In 1941, they built and opened the flashy El Rancho Vegas Hotel and Casino – the first (but not last) major resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

In short order, Hull – who had built and managed a number of major hotels in Hollywood and throughout California – gathered some investors and purchased land at the southwest corner of what is now Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue. Sitting under a scorching sun, he thought, “this is a great location for a resort hotel and casino!” Sitting on the side of the road on Highway 91, Hull noticed all the out-of-state license plates whizzing by. Hull, was on his way to a meeting in downtown Las Vegas when his car broke down. While a number of early gaming pioneers gained fame and fortune in the 1930’s downtown, in 1938 – and again by chance – a little-known event set in motion what is today’s world-famous Las Vegas Boulevard… also known as the “Strip.”Ī businessman named Thomas E. Anticipating a potential windfall with thousands of workers coming into the area, the Nevada State Legislature, saw gambling as a “dam good idea” and legalized it. Owner and East Coast financial tycoon, William Andrews Clark, keenly sensed opportunity and in 1905, subdivided the area around his train station into 1,200 lots, auctioned them off and officially founded Las Vegas as a city. Sixty years later, it was a just a dusty water-stop for the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. He camped one night by a spring the natives called Las Vegas (“The Meadows”) and he put it on his map of the area.

It grew out of the scorching dry desert heat as a chance encounter by early explorer, John Charles Fremont, who was charting the wild West for the U.S. Vegas is a town pretty much like no other. The Big Booms of Today’s Vegas Strip… Implosions and Building

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