Summerlin began as desert nobody in Las Vegas wanted badly enough to develop for more than three decades. The land-exchange tool that finally cleared the way for it is the same one Southern Nevada officials are still using today to decide what little undeveloped land near Las Vegas gets built on next. Howard Hughes bought… Continue reading Howard Hughes Bought 30,000 Acres on the Las Vegas Valley’s Western Rim for About $3 an Acre in 1952. The Community Named for His Grandmother Didn’t Break Ground Until 1990.

The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 forced the United States to build a second dam on the Colorado River just to keep its promise to deliver water south of the border. More than eight decades later, federal officials are still working out exactly how that promise gets kept, under Colorado River operating rules the Interior… Continue reading The 1944 Mexican Water Treaty Required the United States to Build Davis Dam on the Colorado River. Washington Finalized the Next Decade of River Rules This Past August.

In 1984, more than 17,000 Culinary Union members walked off the job at 32 Las Vegas Strip resorts and stayed out 67 days, and six casinos still refused to sign a union contract when it ended. More than four decades later, the Culinary Union says every casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip is unionized… Continue reading More Than 17,000 Culinary Workers Struck 32 Las Vegas Strip Resorts in 1984. The Four Queens Didn’t Go Union Again Until 2003.

Patrolman William Fortye died on a Las Vegas street in 1966, shot with his own revolver by a driver he’d stopped for a traffic violation, while his police dog fought to save him. Six decades later, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s K-9 unit still pairs one officer with one dog for a career, and… Continue reading Patrolman William Fortye Was Killed With His Own Revolver During a 1966 Traffic Stop. LVMPD’s K-9 Unit Still Trains at a Center Named for Him.

The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe’s first golf course opened northwest of Las Vegas in 1995 with a clubhouse that was still just a tent in the desert. Three decades later, the tribe’s own government lists the resort that grew from it as one of three businesses funding health care, education and community programs for its… Continue reading The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe Opened Its First Golf Course on Tribal Land in 1995. Today the Resort Helps Fund the Tribe’s Health and Education Programs.

Basic Magnesium Inc. built two company housing projects for the thousands of workers at its wartime magnesium plant in 1943 — one for white employees, one for Black employees. Eight decades later, Clark County’s own historical marker program is the clearest public account of what the Black project, Carver Park, looked like. No public record… Continue reading Basic Magnesium Inc. Built Carver Park for Its Black Workers in 1943. Clark County’s Own Historical Marker Is Now the Clearest Record of What It Looked Like.

Benny Binion didn’t invent the World Series of Poker. He bought it from a Reno casino owner, moved it downtown and set a $10,000 buy-in that still defines the tournament’s Main Event today, 55 years after his family lost the casino that hosted it. Lester Benjamin “Benny” Binion was born near Dallas-Fort Worth on Nov.… Continue reading Benny Binion Bought the Rights to a Reno Poker Tournament in 1970 and Moved It to His Horseshoe Club. Caesars Entertainment Now Runs the $10,000 Buy-In He Set as a Digital Operations Line.

The federal government authorized Nevada’s first pipeline from Lake Mead in 1965, when forecasters expected it to cover Las Vegas’s water needs through 1990. Population growth blew past that forecast within a decade, and today Nevada’s entire Colorado River supply still moves through the system built in response, even as Washington orders the state to… Continue reading President Johnson Signed Nevada’s First Colorado River Pipeline Into Law on Oct. 22, 1965. The State Is Still Cutting Back on the Same Water It Was Built to Deliver.

A ranch at the base of the Spring Mountains survived a diamond heist, Howard Hughes’s brief ownership and a developer’s plan to fill it with 2,000 residents before Nevada folded it into its state park system in 1973. Two miles away, on another piece of the same mountain range bordering Red Rock Canyon, a different… Continue reading Developers Nearly Turned Spring Mountain Ranch Into a 2,000-Person Subdivision in 1972. Nevada Made It a State Park the Next Year Instead.