History of Laughlin

Laughlin, a gambling resort in the southern most tip of Nevada, has transformed part of the arid, rugged Mojave desert into a fast growing tourist destination.

This hot, dry region, known as the tri-state area, is the geographic meeting point of San Bernardino County, Calif., Mojave County, Ariz., and Clark County, Nev.

A hundred thousand years ago the area was lush with abundant moisture. Then climactic changes occurred. Scant rainfall and searing heat transformed the region into a desolate, unforgiving desert wilderness.

Jagged peaks and ravines created by volcanic activity eons ago gives the territory a forbidding, alien landscape. The savage Colorado River sliced a sharp, interminable crevasse through the desert as it rushed toward the Gulf of California carrying the snow runoff from the Rocky Mountains. The life-giving and sometimes treacherous river marks the border between Arizona and Nevada. Lizards, rattlesnakes, desert tortoises, jack rabbits, coyotes, badgers, kit foxes and desert bighorn sheep were the sole inhabitants for centuries. Blazing heat and the sterile, crusty earth discouraged human trespassers.

Summer temperatures often crest above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius). Winters may be equally severe with below freezing temperatures. Precipitation averages 3 to 5 inches annually and primarily occurs in the winter or between July and September.

Moist tropical air, creating higher than average summer humidity, may trigger summer thunderstorms and killer flash floods that transform dry washes without warning into savage rivers.

MAN ARRIVES Scientists and archaeologists do not agree on the date man first inhabited the area. Some speculate it may have been about 8,820 B.C. Scientific dating techniques confirm only that ancient peoples lived near modern-day Laughlin 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. Their petroglyphs and rock drawings have survived.

Patayans, among the first Indians to inhabit the tri-state area, appeared about 900 A.D. They eventually split into the Haulpai and Mojave tribes. Patayan is a Haulpai word meaning ancient ones.

According to the National Park Service, the Patayans were less developed than the Anasazi, their Pueblo neighbors to the north. Anasazi is a Navajo term also meaning "ancient people."

Patayans pulverized a primary food source of seeds and plants on grinding stones unearthed in the region by archaeologists. The natives lived in brush shelters and left no permanent dwellings behind.

The National Park Service has located more than 150 Patayan camp sites in the Lake Mojave area between Willow Beach, which is about 10 miles from the base of Hoover Dam, and Pyramid Canyon, the site of Davis Dam. The early Indians used sharply tipped stone weapons for hunting game and adorned themselves with gypsum ornaments, sea shells from the Pacific Coast or Gulf of Lower California, and turquoise.

Artifacts, including sandals, made of fiber from the yucca tree have been found. Patayan pottery was brownish in color, ranging from red-brown to gray, with virtually no artistic design.

The Patayans did little farming. However, the Mojave Indians who followed planted crops in late winter and early spring along the banks of the Colorado River which were irrigated by annual floods. The Mojaves supplemented their diet with wild seeds, vegetation, fish and small game captured in traps or slain with slings or bows and arrows.

Many 20th Century Mojave Indians still live on reservations in the tri-state area. The Indian translation of mojave is people who live near the water.

Life generally was idyllic for the rivering farmers who braved the two-edged sword of living on the banks of the mighty Colorado River. Sometimes their only source of water shriveled in the summer or swelled into a raging winter torrent that cannibalized crops and inhabitants settled near the shore.

The Mojaves were undaunted. For hundreds of years they populated the Colorado River area from the current site of Hoover Dam south to Blythe, Calif. The three divisions of the tribe -- Upper Mojaves, Middle Mojaves and Lower Mojaves -- are named for the region of the river where they lived.

Spanish explorer Melchi Diaz in 1540 is believed to be the first non-Indian to visit the tri-state area. Father Garces, a Spanish padre, crossed the Colorado River in 1776 at a broad, shallow point near the modern day site of Katherine Landing north of Davis Dam.

STEAMBOATS DELIVER SUPPLIES Steamboats cruised to the tri-state area from Port Isabel in the Gulf of California delivering supplies to miners and returning to port loaded with precious metals. For more than 50 years beginning in 1852, stern-wheelers were the fastest and safest mode of travel into the searing wasteland.

It cost a traveler $44 to sail from what is now Bullhead City, Ariz., south to the Gulf of California and then north to San Francisco.

Lt. Edward Beale, hired to survey an immigrant road in 1857 from Fort Smith, Ark., to the Colorado River, established Fort Mojave near the present site of Bullhead City. Pioneers en route to California sought the fort's protection.

Beale tested a caravan of 28 camels for the war department while stationed at Fort Mojave. His trusted assistant was Hi-Jolly, a trained camel driver from Asia Minor. For a while camels delivered the mail throughout what is now Mojave County.

The growing population of whites in the tri-state area, drove the mojave Indians further into extreme Southern Nevada. The present day boundary of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation is several miles south of Laughlin.

