Vegas Noir

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. 
Charles Dickens

Ten thousand years ago, Las Vegas was a marsh with lush vegetation, mammoths, and a thriving Native American population that was crazy about making baskets and drawing on cave walls.  

After the valley shriveled up into a waterless wasteland, it became a destination for warring men, tycoons, mobsters, and Mormons.  Gambling in Clark County was legalized in 1931 and electricity from Hoover Dam began to flow to Las Vegas in 1937, coining it "Glitter Gulch".  Higher class hotels were erected to house the Dam and Lake Mead tourists, and all you can eat pancakes, slushy drinks in gigantic glasses, and an endless parade of people suffering economic ruin soon followed.