Chapter Eighteen: Hawaii

As the textbook mentions "The Hawaiian island chain is the visible portion of a series of massive volcanoes" (360). Now most of us would not associate volcanoes with Vegas (the only one that may come to mind is the fake one that sits in front of the Mirage hotel), but a little further north of Las Vegas there is a volcano. The Timber Mountain volcano is 1675 meters in elevation, and last erupted a little less than 10000 years ago. The Timber Mountain volcano is not the only volcano in Nevada, there are more than ten most of which are inactive, but are volcanoes nonetheless. The volcanoes in Nevada are all, for the most part, either hawaiite or alkali basalt in composition which is the main difference between these volcanoes and the volcanoes of the Hawaiian islands that are considered to be shield volcanoes made of fluid lava flows. Las Vegas is often referred to as Hawaii's ninth island (due to the high native Hawaiian population that lives there) and rightfully so as it seems that both have a lot more in common than meets the eye.

www.vulcan.wr.usgs.gov, www.volcanolive.com, www.pacificweb.org

Chapter Sixteen: The North Pacific Coast

Las Vegas has nothing in common with the North Pacific Coast physically or culturally, however many of the landmarks in the North Pacific Coast can also be seen on the Las Vegas strip. Mount St. Helen, as the textbook mentions, is "one of a series of volcanic peaks that punctuate the Southern Cascades" (326). In Vegas, at the Mirage hotel they have an imitation volcano that according to Las Vegas Weekly's Vegas' Best is the " Best man made wonder" (http://www.mirage.com/). Every night the volcano erupts, and continues to entertain the tourists passing by, whereas Mount St. Helens has only had minor activity, and besides it's physical beauty is rather boring, and causes much more damage when it does erupt. Another landmark that has been reproduced is the Space Needle of Seattle. At the end of the Vegas strip sits the Stratosphere hotel, which is a direct imitation of the Space Needle. The Space Needle offers breath taking views of Seattle, a place to shop, and a restaurant. The Stratosphere on the other hand has three thrilling rides, shops, and an observation deck where the whole strip can be seen from. Now with all due respect to the late Tom McCall (governor of Oregon 1967-1975) and the residents of the North Pacific Coast, why would anyone want to live there when Vegas has everything they have to offer plus more.

http://www.mirage.com/, http://www.stratospherehotel.com/, http://www.spaceneedle.com/, http://www.mountsthelens.com/

Chapter Fifteen: California

As we all know, California is home to many wildfires each year, but Las Vegas has another type of fire that invades the city, hotel fires. There have been few fires in Vegas and the two that are most publicly known are the Bally's (previously the MGM Grand) fire, and the fire that occurred at the historic Moulin Rouge hotel. The MGM Grand hotel fire occurred on November 21, 1980 due to what can be considered an accident. The fire was caused by an electrical fault (the electrics that malfunctioned were used to power a refrigerator in the hotel's deli) and continued to be fueled by flammable materials as it made its way through the hotel. This fire killed 85 people and injured 650 of the guests (most of the injuries and deaths were due to an immense amount of toxic smoke intake). The hotel was later remodeled, and sold to Bally's Entertainment, who have now renamed the hotel Bally's Las Vegas. The fire that occurred at the Moulin Rouge hotel on May 29, 2003 did not take anoyones life, but left two people injured. The fire is believed to have been caused by an arsonist, who according to www.lasvegasnow.com, could face federal prosecution due to the fact that the hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (the hotel is seen as historic as it was the first integrated hotel in the 1950s when it was built). Even though the hotel fires that the people of Las Vegas have to face are different from the wildfires that the residents of California have to deal with, they both take peoples lives, and ruin places that hold many memories.

