| Ironically, some of the area's first inhabitants were Mormon missionaries. In the 1850s, Brigham Young assigned 30 of them to convert the local Native American population. Las Vegas was first settled as a town for this small Mormon population and as a stopover for travelers along the "Mormon corridor" between Salt Lake and southern California.
The city of Las Vegas was established in 1905 and was officially recognized in 1911 when it adopted its first charter. Gambling was legalized in the 1930s, and the first casinos sprung up in the 40s. Since then Las Vegas has gained a reputation as "Sin City," a place where you can indulge any vice. Recently it has been the fastest-growing area in the U.S.
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Las Vegas is desert, and has a desert climate. The summers are warm, with temperatures around 90 degrees and often creeping over 100. The winters can be cool and windy, but daytime highs are still around 60 degrees. And the air is dry. There's very little rainfall year round. Bring sandals and shades. Enjoy!
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Vegas is in the Mojave Desert. It's flat, warm and dry. It's about four hours' drive from Los Angeles and about nine hours' drive from San Francisco.
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Tourism, gambling, tourism and gambling. There's also a campus of the University of Nevada here.
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Unless cheesy reproductions of Roman Villas and Renaissance masterpieces count, there's not much in the way of art in Vegas.
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If you do the standard Vegas trip, and stay near the strip, you'll see more tourists than locals. A great number of Vegas locals work in the tourist industry in one way or another though, and usually (and unfortunately) most visitors interact with them only in the context of card tables or strip clubs.
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People speak English here. Vegas does attract some foreigners but the city doesn't feel all that cosmopolitan anyway.
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