05/17/2026
Las Vegas was born 121 years ago today when a group of maniacs auctioned off 110 acres of desert in the middle of a freak mid-spring heat wave where the temperature hit 110°F.
The railroad needed a water stop between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Someone looked at a patch of Mojave scrub with a few artesian wells and started taking bids.
By 3pm the heat was so brutal they had to shut it down. People scattered to find whatever shade the desert offered or crowded into canvas-tent saloons across the tracks to drink warm beer and whiskey.
They came back the next morning at 8am to finish the job before the sun could stop them again. 1,200 lots. Two days. Done.
The valley already had a name — Las Vegas, "The Meadows" in Spanish — a nod to the wells and wild grasses that made it slightly livable in the first place.
The new residents promptly got to work making it unrecognizable.
Nobody was thinking about casinos. Nobody was thinking about a 65-foot neon cowboy or a pirate ship on the Strip or a Sphere the size of a small moon. They were thinking about train schedules.
121 years later, 40 million people a year voluntarily visit to lay out by the pool in that same sun and wait in line for a buffet.
The passenger trains are gone. The city is still here, slightly bigger.
Still the best bad idea anyone ever had in a desert.
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