One Of Our Favorite Places: Laughlin, Nevada!

Discussion in 'Travel & Vacation' started by Frank Sanoica, Mar 24, 2016.

  1. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    My wife came up with this video. It shows the Sam's Town tower under construction, about the time we first went to Laughlin. We did see one of those huge towers under construction, but think it was the Flamingo, year unknown. The video is from 1989.




    Here is what the entire "strip" looks like today, taken from the east side of the river. The white tower at the very left in the distance is the old Sam's Town; it is 1-1/2 miles downstream from the first, and earliest place, The Riverside, on the right.

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I've never been there but heard a lot about it from John Falcon, seems he's been there a lot, thinks it's not too far for him. At least drivable.

    A 6 hr drive for me. Not bad.
     
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  3. Bonnie Thomas

    Bonnie Thomas Veteran Member
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    Have been there on a few occasions quite a while back, mainly while living in the SW.
    Just loved traveling thru there.
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have been in Nevada a couple of times; but just basically driving through the state, although for a while I had a brother-in-law who lived near Reno, and we visited them once or twice.
    I loved seeing Hoover Dam, and last summer was watching the information about the water level in Lake Mead getting so low that it was below the tunnels where the water comes through that is used in Las Vegas and the surrounding area.
    I have not checked that map lately; but maybe some of the extra rainfall this past winter has also helped that situation.
     
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  5. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    This seems to have been a better year in CA. with rain, so maybe it was the same for Nevada.
     
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  6. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    We've only been to Nevada one time, to visit a cousin of my wife's who lived in Las Vegas. We never went to the strip but he took us to his favorite casino, I can't remember the name, Does Eddys sound right? When we left the next day we stopped for gas at 'Terribles', I guessing that ay have been in Laughlin. We bought coffee mugs and T shirts there.
     
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  7. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith : An enormous project is underway, building a tunnel under the bottom of the lakebed of L. Mead, several miles out from the usual shoreline, to be used to carry water to Las Vegas, through the side of the mountain which currently has the two, older tunnels through it. When completed, the new tunnel will have ability to deliver water almost to the point where the lake has vanished. Project cost nearly a billion dolars!

    When at capacity, L. Mead boasted a 550-mile shoreline, 300+ feet deep. The lake basically has two big basins about 20 miles in diameter, connected by a narrow, steep-walled gorge about 100 yards wide. We rode our boat through to the far basin a number of times. The lake is so big, to venture as far as we did and back, consumed an entire tankful of gasoline, 50 gallons!

    Buying the boat was thought to be a marriage fixer-upper venture. It wasn't. Selling the boat is a story for another place, involving a boat ride showing the craft to a prospective buyer, a sudden desert srorm producing 10-foot high waves, and a harrowing trip getting back safely.

    Frank
     
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  8. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    [​IMG]
    The above photo appears on a brochure my wife received, promoting Laughlin's 50th. He bought a ramshackle 8-room motel where that white tower stands, in 1966, right in the middle of nowhere! In the baking-hot desert. But he perceived one thing Las Vegas lacked, 100 miles northward: that majestic Colorado River! I've copied the entire "read", hoping it comes out legible, below.
    LAUGHLIN: The Man & The Town

    Along the banks of the Colorado River and nestled between surrounding majestic mountains, emerges the picturesque expanse named for gaming pioneer Don Laughlin.

    The town of Laughlin has developed into a premier gaming destination and year-round playground. Nearly 5 million annual visitors retreat to this desert oasis renowned for a seemingly endless list of activities–including fishing, boating, water skiing, golf, camping and hiking. An average high temperature of 87 degrees fahrenheit make a perfect climate for enjoying all the outdoor activities available in Laughlin.

    Don Laughlin’s affinity for gaming began when he was a child and ever since, he has lived a life destined for success. He first found his gambling inspiration while growing up on a farm near Owatonna, Minnesota. With his profits earned from trapping mink and muskrat, he bought slot machines from a mail-order catalog and installed them in local pubs. The profits he earned were shared with pub owners. The young businessman was making $500 a week when his school principal gave him an ultimatum: get out of the slot business or get out of school. Don got out of school since he was making three times more than the principal. That was more than 50 years ago. While slot machines at that time were illegal, they were tolerated by local authorities. When Congress passed the far-reaching Johnson Act in the early 1950’s which abolished slot machines and interstate shipment nationwide, Don moved to Las Vegas, then the only legal haven for such entertainment. He worked as a bartender by day and attended card and dice dealers school at night.

