Alternate Development of Nevada and Las Vegas

Delta Force

Banned
Historically, Nevada had one of the lowest populations in the United States, often having population smaller than territories yet to become states. In fact, Nevada had been the state with the lowest population until Alaska was admitted, having a mineral based economy prone to boom and bust cycles. Las Vegas was little more than a railroad town that trains stopped in because it was one of the few areas with water.

Of course, after World War II Nevada went on to experience a major population boom. The Atomic Age and Jet Age were both felt perhaps more heavily in Nevada than anywhere else, and led to the unusual situation of tourists watching nuclear tests over the horizon at Nevada Test Site from their hotel rooms in Las Vegas. The state experienced other benefits of these developments too, such as mining uranium and other materials required for advanced technologies and being home to a solid rocket motor factory.

I'm wondering to what extent some of these developments were inevitable, and to what extent Nevada benefited. Nevada was always going to benefit from the development of air conditioning and the need for its minerals. However, there were other locations that were considered for nuclear test sites, and other locations that would be suitable for aircraft testing, especially in the Southwest. Nevada probably benefited to some extents from legalized gambling, but without the decline of Atlantic City and the Communist Revolution in Cuba it might have been little more than a regional place for people from California.

It's also possible that Nevada was held back by some developments. While the presence of a nuclear test site may have helped grow the economy in the early days and wasn't something many people were concerned with at the time, it probably scared people away in later years. Nevada's selection for the nuclear waste repository probably didn't help matters, and Nevada politicians argued that created the perception that the state was a "nuclear wasteland", which would hold back development and investment in the state.

So, what would have happened if things had gone differently? Might Nevada have remained one of the smaller states? Alternatively, might it have been able to grow even larger?
 
Hard to grow larger when so much of the state is so arid. However, I think you could easily have a scenario where Reno/Tahoe does much better either in absolute terms or relative to Vegas.
 
I think Nevada remains a small state. As you mentioned it could become a regional vacation spot for people from California. About the only development I can think of is Hollywood start filming more movies there because most of the state is empty. Imagine if John Ford goes there instead of Monument Valley or George Lucas films Stars Wars there rather than fly to Tunisia?
 
One thing though: what hugely benefited Las Vegas was this thing called Hoover Dam.

Even though most of the water stored in Lake Mead and electricity generated was earmarked for California and Arizona, there was enough left to allow the growth of Las Vegas itself. Imagine if the Bureau of Reclamation had selected a site further upstream than Boulder Canyon, say for example completely inside the state of Arizona itself; in that case, Las Vegas would not have grown so big because it would have been far more expensive to get the water behind the dam and electric power generated by the dam, too. As such, instead of Las Vegas becoming the gambling mecca that it became, the Reno-Tahoe area would have gotten the title instead, especially since the Reno area is a major stop for an important transcontinental rail line and by the 1960's, easily accessed by the then-new Interstate 80 freeway.
 
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