Columnist Jeff German: Growing old before our time

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

For as long as anyone can remember, Las Vegas has considered its date of birth as May 15, 1905.

That's when 110 acres of railroad land, now in the heart of downtown, were parceled and auctioned off to create the town of Las Vegas.

Today, the city of Las Vegas is gearing up to celebrate its 100th birthday with a series of extravaganzas only Las Vegas could pull off.

It's not that I want to spoil the festivities, but it turns out that Las Vegas didn't really become a city until the Nevada Legislature issued its incorporation decree on March 16, 1911.

So that means the real 100th birthday of the City of Las Vegas is six years away, which could make for one heck of a long party if we want to stretch it out.

What strikes me as odd, however, is that the city doesn't appear impressed with the day it actually became a city.

You can't even find a reference to the 1911 incorporation date on the city's official Web site.

"Las Vegas was founded as a city on May 15, 1905," the Web site says with a touch of historical revisionism.

Wrong, explains Guy Rocha, Nevada's longtime archivist and most respected authority on the history of the state. Las Vegas was founded as a town, not as a city, then.

"I don't know any community born as a city with a municipal government right off the bat," Rocha says. "First, you're a town, and then you grow and become incorporated as a city."

Until I pointed out the omission, no one even considered including the 1911 date in the historical timeline on the Web site of the city's centennial celebration committee, the high-powered panel of elected and civic leaders chaired by Mayor Oscar Goodman.

This is the timeline, however, that gives us ancient facts about the Las Vegas area, such as the period when nomadic tribes camped at the Las Vegas springs in 3000 B.C.

And did you know that John C. Fremont once led an expedition through the valley in 1840, just 15 years before settlers built the Old Mormon Fort?

We also learn from the centennial timeline that Las Vegas got 24-hour electricity in 1915, the Rat Pack began performing on the Strip in 1960, Evel Knievel jumped over the Caesars Palace fountains in 1973, and the Fremont Street Experience opened in 1995.

But when did Las Vegas officially become a city?

That's a secret.

Stacy Allsbrook, the centennial committee's executive director, describes the omission of the 1911 incorporation date as an "oversight" and says she now plans to post it on the Web site.

Rocha says there are no set centennial guidelines.

Carson City, for example, was founded as a town in 1858, but didn't celebrate its centennial until the 100th birthday of its incorporation as a city in 1875.

Reno marked its centennial 100 years after it became a town in 1868. But it had another party on the 100th anniversary of its 1903 incorporation.

Rural towns, such as Tonopah, Goldfield and Beatty, never became cities, but they all celebrated centennials.

And then there's Las Vegas. What are we going to do when the city really turns 100?

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