Seekers of more modern flair will enjoy not only the zip line that cuts right through Downtown, but also the Fremont Street Experience which is by far Downtown’s main highlight.Ībout Main Street Station: The railroad-themed Main Station Casino and Brewery serves as a living museum of Casino antiques in the hotel lobby, main gambling flooring, and even outside. Visitors looking for flares of Americana and old world Vegas will love the historic neon signage, free nightly concerts, cheap drinks, loose slots, and a compact feel of Fremont Street. Today the highlights of Downtown Las Vegas still center on Fremont Street with its mixture of vintage touches and modern technological features. As the only place in America with statewide gambling from 1931-1979, Downtown Las Vegas became a magnet for Hollywood celebrities looking to escape California. Fremont Street turned into a sea of dizzying neon marquees nicknamed the Glitter Glutch by the 1940s and started adding large casino complexes by the 1950s. With gambling legal again, Fremont Street boomed through mobster influence although the casinos were mainly dingy sawdust-floored Western-themed establishments.įinally, Downtown started classing up when the Horseshoe became the first casino to get carpeting and new hotels like Binions pushed the limits to bring in more high rollers. Pressure from The Great Depression and an influx of workers building the Hoover Dam ( 1931-1935, originally called Boulder Dam) forced them to open gambling back up with the first official Nevada gaming license going to Fremont Street’s Northern Club. There was a bit of a Speakeasy era in Vegas as gambling was outlawed from 1909-1931 ( drinking 1920-1933). Fremont Street became home to many other firsts in Vegas over the years including the 1st phone in 1907, the 1st paved road in 1925, later the 1st traffic light, and city’s 1st neon light at the Overland Hotel in 1928. The city’s oldest casino ( the Golden Gate from 1906) still stands on Fremont Street, but many other things have changed. With the railroad arriving in 1905, development along Fremont Street straight out from the train station formed Downtown Las Vegas.

Fremont’s mapmaking, the booming California Gold Rush, and the snow-free Western trail through town helped Downtown Las Vegas grow. Fremont not only charted important trails crisscrossing the American West, but also helped reroute the Old Spanish Trail ( established 1829) from Santa Fe to Los Angles near an oasis located in today’s Downtown Las Vegas. There had been Native American tribes in the Las Vegas Valley for thousands of years, but it wasn’t until John Charles Fremont arrived in 1844 that Las Vegas ( Spanish for The Meadows) was officially on the map.

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