www.economicexpert.com, www.lasvegasnow.com, www.lvrj.com, www.reviewjournal.com

Chapter Fourteen: The Southwest Border Area: Tricultural Development

Las Vegas is not included in the Southwest Border Area, but according to the map on page 277 in the textbook, the outskirts of the city border the transitional area. Included in the title of this chapter is the word 'Tricultural' meaning that there are three different cultures that make up the Southwest Border Area; American Indians, Hispanics, and Anglos. The population of Las Vegas is also very culturally diverse. Vegas does not have a very large American Indian population; In 2000 Native Americans accounted for 0.8% of the entire population (279). On the other hand Vegas does have a fair amount of Hispanic Americans living in the area. In the 2000 census Hispanics made up 24.9% of the population, this number is high in Nevada's eyes, but nothing in comparison to counties in New Mexico and Texas where Hispanics are prevalent (70-99.7% of the population (279)). In a report conducted by the UNLV the writers claim that the high rate in which Hispanics have been immigrating from Central and South America is due to the fact that the service, ranching, and mining industries have significantly grown. The city is not complaining about the high volume of immigrants that have found their way to Las Vegas, if anything they are more than grateful as there is a need for people to work in the booming service and construction industries. Luckily for the immigrants that choose to make Las Vegas their new home, both the service and construction industries do not require training, and English is not necessary, so as soon as the immigrants arrive they, so to speak, have "struck it lucky" in sin city.

http://www.unlv.edu/

Chapter Thirteen: The Empty Interior

The Empty Interior is the region that is home to Las Vegas. The land that Las Vegas occupies, according to the textbook, is owned by The Bureau of Land Management and other Federal agencies (258). In other words none of it is owned by the public, in fact "the U.S. government controls almost 90 percent of all land" (257-259). Las Vegas does not house any of the lakes from the Pleistocene era (the nearest is Pyramid Lake in Northern Nevada), nor does it contain any of the national parks (which may be due to the fact that all of the parks are created "to preserve the unique or highly unusual sections of the natural environment" (260) and Las Vegas, as we know, does not have much of a 'natural' environment.) One thing that Las Vegas does have a lot of is tourists. Las Vegas' economy is fueled by its gaming industry which brings over $800 million in revenue a month. Legalised in 1931, gambling became more than just a game of high stakes, it became an industry, and now "the state gambling taxes account for 45 percent of Nevada's revenues" (267). Even though many people are still visiting Vegas the most recent economic recession has taken its toll on the city; Gambling revenues are down 4 percent, and many construction projects have been placed on hold. Despite all of the financial restraints, Las Vegas has still managed to "stay alive" and keep every display of lights shining bright.

www.casinotimes.co.uk, www.newsweek.com

Chapter twelve: The Great Plains and Prairies

At first glance Las Vegas and the Great Plains region seem to be in no way similar to one another. The only characteristics that both the Great Plains and Vegas may share is that they are relatively dry in terms of the land that they belong to, and the fact that they have made the most of the land that they were given. As the text says "Once it was a dry wasteland and now it is a land full of rich opportunities." (230) The Great Plains has turned the dry land in their area into an agricultural gold mine whereas Las Vegas turned their dry land into a major tourist attraction. They also have a similarity in their climate with both areas having very hot summers and colder than normal winters. Unlike the Great Plains, Vegas does not have any severe/extreme weather. The people of Las Vegas 'struck it lucky' due to the fact that the only bad weather conditions they face are the wide range of temperatures which is nothing in comparison to the blizzards, tornadoes, and Chinook winds in the Great Plains.

Chapter Eleven: The Agricultural Core

Las Vegas is miles away from the agricultural core, and could not be more different from it. The main economic activity in Vegas is tourism, but the brightly lit city does have plans to expand their horizons and create a vertical farm. A vertical farm is a building that is placed in the middle of an urban area, and houses an indoor farm. This is a relatively new idea, but it is supposed to be more cost efficient, and environmentally friendly if done correctly. With Vegas being famous for its skyscrapers the vertical farm will feel right at home with 30 storeys housing 100 different crops. The project is estimated to cost $200 million, but despite this large figure there is much anticipation for the "living skyscraper" to go up. It is said that it will produce enough food for 72000 people a year which is the equivalent of $25 million in agricultural products. There are no locations or dates set for the living skyscraper to take over the urban skyline, but when it does perhaps Vegas will gain a few eco-friendly tourists that they may have lost due to the immense amount of electricity they use.

www.nextenergynews.com, www.verticalfarm.com