It went right through Las Vegas, intersecting at Fremont Street, but all that was there were a couple of small nightclubs. And soon, Las Vegas in the 1940s truly took the stage.ĭuring the 1930s, Highway 91 was a two-lane, north-south route that ran from Barstow, California to Great Falls, Montana. And when the dam started producing cheap electricity in 1936, Las Vegas was a benefactor. Casinos and showgirl venues began popping up on Fremont Street, which was the only paved road in town. But they also wanted something to do in their leisure time, and Las Vegas - just a few miles away - was ready to answer the call. Men were in desperate need of work during the second year of the Great Depression. Part of FDR’s New Deal, the massive Hoover Dam project (called “Boulder Dam” at the time) drew thousands of workers from around the country. The first was the re-legalization of gambling. Two important developments in 1931 paved the way for Las Vegas to become what it is today. Nevada outlawed gambling in 1910, but that didn’t stop illegal speakeasies and casinos from taking money from willing customers. Its first newspaper and hotel were established. Over the next decade or two, the settlement gradually grew. The first hotel in Las Vegas, Hotel Nevada (now Golden Gate Las Vegas ), was founded the next year in 1906. That same year, the town of Las Vegas was officially founded. Then a line was laid in 1905 to connect it to the west coast and the nation’s main rail networks.

But in an era when small towns lived or died depending on their proximity to a railroad, Las Vegas Rancho was about to get a kick start.

In truth, little had changed since businessman and prospector Octavius Gass had moved there 35 years earlier and named it Las Vegas Rancho (to differentiate it from Las Vegas, New Mexico). Out west, Las Vegas had a thriving population of 22. Chicago was home to over 1.5 million, and Philadelphians numbered nearly 1.3 million. Those were the days when 3.5 million New Yorkers traversed the sidewalks of The Big Apple. Factories belched out smoke, clanging streetcars and horse-drawn buggies shared street space in a precarious dance that led to countless near-misses (and the occasional collision), and ubiquitous pushcarts hawked everything from pickles to prayer books. When the sun rose on the first day of the 20th century, America’s great cities east of the Mississippi were already chugging along with all of the din and clatter that befits a great, bustling metropolis.

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