timeline

A Timeline of Clark County History - People and Events


350 BC approximate	First Anasazi/Basketmaker/Puebloan people arrive in today’s Clark County.

11/18/26	Explorer and fur trapper Jedediah Smith enters today’s Clark County near Mesquite. He links two routes forged by Spanish padres in 1776 and becomes the first American to enter southern Nevada.

1/1830	Antonio Armijo, leading a trading party from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, skirts the southern end of Las Vegas Valley, crossing near today’s Sunset Park. One of his scouts, Rafael Rivera, travels alone 90 miles down the Colorado before rejoining the party. Neither discovers the Las Vegas Springs.

5/3/1844	Lt. John C. Fremont and Kit Carson camp at the big springs, noting the area’s name as Las Vegas, or the meadows. Fremont’s report and map for the U.S. Army is later widely distributed.

1848	Area now encompassed by Clark County becomes part of United States, New Mexico Territory

6/14/1855	William Bringhurst and a group of men arrive to found the Mormon mission, now known as the Old Fort, at Las Vegas. They leave less than two years later and return to Utah.

10/31/1864	Nevada becomes a state during the Civil War. Area now encompassed by Clark County is not part of original state of Nevada but is part of Arizona Territory

1/17/1865 - 9/27/1867	Post office of El Dorado Canyon in operation during first mining boom.

1865	Octavius Decatur Gass, Nat Lewis and Louis Cole relocate from El Dorado Canyon to the abandoned Las Vegas Ranch. Gass buys out his partners in 1868.

12/22/1865	Area encompassed by Clark County becomes counties of Pah-Ute and Mojave, Arizona Territory

5/4/1866	U.S. Congress passes a bill allowing Nevada to extend southern border into Arizona Territory, covering territory to point where Colorado River meets California Border

7/23/1866	Post office of St. Thomas opens in what was then Utah Territory, becoming Arizona in 1868 and Nevada in 1871. It is closed on 6/11/1938, when the rising waters of Lake Mead cover the town.

10/25/1866 - 6/9/1869	A U. S. Army’s camp Camp El Dorado is in existence at inland mouth of El Dorado canyon

1/1867 – 3/1868	Camp Callville created, then abandoned. Included 18 men and officers, 3 residents in town at time, 47 men rotated through camp, six deserted and one committed suicide.

10/1/1867	Not recognizing the Nevada State Legislature’s right to the land, Arizona Territory moves capital of Pah-Ute County to St. Thomas from Callville.

1/17/1867	Nevada State legislature votes to extend southern border, taking in today’s Clark County.

1869	John Wesley Powell lands at the abandoned town of Callville to end daring trip through Grand Canyon down the rapids of the Colorado.

2/18/1871	Arizona Territorial Legislature finally dissolves Pah-Ute county, part of today’s Clark County.

10/27/1879	Bunkerville post office opens. Still in operation, it was named for Edward Bunker.

7/19/1880	Post office of Mesquite is opened, closing on 8/5/1887. The post office reopens with the corrected Mesquite name on 7/27/1897.

1882	Archibald Stewart acquires the Las Vegas ranch in payment for a loan from O. D. Gass. He dies the next year in a shooting at the Kyle Ranch. His widow Helen stays on and raises her children.

5/24/1883	Overton post office reopens. The community had a post office from 4/25/1870 to 12/16/1872, when it was thought to be in Arizona Territory, but was actually in Nevada. For a brief time it was called Crosby, and had a post office under that name from Feb. 1 to May 23, 1883.

1886	First permanent settlement at Goodsprings, Nevada. A mining boom in the early 1900s led to a period of prosperity, including a large hotel. Hotel owner George Fayle was a County Commissioner.

7/22/1889	Moapa post office opens

1/10/1896	Post office of Sandy opens in the mining town of Sandy Valley. It closes on 9/23/1910.

5/6/1897	G. F. Colton locates his first claim, the Searchlight claim, at what is today Searchlight, Nevada. The Searchlight post office opens 10/31/1898.

1904	Helen Stewart sells her Las Vegas Ranch property to Montana Senator William Andrews Clark for the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad.

1904	J. T. McWilliams lays out his Original Las Vegas Townsite on the other side of the tracks.

5/15/1905	The town of Las Vegas begins with the auction of lots in Clark’s Las Vegas Townsite.

6/17/05	Nelson post office opens near Eldorado Canyon, operating until 1929, and from 1938 to 1944 during the mining booms. It was named for Charles Nelson, a miner killed by the Indian Ahvote in 1895.

6/28/1905	Goodsprings Junction is renamed Jean, Nevada, when the post office there is opened. It is named for the wife of postmaster George Fayle.

8/19/08	County Division Committee formed in Las Vegas to promote the idea of dividing Lincoln County in half. Civic leaders donate to a war chest to pay for lobbying efforts.