    In 1954, he saved enough money to buy his own business, the 101 Club in North Las Vegas. Ten years later he sold the place for $165,000. Ready for new challenges, Don embarked on what would become an incredible journey.

    It was in 1964 that the course of gaming history would change forever. Fresh from a successful 10-year gaming venture in North Las Vegas, Don began scouting the rugged Mohave Desert in his private plane. A Colorado River stretch of land called Tri State caught his attention. The area was vacant except for a boarded-up eight-room motel. Two years later, he paid $235,000 ($35,000 down) for the motel and six acres of river front property. In 1966, the Riverside Resort opened and offered all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, play on 12 slot machines and two gaming tables, and accommodations that included a stay in one of the four of eight rooms –the Laughlin family occupied the other four rooms.

    Tri State eventually became the town of Laughlin, named for its visionary Don Laughlin. The casino owner’s surname was bestowed on the town when a U.S. Postal Service inspector insisted he give it a name in order to obtain mail. "I followed his advice," Don Laughlin says with a laugh. "He suggested ‘Laughlin’ because it was a good Irish name. His name was O’Neill."

    After increasing gaming revenues from traveling motorists and fishermen netted a sizable bank account, Don expanded. In 1972, a west wing added 48 rooms and the east wing, built in 1975, added 52 rooms. A first tower was built in 1983, adding 253 rooms and 14 floors. In 1986, a second tower added 307 rooms and 14 floors. The latter expansion cost Don Laughlin $30 million and gave the resort a total of 660 rooms and suites.

    In 1994, a new 30-story tower opened and added 792 rooms for a total cost estimated at over $70 million. Today, the Riverside boasts 1,405 beautiful rooms and suites, most with breathtaking river views.

    Don’s ingenuity surfaced again in 1998 with the development of a $10 million 34-lane state-of-the-art Brunswick bowling center and all-new Race & Sports Book. Construction was completed in early 1999.

    Accessible from the 2nd floor of both the north and south towers, the Riverside Lanes bowling center is equipped with numerous amenities for the entire family including a snack area, bar and pro shop. At approximately 42,000 square feet, Riverside Lanes is big enough to accommodate championship and league bowling. Our 5,000-square-foot Race & Sports Book is located adjacent to the bowling center.

    The town of Laughlin’s first casino and only family owned and operated property boasts numerous gaming and entertainment amenities. The Riverside is home to over 1,700 slot and video poker machines including the latest technologically advanced video machines, 50 live gaming tables, Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, Keno, Bingo, a Race and Sports Book and Craps.

    In addition to gaming, amenities include plenty of fun and entertainment for the entire family. Don’s Celebrity Theatre seats 800 guests and is home to top-name entertainment such as Charo, the Oak Ridge Boys, Vicki Lawrence, Roy Clark, Glen Campbell, and Debbie Reynolds, to name a just a few. The Dance Club offers more than 1,400 square feet of dance floor for you to kick up your heels or experience the Karaoke club by night. The world famous Losers’ Lounge provides live top-40 bands nightly, two levels of seating and two dance floors. Other attractions include: the U.S.S. Riverside luxury tour boat cruises; two classic car exhibits; a 740-space full hook-up RV Park; gift shops; two swimming pools; a dance studio; a beauty salon and massage service; six restaurants (from buffet to gourmet); six THX surround-sound, Dolby-Digital cinemas with Digital 3-D; large video and game arcades; a mail center; and Waverunner rentals.

    In April 2003 the Riverside expanded across Casino Drive with an all-new casino addition (Riverside Casino West). The new gaming area can be accessed by either the newly created 560 space adjacent parking garage, or via the enclosed sky bridge crossing over Casino Drive that connects to the main casino.

    The first floor of the new Riverside Casino West addition opened with 180 of our guests favorite Reel, Video Poker and Keno Ticket-Out machines, in all denominations including 1 Cent, 2 Cent and 5 Cent Poker and Keno. Riverside Casino West is also home to a new bar and snack bar called The West Side Snack Bar.

    The second floor of the new addition features Casa Serrano Mexican restaurant, where patrons can enjoy a wide selection of Mexican style dishes.

