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Laughlin - The historical lure of the desertA sliver of the timeless, arid Mohave Desert where Nevada, California and Arizona meet has been transformed into a fast-growing tourist destination and gambling resort in just a few decades. Far sighted entrepreneurs, lured by the shoreline of the life-giving Colorado River, built Laughlin, NV, in a hot, dry region known as the tri-state area. The relatively new city is positioned near the geographic apex of San Bernardino County, CA, Mohave County, AZ and Clark County, NV, where the Colorado River draws the natural borders between Arizona and Nevada.A hundred thousand years ago the region, once lush with abundant moisture, evolved into a desolate, unforgiving desert when searing heat and scant rainfall created a climatic upheaval. The desert wilderness discouraged human trespassers for many eons. Volcanic activity and unrelenting winds carved out a forbidding, alien landscape of jagged peaks and ravines. The savage Colorado River, laden with snow runoff from the Rocky Mountains, sliced a sharp, interminable crevasse through the desert on its course toward the Gulf of California. Lizards, rattlesnakes, desert tortoises, rabbits, coyotes, badgers, kit fox and desert bighorn sheep ruled the forbidding natural kingdom. Summer temperatures often climb above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) and drop below freezing in winter. Precipitation averages about 4 inches annually. The skimpy rainfall usually is split between winter and the desert monsoon season from July through September. When moist tropical air creates higher than average summer humidity, the climatic condition can trigger summer thunderstorms and flash floods that transform dry washes into raging rivers. Man Arrives Scientists and archaeologists do not agree on the date man first inhabited the area. Some speculate it may have been as early as 8,000 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 Hualapai and Mojave tribes. Patayan is a Hualapai 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 meaning "ancient enemies," or "ancient people." The natives lived in brush shelters and left no permanent dwellings behind. The National Park Service has located more than 150 Patayan campsites in the Lake Mohave area between Willow Beach, which is about 10 miles from the base of Hoover Dam and Pyramid Canyon, the site of Davis Dam. Patayans pulverized a primary food source of seeds and plants on grinding stones archaeologists have unearthed in the region. Early Indians used sharp, stone-tipped weapons for hunting game. They adorned themselves with gypsum ornaments, seashells from the Pacific Coast or Gulf of Lower California and turquoise. Artifacts, including intricate 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. The Mojave Indians who followed, however, planted crops in late winter and early spring, which were irrigated by annual floods along the banks of the Colorado River. 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 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 a two-edged sword by living on the banks of the mighty Colorado River. Sometimes their only source of water shriveled in the summer or swelled into a raging spring torrent that ravaged crops and devastated inhabitants who had 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, CA. 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, AZ, south to the Gulf of California and then north to San Francisco. U.S. Army Lt. Edward Beale, hired to survey an immigrant road in 1857 from Fort Smith, AR, 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. The camels were later used to deliver mail throughout what is now Mohave 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 Mohave County in Arizona where steamboats unloaded cargo for the booming mining district, its businessmen and saloon keepers. Numerous mines eventually pocked the area. The largest was the Katherine Gold Mine, discovered in 1900. It operated intermittently until 1942 when it closed after producing $12 million worth of ore. The mine and mill were capable of processing 300 tons of ore into 600 ounces of gold and silver in 24 hours. The mine and surrounding area today still carry the name of one of the miner's sisters-Katherine. Davis Dam Impacts The federal government investigated the possibility of constructing a dam in lower Pyramid Canyon in 1902-1903. In 1930, the government renewed its studies, which eventually led 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 more construction downriver. Davis Dam and its power plant were built by the Bureau of Reclamation in Pyramid Canyon two miles upstream from Laughlin and Bullhead City and about 20 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 materials. 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. Power production is a side benefit. Five turbines in the dam 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 Mohave, the reservoir created behind Davis Dam, is capable of storing 1.8 million acre-feet of water. It 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. Currently, the rock is mostly submerged beneath Mohave 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. Called South Pointe because of its proximity to Nevada's southern tip, Laughlin originally 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 Don Laughlin, former owner of the 101 Club in Las Vegas, flew over the tri-state area in his private plane in 1964 and liked what he saw. He bought a boarded up motel and 6.5 acres of riverfront property for $250,000. The previous owner had several offers, but sold to Laughlin whom he considered the best credit risk because his Las Vegas casino background might lead to resort development in the area. In less than two years the bar/motel, now