folies Bergere, the Stardust's Lido de Paris production shows, and... more
Washoe County Courthouse
Places: Reno, Washoe County, Northern Nevada
Established in 1861, Washoe County's original seat of government was in Washoe City, the location of its first courthouse. In 1871, the county government transferred to Reno where the commissioners built a simple brick Italianate courthouse. Shortly after the move, a contractor demolished the... more
Las Vegas Entertainment Headliners 1960s-1980s
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Las Vegas has earned its status as "Entertainment Capital of the World," thanks to big-name entertainers who have accented the city's luxurious hotels, myriad gaming options, and all-you-can-eat buffets. But it did not earn that status overnight.Legendary names such as the Rat Pack... more
Washoe Winter Village Archaeology
Places: Northern Nevada
Washoe Indian people regard Western Nevada along the central Sierra Nevada as an important part of their original homeland. Today many Washoe tribal members still live in Western Nevada's valleys adjacent to the Sierra in cities and towns, and on reserved lands—at places such as Coleville... more
Las Vegas Buffets
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Cheap food funded by casino revenues helped put Las Vegas on the culinary map as a locale where the cost of food was never a serious consideration. Shrimp cocktail for $.99 and "all-you-can eat" breakfast buffets for $2.49 are still standards in Las Vegas, but as times (and prices) have... more
Las Vegas Army Air Base
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Las Vegas has long used the warmth of its desert sun to entice residents and businesses. In January 1941, that climate and location attracted the United States Army Air Corps.The Army Air Corps had been looking at the area since the 1930s, when it had used the Western Air Express Field—later... more
Landmark Hotel
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
The off-Strip Landmark Hotel began as an unfinished attraction for a shopping center and became the last of six casinos owned by billionaire Howard Hughes. It would struggle to stay in business for decades until it was closed in 1990 and destroyed in 1995.In 1960, Frank Carroll, a successful... more
Lander County Courthouse
Places: Lander County, Northern Nevada
Created in 1862, Lander County built courthouses in three different towns due to subsequent shifts in county seat location. The first, located in Jacobsville, was a simple wooden structure built by A. J. McDonald at the price of $8,440.The single-story courthouse measured 20-by-40-feet. Clad in one... more
Lambert Molinelli
Places: Eureka County, Northern Nevada
Lambert Molinelli is the author of the only early published book on Eureka, Nevada. He was born in Italy in 1853. In the early 1870s, his family immigrated to Eureka, where he met his wife, Mary, a woman from Iowa.Molinelli had diverse business interests including owning a safe company and working... more
Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival
Places: Washoe County, Northern Nevada
The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival brings the Bard's words and ideas to life against the backdrop of Lake Tahoe's shores. Drawing more than 30,000 people to Sand Harbor each July and August, the festival presents classic Shakespeare works as well as contemporary works and musical... more
Lake Mansion, Reno
Places: Reno, Washoe County, Northern Nevada
Reno's Lake Mansion was completed in 1877 for one of the area's prominent families. It was later owned by Reno founder Myron Lake and other important families in Reno's history. Washington Jerome "Rome" Marsh, a wealthy rancher and land developer, and his wife Maria (or "... more
Lahontan Dam
Places: Churchill County, Northern Nevada
Lahontan Dam and Reservoir stores the natural flow of the Carson River and additional waters diverted from the Truckee River via Derby Dam and the Truckee Canal. It is the distribution point of irrigation waters that make the desert bloom. Located in Churchill County, this key feature of the... more
Lahontan City
Places: Churchill County, Northern Nevada
Lahontan City thrived from 1911 to 1915 during the construction of Lahontan Dam. Built to house and accommodate the federally employed workers and their families, the town sprang from the desert floor almost overnight. The dam was important to Nevada because it was designed to reserve water in the... more
L.L. Loud and the Beginning of Nevada Archaeology
Places: Lovelock, Pershing County, Northern Nevada
Llewellyn Lemont Loud, known professionally as L. L. Loud, was born in Maine in 1879. After graduating from high school in 1901, Loud traveled around Alaska and Washington before settling in San Francisco in 1905. He spent the next five years as a non-degree student at the University of California... more
Kirk Robertson
Places: Churchill County, Fallon, Northern Nevada
Kirk Robertson is a poet, essayist, publisher, editor, and artist. Robertson was born in 1946 in Los Angeles and moved around the West before settling in Fallon in 1975, where he has resided ever since. Before leaving California, he studied with the well-known California poet Gerald Locklin at... more
Kirk Kerkorian and the Modern Megaresort Boom
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
In 1993, Kirk Kerkorian opened his second MGM Grand, about a mile south of Bally's-Las Vegas on the Strip at Tropicana Avenue. The hotel had a world-record 5,000-plus rooms, a 15,000-seat arena and a 330-acre theme park. Kerkorian's second MGM Grand was the first Las Vegas hotel to cost $1... more
Kirk Kerkorian and the First MGM Grand Hotel
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
The great casino boom on the Strip that had begun in late 1946 with the Flamingo Hotel had come virtually to a halt after Caesars Palace debuted in 1966. Hotel projects that emerged in the 1970s were noticeably more middle class and less glamorous and stylish architecturally than Caesars and other... more