Las Vegas (Spanish for The Meadows) was a natural oasis in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, but really nothing special.

An oasis for nomadic Indians and non-native explorers, a failed Mormon outpost in the mid 1800’s, a desolate frontier way station along the Old Spanish Trail at the turn of the century, a quiet railroad town with a back alley red light district in the 1920’s.

And then things began to happen.

Gambling was legalized, mobsters found a haven for cash and respectability, corporate moguls created growth and grandiosity, entertainment oscillated between the glamorous and the erotic, and Sin City boomed! It didn’t exactly happen by accident, but it also didn’t happen by plan.

The back stories, the characters, the underhanded financial and political tricks are just as fascinating as the city itself.

But take out any one of a number of these and the city wouldn’t have happened at all.