Laughlin

Laughlin, Nevada is an unincorporated town in Clark County. The southern tip of Nevada where Nevada, Arizona, and California meet along the Colorado River became a popular tourist destination in the latter part of the 20th century. Known locally as South Pointe, this part of Nevada boasted a motel and a bar whose clientele was mostly gold and silver miners and construction workers. In 1951, however, the Davis Dam, which was originally named Bullhead Dam, was finally built, and when construction stopped, much of the clientele did too. This began a decline during which the town itself dried up and nearly disappeared. In 1964, a Minnesotan named Don Laughlin bought the southern tip of Nevada where the town is situated. He owned the 101 Club in Las Vegas, but he had become convinced that there was potential in South Pointe. He opened a beer bar with six stools and 10 slot machines as well as some motel rooms and began building a business. And a town. Don Laughlin, who would almost single-handedly save the little town, wanted to call the town Riverside, or failing that, Casino, Nevada but the post office had other ideas, and the post office named the town in honor of Don Laughlin in 1964. In 1966, Mr. Laughlin opened the Riverside Resort, a 14-floor casino and resort. In 1967, the area's second casino, Bobcat Club, opened by owner Oddie Lopp. Today, this is the site of the Golden Nugget. In 1968, a third casino, the Monte Carlo, opened. In 1972, there was the addition of 48 rooms along with some other additions to the Riverside Resort. Soon, Bullhead City, Arizona, directly across the river from Laughlin, began offering the casinos of the Nevada side to its guests as boats shuttled them across the Colorado River to Laughlin's casinos and back to Bullhead. Throughout the 1980s, more casinos opened, including Sam's Town Gold River, which is now the Laughlin River Lodge; the Edgewater; the Colorado Hotel, which is now the Pioneer; the Colorado Belle; the Ramada Express, which is now Tropicana Laughlin; Harrah's Del Rio; and the Flamingo Hotel, now called Aquarius opened in 1990. It seemed that the more successful Laughlin became, the more casinos were built, and the more successful Laughlin became. In 1987 Don Laughlin personally paid for the construction of the $3.5 million Laughlin Bridge and donated the structure which accommodates 30,000 vehicles every day, to Nevada and Arizona. The Emerald Resort, the biggest resort in southern Nevada, began construction in 1988. In 1990, the junk bond market's collapse halted further construction, with the first tower not even finished. The golf course, however, was in operation from 1991 until 2005. The Flamingo Hotel was built in 1990, though it is now called The Aquarius. Today, Laughlin is the third most visited resort and casino destination in the state, with only Las Vegas and Reno above it. It contains nine hotel/casinos, and a motel offering more than 10,000 rooms. It is a family-friendly resort with are also two museums, sixty restaurants, all manner of spas, salons, and boutiques, and a bowling alley. The Bennett Elementary School serves local children in kindergarten through 6th grade, while the Laughlin Junior High and the Laughlin High School, which share one campus, serve the older children. The town attracts nearly 2 million visitors every year. 

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