2/5/1909	Governor Denver S. Dickerson signs the Clark County enabling bill and appoints a three-member commission.

7/1/1909	Clark County comes into existence by splitting Lincoln County. Las Vegas is named the County seat, defeating Searchlight.

7/3/1909	First meeting of the Clark County Board of Commissioners takes place. Commissioners were W. E. Hawkins, chairman, S. H. Wells of Logandale and W. H. Bradley of Nelson.

1910	Clark County population is 3,321, according to the U.S. Census.

3/17/1911	The City of Las Vegas is incorporated.

10/1914	Local Mexican residents, led by A. G. Gonzales, P. Solic and C. Trevino, put on first Mexican Independence Day Parade at Las Vegas.

10/10/1914	First permanent Clark County Courthouse completed, surrounded by a public park.

11/1914	Nevada women get the right to vote, five years before national suffrage is passed.

6/1916	First car arrives in Las Vegas from Los Angeles over what becomes the Arrowhead Highway, the pre-curser to Highway 15.

4/28/1917	First post office at Indian Springs opens, closing on 1/15/1919. The community gets revived by the Air Corps during World War II when the Indian Springs airfield comes into use, and by 4/16/1953 has its own post office again. The Air Force Base is known today as Creech Air Force Base.

5/7/1919	Post office of Ehret is opened. The name is changed to Sloan on 9/11/1922. The Sloan post office closed on 5/31/1964.

1920	Population of Clark County is 4,859.

5/5/1920	First airplane flight to Clark County. Randall Henderson, with Jake Beckley as passenger, lands south of Las Vegas on a level strip just off the Los Angeles highway.

11/25/1920	First airport in Clark County, Anderson Field, opens.

7/1/1922	The national “Great Strike” against the Union Pacific starts. After it is settled, the railroad moves its maintenance facilities to Caliente to punish Las Vegas for participating.

11/22/1922	Seven states sign the Colorado River Compact, setting the amount of water from the Colorado each state could use. Nevada is the first state to ratify the compact on 1/27/1923.

4/17/1926	First airmail and commercial air line flight to Clark County.

12/21/1928	Boulder Dam Act is signed by President Calvin Coolidge.

1930	Population of Clark County is 8,532.

1930	State Highway department begins paving Boulder Highway.

1931	Clark County Indigent Hospital is founded, the predecessor of today’s University Medical Center.

3/31/1931	Nevada State Legislature legalizes gaming. The first license in Clark County goes to Mamie Stocker. The first purpose-built casino, the Meadows, is built by Frank, Louis, and Tony Cornero

4/15/1931	Boulder City post office opens.

1931	The Pair-O-Dice Club opens three miles south of Las Vegas on the Los Angeles Highway, today’s Strip. Guy McAfee buys it and calls it The 91 Club. In 1941 it is incorporated into the Last Frontier.

8/1/1931	Railroad Pass Casino opens.

1933	The U.S. Federal Building/Post office opens on Stewart Street. It is now the future Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement.

3/28/1932	The Whitney post office, named for Stowell Whitney, opens. A community grows around Whitney’s ranch because of the dam construction. The name changes to East Las Vegas on 3/1/1959.

10/1/1932	North Las Vegas, previously Vegas Verde, post office opens.

3/2/1933	Western Air Express Field, formerly owned by Peter A.“Pop” Simon, is dedicated.

9/30/1935	Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates Lake Mead and Boulder Dam, dropping the Hoover name. The name is changed back to Hoover Dam in 1947.

1936	The City of Las Vegas opens a summer camp for children in Lee Canyon, on land donated by J.T. McWilliams, and built by the WPA. Now owned by Clark County, it is listed on the National Register.

1940	Population of Clark County is 16,414.

3/15/1941	Western Air Express field is purchased by the City of Las Vegas and dedicated as McCarran Airport. It is turned over to the Army Air Corps for use as a Flexible Gunnery School with the runways shared by commercial flights.

4/3/1941	Thomas Hull opens the El Rancho Vegas, first hotel/casino on the Strip.

9/3/1941	McNeil Construction is awarded the contract to build the Basic Magnesium, Inc., plant. This was the beginning of today’s Henderson.

12/7/1941	Sky Haven Airport is opened. It is today’s North Las Vegas Air Terminal.

1/16/1942	Carole Lombard is killed in a plane crash on Mt. Potosi during a bond rally tour. Her husband, Clark Gable, waits for news of her fate at the Goodsprings Saloon.

7/1/1942	Blue Diamondville post office opens, changing to Blue Diamond on December 1, 1942.

7/3/1942	Pittman post office, a Boulder Highway community, opens. Henderson absorbs it when Henderson becomes a city in 1953, but Pittman is retained as a post office name until 5/25/1974, when it becomes a station of Henderson.

