Road Trip: Las Vegas, Nevada
“Las Vegas” translated is “The Meadows,” once the last watering hole after the ice age’s glaciers melted, leaving the valley lush and green – forming pools of water that ultimately became Hoover Damn, and a point of interest in the now barren valley.
In the late 1930s Thomas Hull, owner of the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, had his eye on the desert, and built the first casino in downtown Las Vegas, opening the fancy western-themed “El Cortez Hotel” in 1941. At that time Vegas was a weekend getaway from Los Angles for rebel rousers – a place to drink, gamble and get a quickie divorce.