Las Vegas .
Las Vegas, Nevada City of Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas in early June 2014 Downtown Las Vegas in early June 2014 Flag of Las Vegas, Nevada Flag Official seal of Las Vegas, Nevada Location of the town/city of Las Vegas inside Clark County, Nevada Location of the town/city of Las Vegas inside Clark County, Nevada Las Vegas, Nevada is positioned in the US Las Vegas, Nevada - Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (/l s ve s/, Spanish for "The Meadows"), officially the City of Las Vegas and often known simply as Vegas, is the 28th-most populated town/city in the United States, the most populated town/city in the state of Nevada, and the governmental center of county of Clark County.
The town/city anchors the Las Vegas Valley urbane region and is the biggest city inside the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally famous primary resort town/city known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and eveninglife.
It is a top three destination in the United States for company conventions and a global prestige in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any town/city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually rates as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for various forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a prominent setting for literature, films, tv programs, and music videos.
"Las Vegas" is often used to describe areas beyond official town/city limits especially the areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, which is actually positioned inside the unincorporated communities of Paradise, Winchester, and Enterprise. 4.1.2 Las Vegas Strip Main articles: History of Las Vegas and Timeline of Las Vegas This view of downtown Las Vegas shows a mushroom cloud in the background.
Perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas region were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs.
A young Mexican scout titled Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, California in 1829. The region was titled Las Vegas, which is Spanish for "the meadows," as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C.
Downtown Las Vegas' Fremont Street is titled after him.
Eleven years later members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies.
The remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue.
Las Vegas was established as a town/city in 1905, when 110 acres (45 ha) of territory adjoining to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would turn into the downtown area.
In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city.
1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas.
Following World War II, lavishly decorated hotels, gambling casinos and big-name entertainment became synonymous with Las Vegas.
In the 1950s the Moulin Rouge opened, which was the first racially integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas.
In 1951, nuclear weapons testing began at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105 km) northwest of Las Vegas.
The iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, which was never positioned in the city, was created in 1959 by Betty Willis, who never copyrighted it. In 1989, entrepreneur Steve Wynn changed the face of the Las Vegas gaming trade by opening up The Mirage, the Las Vegas Strip's first mega-casino resort.
The year 1995 marked the opening of the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas' downtown area.
Las Vegas is situated inside Clark County in a watershed on the floor of the Mojave Desert and is surrounded by mountain peaks on all sides.
The peaks encircling Las Vegas reach elevations of over 10,000 feet (3,000 m), and act as barriers to the strong flow of moisture from the encircling area.
Desert scene at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in the Las Vegas region Las Vegas has a subtropical hot desert climate (Koppen climate classification: BWh), typical of the Mojave Desert in which it lies.
There is abundant sunlight throughout the year, with an average of 310 sunny days and bright sunlight occurring amid 86% of all daylight hours. Rainfall is scarce, with an average of 4.2 in (110 mm) dispersed between roughly 26 to 27 total rainy days per year. Las Vegas is among the sunniest, driest, and least humid locations in all of North America, with exceptionally low dew points and humidity that sometimes remains below 10%.
The window of opportunity for the monsoon to affect Las Vegas usually falls between July and August, although this is inconsistent and varies considerably in its impact from year to year.
Las Vegas winters are short and generally very mild, with chilly (but rarely cold) daytime temperatures.
Owing to its altitude that ranges from 2,000 feet to 3,000 feet, Las Vegas experiences noteably cooler winters than other areas of the Mojave Desert and the adjoining Sonoran Desert that are closer to sea level.
The mountain peaks immediately encircling the Las Vegas Valley accumulate snow every winter, but momentous or sustained accumulation of any kind inside the town/city itself is rare.
Affluent neighborhoods are positioned throughout the Las Vegas Valley.
North Las Vegas, Nevada, incorporated Map of ethnic distribution in Las Vegas, 2010 U.S.
According to the 2010 Census, the ethnic composition of Las Vegas was as follows: Hawaiians and Las Vegans sometimes refer to Las Vegas as the "ninth island of Hawaii" because so many Hawaiians have moved to the city. Downtown Las Vegas and Red Rock behind According to a 2004 study, Las Vegas has one of the highest divorce rates. The city's high divorce rate is not wholly due to Las Vegans themselves getting divorced.
Cities, with many licenses issued to citizens from outside the region (see Las Vegas weddings).
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign, welcoming tourists to the town/city A view of the Las Vegas Valley looking south from the Stratosphere Tower at dusk The primary attractions in Las Vegas are the casinos and the hotels, although in recent years other new attractions have begun to emerge.
