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    History

    Desert Companion
    History
    Courtesy UNLV Special Collections and Archives
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    From Town to City

    Feb 09, 2021

    Eighty years ago, three developments gave birth to modern Las Vegas.

    DC Blog
    Bulletin Board
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    Ballad of the Neon Cowgirl

    Dec 10, 2020

    How Vegas Vickie got her groove back (and the dents out) for an iconic return Downtown

    Desert Companion
    History
    MGM Grand Fire
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    History: It Took a Fire to Change Us

    Aug 01, 2020

    Could the Strip become a model of safety in a post-pandemic world? The response to the 1980 MGM fire might offer some lessons.

    DC Blog
    The City Observed
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    It Took a Fire to Change Us

    Jun 02, 2020

    Could the Strip become a model of safety in a post-pandemic world? The response to the 1980 MGM fire might offer some lessons

    Desert Companion
    History
    Coogler Photo: New Mexico State University Library Archives & Special Collections
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    History: Death of a Party Girl

    Aug 01, 2019

    The violent murder of a teenager in Las Cruces, New Mexico, spawned a national corruption scandal that would ripple to Las Vegas — and change the future of gambling

    Desert Companion
    History
    Virginia Hill
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    History: The Woman Who Asked for Too Much

    May 01, 2019

    Virginia Hill’s savvy and sophistication made her more than a pretty mob moll

    Desert Companion
    History
    Jessie Fremont
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    ‘A Presidentess Among Us’

    Mar 01, 2019

    An adventurer, author, and savvy political strategist, Jessie Frémont is an unsung Western icon.

    Desert Companion
    History
    Gus Greenbaum
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    Murdering the Mayor of Paradise

    Nov 01, 2018

    Sixty years ago, the grisly killings of the Riviera Hotel’s president and his wife stunned Las Vegas — and would haunt the casino industry for a generation.

    Desert Companion
    History
    NEED FOR SPEED - The gentlemen started their engines for the Caesars Palace Grand Prix on October 17, 1981.
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    Off Track

    Mar 26, 2018

    Nearly 40 years ago, Formula One racing roared into Las Vegas. The result was a spectacle — just not the one racers were hoping for.

    Desert Companion
    History
    The Outfit's misfit: Tony Spilotro, left, with his attorney Oscar Goodman in April 1980
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    Tony Spilotro’s last act

    May 23, 2016

    Thirty years ago, the murder of the charismatic Vegas mobster marked the final act in the mob’s 40-year run in Las Vegas — but not the end of its lore 

    DC Blog
    DC Road Trip 2016
    Photo by Christopher Smith
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    Icky, Icky, Icky: Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park hypnotizes visitors

    Apr 01, 2016

    The thing that makes this park thrilling is that the dig was preserved in situ.

    Desert Companion
    History
    Bomb
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    The Zero-Armed Bandit

    Jul 24, 2015

    In one of the most unusual ransom schemes in Nevada history, a mad bomber held an entire casino captive with one devilishly mysterious machine

    DC Blog
    Bulletin Board
    Bellagio
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    Fire in the sky: images of an ever-changing Strip

    Jun 10, 2015

    Talk about a photographic memory. In his 26 years taking photos for the Las Vegas News Bureau, Darrin Bush has witnessed the evolution of the modern Strip. If there was an implosion, he shot it. New casinos growing from the rubble? He chronicled it. Grand opening fireworks? He was there. 

    Desert Companion
    History
    The truth will out
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    The truth will out

    Mar 26, 2015

    Over the years, angry politicians, entertainers and bankers have tried to silence Nevada journalists — thankfully, with little success.

    Desert Companion
    History
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    Out there

    Nov 01, 2014

    Twenty-five years ago this month, the author opened the door on Area 51. The story could hardly have been stranger had he found the aliens

    Desert Companion
    History
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    Ace of clubs

    Aug 01, 2014

    Crime lords, illegal whiskey, federal stings and mysterious fires — par for the course in this tale of two historic Vegas nightclubs 

    Someone should put up a historic plaque next to the volcano at the Mirage hotel-casino. Not to commemorate the volcano but, rather, to mark a different kind of historic eruption: That spot is the site of the Red Rooster, the first nightclub on what would eventually become the Las Vegas Strip.