called the Riverside Resort, offered all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, play on 12 slot machines and 2 live gaming tables and accommodations in four of the motel's eight rooms. The Laughlin family occupied the other four rooms in the motel. The city of Laughlin got its name when a U.S. Postal Service inspector insisted Don Laughlin give the town a name, any name, in order to receive mail. Laughlin recommended the name Riverside or Casino, but the postal inspector used Laughlin instead. In 1972 the Riverside Resort added 48 rooms; in 1975, 52 rooms were added; in 1983, a tower added 253 rooms and 14 floors, and in 1986, another 14-floor tower added 307 rooms. The Riverside resort now boasts 1,440 rooms and a 28-story tower that opened for business December 23, 1994. Another bar in South Pointe, the Bobcat Club, opened in 1967. It was purchased in1970 by Oddie Lopp. He remodeled, renamed it the Nevada Club and began operating it as a full-fledged hotel/casino. After changing hands a number of times it was purchased by the Golden Nugget Corp., then Mirage Resorts Inc. and in 2000, it became part of MGM Mirage™. It has been renamed Golden Nugget Laughlin. The town's third casino opened in 1968 as the Monte Carlo. It was renamed the Crystal Palace in 1977. In 1985 its owners closed the casino and in 1990 the motel portion was closed. The property currently is owned by Don Laughlin who left the casino closed but still runs the motel. Bullhead City flourished in the glow of the casinos on the Nevada side of the Colorado River. Don Laughlin and Lopp built parking lots in Arizona and used river shuttle boats to transport customers and casino workers back and forth across the river. Laughlin casino workers lived in Bullhead City and commuted to their jobs because no living accommodations existed on the Nevada side of the Colorado River. Today many of Laughlin's 14,000 casino workers still live in Bullhead City. Laughlin's population is about 8,000 while Bullhead City and its surrounding unincorporated area boasts a population of about 49,000 permanent residents. Power Plant Operation The Mohave Generating Station, operated by Southern California Edison, is another major contributor to the growth of Laughlin and Bullhead City. The 1.580 million-watt, coal-fired generating plant provides electricity to 1.5 million customers in Nevada, Arizona and California. It is jointly owned by Southern California Edison, 56 percent; Salt River Project, 10 percent; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 20 percent; and Nevada Power Company, 14 percent. The plant is fed by a slurry pipeline that carries finely ground coal and water underground for 275 miles from the Kayenta, AZ, mine located on the Navajo-Hopi Indian Reservation. It is operated by Native Americans. The slurry pipeline is the only one of its kind in the U.S. Boom Begins In the late 1970s a surge in casino construction exploded in Laughlin. The Colorado Hotel (now the Pioneer Hotel), the Regency and the Colorado Belle were born. The Regency closed in 2001. The activity attracted other investors and a Las Vegas group built the Edgewater Hotel in 1979. Today there are nine hotels/casinos and one motel in Laughlin including:
A $23 million airport facility opened in Bullhead City in November 1991 with a 7,500-foot runway that accommodates Boeing 737s. Don Laughlin spent $9 million on flood control and airport planning. Indians Return On February 17, 1995, the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe opened Nevada's first Native American-owned casino on its reservation downriver from Laughlin and Bullhead City. Called Avi, which means "money" or "loose change," the hotel/casino is the first Indian-owned gaming business in the U.S. that is operated under state regulations. The casino does not pay a state gaming tax, but pays a one percent fee on revenue to the Gaming Control Board to cover costs incurred by regulators who monitor gaming activity. The Avi has a 300-room, $30 million hotel fronting a Colorado River beach area adjacent to an 18-hole championship golf course. The 25,000-square-foot-casino has 777 slot machines, a couple of dozen live table games and a KENO lounge. Nearly 20 percent of the more than 600 employees of the casino/hotel are Native Americans. The Fort Mojave Tribe also constructed a bridge connecting the Arizona and Nevada sides of its reservation, which straddles the Colorado River. The tribe opened the Spirit Mountain Casino on reservation land in Arizona and it plans to develop at least one more Nevada casino. The casinos will anchor a 4,000-acre master-planned community with 3.5 miles of river frontage. The development, named "Aha Macav" which means "river people," will accommodate 40,000 residents, mostly non-Indian. Laughlin and Bullhead City have fought to keep housing in line with the influx of permanent residents. Developers are building constantly in an effort to keep housing availability on a par with demand. Numerous master planned developments can be found throughout the area and offer housing to fit everyone's budget. A multi-million dollar flood control project was also finished in Laughlin in 1996 that opened an additional 250 acres in the city for development. HGI Realty Inc. of Michigan opened a state-of-the art, two-story enclosed shopping mall in June 1996. Constructed in an art deco design, the 255,000-square-foot Horizon Outlet Center-Laughlin is home to 50 food and retail outlets and a 9-screen stadium-style cinema. A neon-lit steel tower spirals 100 feet at the entrance to the center, which is located at Casino and Bruce Woodbury drives near the heart of Laughlin. The shopping facility boasts a basement garage offering shoppers eight acres of covered parking. |
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