10/30/1942	Last Frontier Hotel and Casino opens on the Strip. Its name is changed to the New Frontier on 4/4/1955, and to the Frontier in 1967. In 1966, its sign is the tallest in the world, 184 feet.

1/10/1944	Henderson post office opens.

5/16/1946	North Las Vegas is incorporated.

12/25/1946	The Flamingo, conceived by Billy Wilkerson and taken over by Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel opens. It closes shortly after to reopen successfully in March. Siegel is murdered shortly after.

12/18/1948	Alamo Airport, five miles south of Las Vegas, is dedicated as McCarran Field, the new airport for Clark County. It is today McCarran International Airport.

1950	Population of Clark County 48,289.

5/20/1950	The Las Vegas Air Force Base is renamed Nellis Air Force Base for William Nellis, a P-47 pilot killed during the battle of the Bulge on 12/27/1944, who grew up in Searchlight and Las Vegas.

1/27/1951	First atomic bomb tests take place at the Nevada Test site.

1951	Paradise Township is created, which prevents the City of Las Vegas from annexing the Strip.

12/2/1952	The Sahara Hotel opens, replacing the Club Bingo. Later that month the Sands opens, today the site of the Venetian.

4/16/1953	City of Henderson incorporates.

7/22/1953	KLAS, first local television station, begins operation.

7/1/1954	The Las Vegas Valley Water District begins operations.

4/20/1955	The Riviera opens with Liberace headlining. It is the first high-rise hotel on the strip, at 9-stories and 291 rooms.

4/23/1956	Elvis Presley plays his first Las Vegas show at the New Frontier Hotel. He bombs.

1957	Maude Frazier Hall opens as the first building on the new Nevada Southern University campus.

4/4/1957	Tropicana opens. Today it is one of the few original hotels remaining on the Strip.

7/2/1958	Stardust opens. Tony Cornero, who planned his dream casino, didn’t live to see it built as he died playing craps at the Desert Inn on July 31, 1955. It opened with 1,032 rooms, a world record then.

1959	The “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign is erected, designed by Betty Willis.

1960	Clark County population is 127,016.

1/4/1960	Boulder City incorporates. Robert N. Broadbent serves as first Mayor.

c.1964	Nancy and Slim Kidwell create Kidwell Field, now Calnevari.

1966	Don Laughlin opens Riverside Casino in what will become Laughlin.

11/27/1966	Howard Hughes arrives in Las Vegas on a special train. He soon buys his first property, the Desert Inn, where he has been staying on the top floor, after being threatened with eviction.

3/29/1967	Clark County buys J. K. Houssels ranch to be Sunset Park.

10/16/1968	Laughlin post office opens as a rural branch of Searchlight.

1970	Clark County population is 273,288.

1972	Clark County School District, after a federal court decision on a lawsuit filed by the NAACP, adopts a plan to achieve school integration.

7/7/1973	Holiday Casino opens. It becomes Harrah’s in 1992.

1978	The Boyd Group’s Sam’s Town opens, starting a trend of casinos catering to locals.

1980	Clark County population is 463,087.

11/1982	Nevada voters amend Article 14 of the State Constitution, the section describing the boundary of the state, to reflect inclusion of southern tip of state, Clark County.

11/21/1980	MGM Hotel burns, killing 84 at the scene and injuring hundreds more. The fire is the worst disaster in Nevada history.

5/1984	City of Mesquite incorporates.

1986	Bally’s buys the original MGM Grand from Kirk Kerkorian and renames it Bally’s. It has 2,814 rooms.

11/22/1989	The Mirage, first of the mega-resorts, opens with 3,049 rooms. It replaces the Castaways which was built on the site of the Red Rooster, first licensed gaming establishment on the Strip.

1990	Clark County population is 741,368.

6/19/1990	Excalibur opens with 4,032 rooms and on 10/15/90 the Luxor opens with 2,526 rooms.

10/26/1993	Treasure Island opens with 2,900 rooms. On 12/3/1993 the current MGM Grand opens with 5,005 rooms. It is the largest resort hotel in world.

12/1995	Fremont Street Experience opens.

10/15/1998	Bellagio opens with 3,000 rooms. It replaces the Dunes.

3/2/1999	Mandalay Bay opens with 3,700 rooms on the site of the Hacienda Hotel and on 9/1/99 Paris opens with 2,914 rooms next to Bally’s (site of the original MGM.)

2000	Clark County population is 1,375,765.

4/28/2005	Wynn Las Vegas opens, on site of Desert Inn. It costs $2.6 billion, with 2,701 rooms.

2007	The Frontier is imploded. The 1942 Frontier was built on the site of the 1931 Pair-A-Dice Club, the first illegal gambling club and the second club to be licensed after the Red Rooster.