    Desert Companion
    History
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    The road much traveled

    Jun 01, 2014

    The highway we know today as I-15 got its start as a rough, raw, dusty — and sometimes dangerous — road. (Keep an eye out for horse thieves)

    Interstate 15 is an umbilical cord to Southern California, bringing countless party-minded tourists and profit-driven business trips from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

    Desert Companion
    History
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    Explosion in the night

    Apr 01, 2014

    A fiery 1942 plane crash on Mount Potosi rattled the Las Vegas Valley — and sent shockwaves through Hollywood and beyond  Editor’s note: On the evening of January 16, 1942, TWA Flight 3 slammed into Mount Potosi just west of Las Vegas, bursting into a ball of flame. On the plane was film star Carole Lombard, returning to Los Angeles from Indiana, where she was performing to promote war bonds.

    Desert Companion
    History
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    Hump days

    Dec 01, 2013

    The West’s great camel experiment sought to bring Mother Nature’s irritable, spitting, cactus-eating off-road vehicle to the mines and mountains of Nevada.

    The great desert of the West beckoned explorers, exploiters and settlers throughout the 19th century.

    Desert Companion
    History

    Learning can be small: museums you didn't know about

    Aug 01, 2013

    August is a restless time in Southern Nevada: It’s ridiculously hot and the novelty of summer vacation wore off back in, what, late June? Luckily, there are plentiful regional museums nearby to entertain the historian, the burgeoning artist, the high-score-obsessed arcade geek and, for that matter, just about anyone who wants to find a way to add a few brain-fortifying excursions to their late-summer agenda. The Lost City Museum in Overton, Nevada (721 S.

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    Desert Companion
    History
    Unhitching post
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    Unhitchin' post

    Feb 01, 2013

    Nevada’s lax marriage and divorce laws have made for memorable hookups, breakups and romantic shake-ups In 1931, in the throes of the Great Depression, the Nevada Legislature staked our state’s future on sin — divorce, gambling, easy marriage — as a way to draw tourists and their dollars. It was a bold move.

    Desert Companion
    History

    When to curve, when to flow

    Dec 01, 2012

    In Las Vegas, pioneering black architect Paul Revere Williams challenged established thinking and challenged himself

    African-American architect Paul Revere Williams achieved international success in a profession that had very few black practitioners. Known for his restraint and elegance, he made a name for himself designing Colonial and Tudor-revival Hollywood mansions for well-known celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Desi Arnaz.

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    Desert Companion
    History

    History in the (re)making

    Aug 01, 2012

    How to rebuild a classic casino on a shoestring budget? The Riviera attempts to blend upscale touches, grind-joint virtues and international savvy

    Talk a few minutes with Riviera hotel-casino CEO Andy Choy and you’ll hear the word “authentic” — frequently. It’s the 36-year-old casino boss’s mantra.

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    Desert Companion
    History
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    The invisible heiress and the half-blood princess

    May 01, 2012

    A year after the reclusive eccentric’s death, the fight for the estate of Huguette Clark continues to generate headlines — and it’s all thanks to Las Vegas

    A massive fortune made in Clark County is slowly being scattered to the four winds, in accordance with what is surely among the most hotly disputed wills of the 21st century. Reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, daughter of the man who literally sold Las Vegas, died on May 24, 2011, a fortnight shy of her 105th birthday.

    Desert Companion
    History
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    Dressed down, dressed up

    Jan 01, 2012

    When the Flamingo opened, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was so determined to be classy that he required the staff to wear tuxedoes. One day, or so the story went in “The Green Felt Jungle,” he found a man clad in a tuxedo relaxing on a chaise lounge.

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