Segerblom captured the Railroad Casino Pass, at the intersection of Highways 93 and 95 just outside Boulder City, is seen in the early days, for the Las Vegas Review Journal. The casino still sits on its original site.
Editor’s Note: Nevada 150 is a yearlong series highlighting the people, places and things that make up the history of the state.
As they prepared for the construction of Hoover Dam, U.S. Department of Interior leaders decided that an abundance of bootleg liquor, gambling dens and brothels made the then-tiny Las Vegas far too wicked a place to house the workers.
So they decided on Boulder City, located on federal land that allowed vice to be outlawed.
But they could not control a patch of desert one mile west of the city limits called Railroad Pass, where a true sin city arose for workers wanting to wager, drink or pay for sex. As the project moved to completion in 1935, all the vice establishments disappeared except for the Railroad Pass Casino, the oldest existing casino in Nevada or the entire country, depending on whom you ask. > Read More