The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, positioned downtown along the Fremont Street Experience, is the earliest continuously operating hotel and casino in Las Vegas; it opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada.
Other casinos operations include the Four Queens Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas Club (currently undergoing renovation) and Mermaid's Casino, which are also positioned downtown along the Fremont Street Experience.
Downtown casinos that have undergone primary renovations and revitalization in recent years include the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, The D Las Vegas Hotel Casino (formerly Fitzgerald's), Downtown Grand (formerly Lady Luck), El Cortez Hotel & Casino and The Plaza Hotel & Casino. Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip, primarily positioned in Paradise.
Main article: Las Vegas Strip The center of the gambling and entertainment industry, however, is positioned on the Las Vegas Strip, outside the town/city limits in the encircling unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester in Clark County.
When The Mirage opened in 1989, it started a trend of primary resort evolution on the Las Vegas Strip outside of the city.
With the Strip expansion in the 1990s, downtown Las Vegas which has maintained an old Las Vegas feel began to suffer.
In 2004, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman announced plans for Symphony Park, which could include a mixture of offerings, such as residentiary space and office buildings.
On territory athwart from Symphony Park, the World Market Center Las Vegas opened in 2005.
Also positioned nearby is the Las Vegas North Premium Outlets, one of the top-performing supply centers in its company's portfolio.
A new Las Vegas City Hall opened in February 2013 on downtown's Main Street, another urban region ripe for development.
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has taken a personal, as well as a professional, interest in the urban region and has contributed $350 million of his personal richness toward a multifaceted, private revitalization accomplishment called the Downtown Project. Projects funded include Las Vegas' first autonomous bookstore, The Writer's Block. Main article: Las Vegas Valley Culture and the arts The Smith Center for the Performing Arts & Discovery Museum, positioned in Symphony Park in Downtown Las Vegas.
Symphony Park in Downtown Las Vegas.
The town/city is home to a several exhibitions, including the Neon Museum (the locale for many of the historical signs from Las Vegas' mid-20th century heyday), The Mob Museum, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, the DISCOVERY Children's Museum, the Nevada State Museum and the Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park.
The town/city is home to an extensive Downtown Arts District, which hosts various arcades and affairs including the annual Las Vegas Film Festival.
"First Friday" is a monthly celebration that includes arts, music, special presentations and food in a section of the city's downtown region called 18b, The Las Vegas Arts District. The festival extends into the Fremont East Entertainment District as well. The Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts is a Grammy award-winning magnet school positioned in downtown Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is also known as the Gambling Capital of the World, as the town/city presently has the biggest strip of land-based casinos in the world. Main article: Sports in the Las Vegas urbane region They will be the first primary experienced team in Las Vegas. The Oakland Raiders of the National Football League will relocate to Las Vegas at least by the 2020 NFL season after a vote between the team owners approving the franchises' relocation to the city. In response to the initial rumors of the eventual NHL expansion team in Las Vegas, ESPN writer Scott Burnside noted a several obstacles that would be faced by the town/city if it were to turn into a experienced sports market, including the existence of legal sports betting, scheduling conflicts with the large amount of inhabitants who work eveningtime and overnight shifts, and that the casinos would be unlikely to give away tickets to such affairs as a promotion, as they run contrary to a goal of encouraging patrons to remain in their facilities. The National Basketball Association might grant an expansion team to Las Vegas in the future, but they do not know when it will occur. Las Vegas was the site of the 2007 NBA All-Star Game but it was held at the close-by UNLV Thomas and Mack Center in close-by Paradise.
The only minor league sports team that plays in the town/city of Las Vegas is the Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League, the AAA farm club of the New York Mets.
Las Vegas has 68 parks.
The town/city owns the territory for, but does not operate, four golf courses: Angel Park Golf Club, Desert Pines Golf Club, Durango Hills Golf Club and the Las Vegas Municipal Golf Course.
Las Vegas City Hall in downtown Las Vegas The town/city of Las Vegas government operates as a council manager government.
Much of the Las Vegas urbane region is split into neighboring incorporated metros/cities or unincorporated communities.
Approximately 700,000 citizens live in unincorporated areas governed by Clark County, and another 465,000 live in incorporated metros/cities such as North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City.
Las Vegas and Clark County share a police department, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which was formed after a 1973 consolidation of the Las Vegas Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Department.
North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and some universities have their own police departments.
Las Vegas, home to the Lloyd D.
