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Vernacular Display | English Display |
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Las Vegas (inhabited place) |
Coordinates: |
| Lat: 36 10 00 N degrees minutes |
Lat: 36.1667 decimal degrees |
| Long: 115 08 00 W degrees minutes |
Long: -115.1333 decimal degrees |
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Elevation: |
| 2001.312 feet |
610.0000 meters |
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Note: Famous as one of world's greatest gambling cities. This site near an artesian spring in the vast desert was used by Native American populations. Later it was a resting spot for travelers along the Spanish trail to Texas. In 1855 Brigham Young sent missionaries here to convert the Paiute Indian population. They built a fort near the current downtown area. Nineteenth-century Las Vegas was a stopover for travelers along the Mormon Corridor between Salt Lake and San Bernardino, California, then a Mormon center. Las Vegas was abandoned by the Mormons in 1857, but expanded again with the railways ca. 1905 and then with the construction of the nearby Hoover Dam in 1931. Gambling was legalized in 1931; large scale population increase and the construction of big hotels and casinos began after WW II. It grew from a tiny, desert-bound railroad service center at the outset of the 20th century to become the country's fastest-growing metropolis at century's end. The name "Las Vegas" is often applied to the town and the unincorporated areas of Clark County that surround the city, especially the resort areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, which is for the most part outside the city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester. This metropolitan area, with more than twice the number of people outside the city limits as within them, contains around three-fourths of the state's population. |
Names: |
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| Las Vegas (preferred,C,V,English-P,U,N)
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............ | named "Las Vegas" ("the meadows") by Spaniards for the area around a nearby artesian springs and surrounding vegetation |
| Las Vegas (Spanish-P,U,N)
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| Vegas (C,V)
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| Sin City (H,V,P)
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| Las Vegas Mission (H,V)
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| Las Vegas Ranch (H,V)
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| Los Vegas (H,V)
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| McWilliamstown (H,V)
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| Old Town (H,V)
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| Ragtown (H,V)
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| Westside (H,V)
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Hierarchical Position: |
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Clark (county) (P) |
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Las Vegas (inhabited place) (P) |
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Place Types: |
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| inhabited place (preferred, C) |
............ |
settled in 1855 by Mormons |
| city (C) |
............ |
incorporated in 1911 |
| county seat (C) |
............ |
since 1909 |
| tourist center (C) |
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| resort center (C) |
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Sources and Contributors: |
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