While other scouts and adventurers may have come through the valley first, a son of scandal is noted for pointing travelers toward the future Sin City.
A group of missionaries headed by a man from Philadelphia braved the desert heat and founded the Las Vegas Mission of the Mormon Church in an effort to convert the area’s Indians.
The search for gold, fame and fortune eluded O.D. Gass throughout his lifetime, part of which was spent in the portion of the Arizona Territory now known as Clark County.
Living in the Muddy River country was difficult, but there was at least one man who was up to the task and he took to task anyone who got in his way.
Longing for a city with social graces a young mother — gracefully accepted her role as the grand dame of Southern Nevada.
Visions of gold in the Lost Dutchman Mine led an independent pipe-smoking speculator to a dusty ridge where he found enough ore to strike it rich in Searchlight.
A man full of contradictions — and remembered most for buying a Senate seat — left his name to the county that Las Vegas calls home.
In on the ground floor, the railroad’s man kept his lip buttoned during his tenure while holding other offices such as postmaster and water agent.
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.