Main article: Las Vegas Valley Education Educational opportunities exist around the city; among them are the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nevada State College run by the Nevada System of Higher Education, Desert Research Institute, The International Academy of Design & Technology Las Vegas and Touro University Nevada.
Main article: Transportation in Las Vegas RTC Transit is a enhance transit fitness providing bus service throughout Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and other areas of the valley.
Inter-city bus service to and from Las Vegas is provided by Greyhound, Bolt - Bus, Orange Belt Stages, Tufesa, and a several smaller carriers. Amtrak trains have not served Las Vegas since the service via the Desert Wind was discontinued in 1997.
Although no Amtrak trains have served Las Vegas since the Desert Wind was cancelled in 1997, Amtrak California operates Thruway Motorcoach dedicated service between the town/city and its passenger rail stations in Bakersfield, California, as well as Los Angeles Union Station via Barstow. A bus rapid-transit link in Las Vegas called the Strip & Downtown Express (previously ACE Gold Line) with limited stops and incessant service was launched in March 2010, and joins downtown Las Vegas, the Strip and the Las Vegas Convention Center.
With some exceptions, including Las Vegas Boulevard, Boulder Highway (SR 582) and Rancho Drive (SR 599), the majority of surface streets in Las Vegas are laid out in a grid along Public Land Survey System section lines.
Las Vegas Boulevard divides the east west streets from the Las Vegas Strip to near the Stratosphere, then Main Street becomes the dividing line from the Stratosphere to the North Las Vegas border, after which the Goldfield Street alignment divides east and west.
On the east side of Las Vegas, block numbers between Charleston Boulevard and Washington Avenue are different along Nellis Boulevard, which is the easterly border of the town/city limits.
Route 95 cross in downtown Las Vegas.
I-15 joins Las Vegas to Los Angeles, and heads northeast to and beyond Salt Lake City.
US 93 splits from I-15 northeast of Las Vegas and goes north through the easterly part of the state, serving Ely and Wells.
Mc - Carran International Airport handles global and domestic flights into the Las Vegas Valley.
Most general aviation traffic uses the lesser North Las Vegas Airport and Henderson Executive Airport.
Until 1997, the Amtrak Desert Wind train service ran through Las Vegas using the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.
Main article: List of citizens from Las Vegas List of Las Vegas casinos that never opened a b "Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (DP-1): Las Vegas city, Nevada".
"Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Las Vegas city, Nevada; count revision of 01-07-2013".
"Las Vegas, how did Las Vegas get its name, groundwater depletion, Victor Miguel Ponce".
"HOW DID LAS VEGAS GET ITS NAME?".
HOW DID LAS VEGAS GET ITS NAME?.
City of Las Vegas.
Downtown Las Vegas Visitors Guide, 2014 "Geography of Las Vegas, Nevada".
"Flood control a success Las Vegas Review-Journal".
"Probability of an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater occurring inside 50 km in 50 years (from USGS probabilistic seismic hazard analysis) 10 20% chance for Las Vegas area, magnitude 6" (p.65) "Station Name: NV LAS VEGAS MCCARRAN AP".
"Maximum of maximum temperature Las Vegas, NV".
"Minimum of minimum temperature Las Vegas, NV".
"Las Vegas (city), Nevada".
"Las Vegas, Nevada 2010 Enumeration Profile".
"Las Vegas: Bright Lights, Big City, Small Town".
"Fremont Street Experience Brings Downtown Las Vegas Into Next Century".
2013 Fiscal Year In Review, town/city of Las Vegas Economic and Urban Development Projects, "A New Downtown Emerges." "18b Las Vegas Art District 18b".
"First Friday Main Menu First Friday Las Vegas Network".
"City of Las Vegas Find Parks and Facilities".
Source: town/city of Las Vegas Planning Department, MAY 2014.
Most arterial roads are shown, as pointed out on the Nevada Department of Transportation's Roadway functional classification: Las Vegas urbanized region map.
"Reno, Las Vegas, and the Strip: A Tale of Three Cities." Resort City in the Sunbelt: Las Vegas, 1930 2000 (2000).
Everyday Las Vegas: Local Life in a Tourist Town (2013) Las Vegas in the Rearview Mirror: The City in Theory, Photography, and Film, Los Angeles: Getty Publications, ISBN 978-1-60606-137-4 City of Las Vegas official website Geologic tour guide of the Las Vegas region from American Geological Institute National Weather Service Forecast Las Vegas, NV City of Las Vegas Las Vegas Valley
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