Las Vegas began as a simple oasis in the desert when explorer John Fremont, for whom the namesake street, casino, and experience were named, stopped and camped in the valley, noting it in his journals.

In the mid-1800s, Mormon missionaries built a fort as a waypoint between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, but later abandoned it after disagreements arose among the settlers. As rail barons forged paths through the Pacific Southwest, the railroad connected Las Vegas with Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. It was this connecting railroad that established Las Vegas to the greatest degree.

As railworkers began to gather and Las Vegas grew into more than a simple pioneering town, rail barons bought up land and auctioned it off in sections and lots to the railworkers, who traded labor for real estate. Another rail baron, Senator William Clark, purchased separate lots and began a second development. Clark eventually cornered the water utility rights, forbidding non-Clark land owners water usage rights. As he effectively cut-off water/sewage usage in the competing settlements, his settlement became the front-running village. As the new land auction began, investors, new and old, competed for a chance to own the new sections and blocks surrounding the railroad.

In the infamous Block 16, prostitution, gambling, and liquor were all permitted and acceptable practices. Mainly to feed the fires of the railway workers, the vices soon began to comfort weary travelers and curious tourists. The subsequent prohibitions, inclusions, and re-prohibitions of the various vices would become synonomous with the city known for its sins long before and after its neon facades and super-sized hotels also helped to make it famous.

It was the construction of Hoover Dam (Great Boulder Dam) in the 1930s that kept the city's economy strong throughout the Great Depression, and paved the way for the future expansion, as gambling and prostitution were re-legitimized in 1931.

Like everything else Vegas, the popularity of the casinos faded once again as the country turned its focus to Europe and the Second World War in the 1940s. It wasn't until 1951, when the Department of Defense began Atomic testing in the Vegas valley, that Sin City found another resurgence. The marketing of events such as "Miss Mushroom Cloud" and "Miss Atomic City" pageants brought the spotlight back to Las Vegas as visitors now came to Vegas for Nuclear Bomb Tests. After a nationally televised event, visitors began swarming the Valley to watch mushroom clouds light the Southern Nevada sky. Casinos and Resorts even set up special viewing areas and tours to viewing sites for the occasion. Ironically, the valley now struggles against the Department of Energy, attempting to keep the same Uranium and Plutonium ores out of the valley and the Yucca Mountain range that surrounds the fragile valley.

As the vices regained their popularity in the 1950s, the mafia became a force in the city, namely through Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, who opened Flamingo in 1947 as the first Las Vegas Mega Resort. Siegal was involved with financiers named "The Syndicate." The Syndicate budgeted just over one million dollars for the casino, but after all was said and done, the Flamingo cost nearly 7 million dollars. National media scoffed at Siegel's folly in the desert. The grand opening was a grand spectacle, but many thought that the over-sized casino would never last. After it was all said and done, Siegel had the last laugh.

Although the gaming industry and Las Vegas had long been rumored to have criminal ties, the Kefauver Commision in the late '40s only spent one day in Las Vegas and only interviewed half a dozen witnesses regarding criminal activities and the Vegas Valley.

Throughout the '50s, Vegas continued growing in popularity until it reached its literal peak in 1959 with The Summit, a month-long series of  performances by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr,, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, all cast members of the movie "Oceans 11" and members of the Rat Pack, as named by Shirley MacLaine.

Marquee shows grew in popularity, with such entertainers as Barbara Streisand at the Riviera and Elvis at the International (later the Las Vegas Hilton).  Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis continued to headline at the Sands after the Rat Pack dissipated.

It wasn't until Steve Wynn brought Siegfried and Roy to the Frontier Hotel in the early 1970s that magicians were even included in the scheme of things in Las Vegas. In fact, another leading hotelier told both Wynn and Siegfried that magicians wouldn't work in Vegas. Now, over a dozen such magic acts, including Rick Thomas, The Amazing Jonathan, Penn and Teller, and Lance Burton, work Vegas nightly, and Las Vegas holds the largest convention in the world featuring Magic, Magicians, and the Illusion Arts.

Beyond his legacy with Siegfried and Roy, Steve Wynn performed another kind of magic as he introduced tourists to hotels with volcanoes at the Mirage, pirate battles at Treasure Island, and the iconic fountains of Bellagio. He re-introduced the Mega-Resort and helped in creating the latest renaissance in Sin City.

The latest developers in Vegas are moving away from the Hotel-Casino and towards the luxury-scale condominium and mixed-used markets, looking to reinvent the face of Vegas yet again. High-priced condos are now featured attractions, including such names as the Marriott Grand Chateau, the Residences at MGM, Sky Vegas, Juhl Lofts, and Panorama Towers.