MINING EMERGES William Harrison Hardy crossed the Colorado River in 1864. He established a river port and supply center on Cottonwood Island and operated the Colorado River Ferry. He founded Hardyville and became the first postmaster in 1865, the year President Abraham Lincoln was shot.

Hardyville, eventually destroyed by fire, was once the county seat of Mojave County where steamboats unloaded cargo for the booming mining district and its businessmen and saloon keepers. Numerous mines eventually pocked the area.

The largest was the Katherine Gold Mine, discovered in 1900 and operated intermittently until it closed in 1942 after producing $12 million worth of ore. The mine and mill was capable of processing 300 tons of ore into 600 ounces of gold and silver in 24 hours.

The mine and surrounding area today carries the name of one of the miner's sisters.

DAVIS DAM IMPACTS The federal government investigated the possibility of constructing a dam in lower Pyramid Canyon in 1902-1903 and renewed its studies in 1930, eventually leading to the Congressional authorization of the Davis Dam Project. Lt. J.C. Ives had named the canyon in 1858, describing it as a "natural pyramid of symmetrical proportions, 20 to 30 feet high, near the rapids."

The 1935 completion of Hoover Dam 67 miles upstream paved the way for construction down river.

Davis Dam and its powerplant were built by the Bureau of Reclamation in Pyramid Canyon two miles upstream from Laughlin and Bullhead City and 10 miles north of where Arizona, Nevada and California meet.

The construction contract for Davis Dam was awarded in 1942, but work stopped during World War II because of a shortage of material. Work resumed in April 1946 and Davis Dam was completed in 1953.

Davis Dam, built for flood control and power generation, is an earth-rock structure with a concrete spillway containing 3.6 million cubic yards of fill material. The gravity structure stands 200 feet above the river bed. It is 1,400 feet thick at the base, 50 feet thick at the top and 1,600 feet long.

Its primary purpose is to regulate the flow of Colorado River water to meet downstream needs. A side benefit is power production with five turbines that generate 48,000 kilowatts each. Under terms of the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944, Mexico receives 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water annually.

Lake Mojave, the reservoir created by Davis Dam and capable of storing 1.8 million acre-feet of water, extends 67 miles to the base of Hoover Dam. The lake is 4 miles across at its widest point. It has a surface area of 44 square miles and a shoreline of more than 150 miles.

Bullhead City, the most populous town in the area, started in the 1940s as a construction camp for Davis Dam. The community is named for Bull's Head Rock, a geological formation used as a navigation point by steamboat captains. The rock now is mostly submerged beneath Mojave Lake with only a small portion visible.

During construction of the dam, several small communities sprang up in the area, including the present town of Laughlin.

Laughlin, originally called South Pointe because of it's proximity to Nevada's southern tip, consisted of a small motel and bar.

The motel closed and fell into disrepair when Davis Dam was completed and business generated by the project stopped.

Bullhead City also lost most of its population. Only a few government workers, river people and retirees chose to live in the small community.

DON LAUGHLIN INVESTS In 1964 Don Laughlin, owner of Las Vegas' 101 Club, flew over Laughlin and offered to buy the property. In less than two years the motel and bar, now called the Riverside Resort, was offering all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, play on 12 slot machines and two live gaming tables. Guest accommodations were available in four of the motel's eight motel rooms. The Laughlin family lived in the other four rooms.

South Pointe was renamed Laughlin when the U.S. Postal Service inspector insisted Don Laughlin give the town a name-any name-in order to receive mail. Don Laughlin recommended the name of Riverside or Casino, but the postal inspector used Laughlin instead.

In 1972 the Riverside Resort added 48 rooms, followed by several additions and in 1986 built the first 14-floor high-rise.

A second casino, the Bobcat Club opened in 1967 where the Golden Nugget Laughlin currently operates. In 1968 a third casino, the Monte Carlo opened its doors.

Across the River, Bullhead City flourished in the glow of the casino light. Shuttle boats transported customers from the Arizona side of the river to Laughlin's resorts.

During the 1980s a surge of casino construction exploded in Laughlin. The Colorado Hotel (now the Pioneer), the Regency Sam's Town Gold River (now the River Palms) and the Edgewater opened early in the decade. The activity attracted other investors to begin a second boom resulting in the construction of the Colorado Belle, Harrah's Del Rio, Ramada Express and finally, in 1990, the Flamingo Hilton.

In 1987, Don Laughlin funded and built the Laughlin Bridge at a cost of $3.5 million. He donated the bridge to the states of Nevada and Arizona. The bridge carries 2,000 vehicles daily.

Today there are nine hotel/casinos and one motel in Laughlin providing over 10,000 rooms, 125,000 square feet of meeting space, 60 restaurants, two museums, a 34-lane bowling center and a variety of boutiques, spas and salons. More than 14,000 casino workers now cross the Colorado by shuttle boat or the Laughlin Bridge each day.

The city by the river now attracts nearly 5 million visitors annually who visit Laughlin to gamble, enjoy water sports on the Colorado and attend many high-profile special events hosted by the community.