A one-time railroad surveyor takes on his former employer over water service and finds a home amid the splendor of the mountains and valleys of Southern Nevada.
An honest man who knew how to break up a drunken brawl without a gun, Clark County’s first sheriff decided to bow out when he was asked to enforce laws he didn’t believe in himself.
A Minnesota man who saw a desert way station as the land of opportunity first established a bank but found his niche in newspapers, where he brought his vision for the valley to the masses.
When he discovered he didn’t have a big enough bankroll to invest in booming Goldfield, the first mayor of Las Vegas decided the way to fame and fortune was via the valley’s artesian wells.
Although it is named for another man, this entrepreneur was instrumental in establishing Clark County, its financial institutions and its utilities.
An American Indian who chose to live his life by his own rules found himself at odds with the white residents of early Clark County.
For $10 he won from a foot race a young physician bought a practice in Las Vegas and stayed another 38 years, bringing his kindness and knowledge to the growing boomtown.
A Japanese immigrant is credited with finding and popularizing many of the trees and plants found today in Las Vegas Valley yards.
An engineer by trade and a politician by chance, Nevada’s first state engineer brought prosperity to the place he was proud to call home.
An archaeologist who found paradise amid the ruins of the Lost City along the banks of the Muddy River proved Nevada was inhabited long before modern times.
A Frenchman’s dream of not one but two lakes in the desert with recreational facilities for all became a magnet for heat-stricken Las Vegans and tourists alike.
The aviation age took flight in Las Vegas largely through the efforts of one man who put the growing town on aviators’ maps by making Anderson Field planeworthy.
While he had dreams of helping build a city brick by brick, a civil engineer soon became a civil servant whose eye on the sky brought air service to Southern Nevada.
A woman who was unimpressed with what others thought she should and should not do made a life of teaching Southern Nevada’s children to think for themselves.
As district attorney for a county just coming into its own, a self-taught lawyer set a high standard for law enforcement amid an influx of lawlessness.
The valley’s political and civic future was shaped in part by two brothers, one of whom built the Review-Journal into the state’s largest newspaper.
Chronicling the events — whether they were tea parties or murder trials — that made Las Vegas the city it is today was this journalist’s first love; her second love was the city itself.
A civil engineer who went from public to private employment just for the chance to build Hoover Dam realized his dream and put Las Vegas and Boulder City on the map.
The rigid influence of the man who controlled the lives of the workers who built Hoover Dam, and the town where they lived, is still felt in that town’s legacy of no gambling.
To keep her railroad-working husband and sons respectable, a woman who had no background in gaming held Las Vegas’ first casino license.
After selling the trailblazing Meadows, Admiral Cornero took to the high seas, but his Stardust dreams left their mark on the Strip.
A church-goer who was never a hypocrite, the man who founded North Las Vegas believed in the motto live and let live — without government interference.
In making his dreams of Las Vegas come true, an early mayor allowed old bad habits to get in the way of equality among those who called the valley home.
A man of firsts — first automobile dealership, first community celebration, first highway to Las Vegas — found humor in almost every situation.
A visionary, whose El Rancho gave one of the more famous streets in the world its start, began a trend in hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.
The man who would build the biggest magnesium plant in the world during World War II took on the big job despite considerable obstacles.
Female workers flourished during the war years in positions initially thought of as too difficult for women.
A member of a pioneer Mormon family, who found himself thrust into a national office after a key official died, returned to the city he loved and made himself and his family proud.
The Silver State’s champion who served as a Nevada Supreme Court justice found himself on the losing side of many an election until he was able to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.