    In the Spring of 2003, the Riverside also opened an all-new Food Court in the North Tower featuring Cinnabon and Seattle’s Best Coffee, Pizza Hut and Dreyer’s Ice Cream outlets, in the South Tower. Free shuttle service for guests is offered between the Riverside Resort, & Laughlin/Bullhead City International Airport. Along with his success, Don believes in supporting the local community. Don completely funded the construction of the Laughlin Bridge connecting Nevada and Arizona in 1986 at a cost of $3.5 million. An estimated 50,000 residents and visitors cross it each day. He donated his ranch home in the Hualapai Mountains near Kingman, Arizona, valued at $1.2 million, to Mohave Community College. Our town’s founder also donated the land and spent $9 million on flood control and planning for Laughlin/Bullhead City International Airport. Dedicated in 1991, the airport is capable of accepting Boeing 737s and MD80’s, and receives flights from around the country. Since the beginning, the Riverside Resort and the Laughlin family have demonstrated their hospitality and generosity to many Colorado River communities close to Laughlin.

    A lot has changed since 1966. The once bankrupt motel in Tri State has evolved into a resort and casino of epic proportions: Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino. Today, the Riverside’s work force numbers over 2,000 employees with an annual payroll of over $50 million.

    Laughlin’s population is now approximately 10,000 while Bullhead City and its unincorporated area boasts a population of about 42,000 permanent residents. An estimated 14,000 Nevada and Arizona residents currently work in Laughlin’s hotels and casinos. Multi-million dollar Laughlin housing developments have rushed into construction to keep pace with the business boom.

    A once barren desert terrain has become a modern boomtown ignited by the imagination of one man from a small farm near Owatonna, Minnesota. Despite his success, Don still maintains a personal connection to his customers and can often be seen talking to guests around the property.

    This 1991 Gaming Hall of Fame inductee has made it clear in many ways that Laughlin, Nevada, is his home.
     
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  9. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughlin/Bullhead_International_Airport

    But, before Feb 16, a week ago, you could only fly to it via excursion flights arranged from over 100 cities, some in Canada, possibly some in Mexico, which are subsidized by two Casino/Hotels: Riverside and Harrah's. The excursions are of short duration, 4 or 5 days, and very reasonably priced. They include airfare, room rental, shuttle service to and from the airport, and with some, a couple of "perks": free meals, shows, etc.

    After 20 years of haggling, the City of Bullhead finally achieved a commitment from American Airlines to fly in daily from Phoenix. We were on hand the morning of the 16th. to watch the flight, if nothing else, but also a large variety of festivities greeted the incoming folks, including free lunch and champagne in the teminal! We parked on a bluff overlooking the terminal area, watched the newcomer carefully settle onto the runway, using almost half the distance to carefully touch down, not even a discernible puff of smoke from the tires evident. The plane used is a Bombardier 2-engine modern jet seating 77. Reminds me a lot of the old BAC 111s (British Airways Corp), or DC-9s, 2 engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage. These were, however, BIG engines having the fat band around the front indicating they are fan-jet engines. Modern. Powerful.

    The town that Don Laughlin built had regularly scheduled air service in years past, when the Fed required it in order to assure mail delivery. De-regulation of the airlines resulted in Laughlin/Bullhead being stricken from scheduled commercial service. 20 or 30 years ago. Despite no commercial flights, in 2014, almost a quarter-million "enplanings" occurred, from the excursions alone, including private planes, which are fairly scarce.

    The airport is unusual in that it is located very close to the towns proper of Bullhead City and Laughlin. Folks staying in one of the towering Babylonian hotels across the rivere can watch flights amble along the runway firsthand from their room's windows. It's quite a scene, seeing the Colorado River down below, with the airport runway on the other side. Airport is 1/2 mile from the north end of Casino Drive, the "Laughlin Strip".

    We live about 10 miles southward. The prevailing north winds dictate landings northward, resulting in the planes gliding over our house, still at perhaps 2000 feet. We marvel in their certainty.

    [​IMG]
    Bullhead Airport (circa 1940's)


    This guy was brought in, we heard, because it was expected the aircraft would be on the ground for a length of time in Las Vegas necessitating very high costs, so they flew it here to be ogled over at much lower cost!
    [​IMG]
     
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  10. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I love watching planes taking off and landing....Lambert airport in St Louis was one where there was a small parking area off of the hwy next to the airport...you could park there and watch the planes...

    When visiting my son, we did that a few times. The planes were so low at that point that you could wave and see the pilot and passengers.

    Haven't done it in awhile...maybe it's been stopped.
     
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  11. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    One of the take-off patterns from LAX (Los Angeles International) goes right over Pacific Coast Highway and over the ocean. I remember, years ago, pulling over off of PCH and seeing some passenger jets take off from this pattern. They went right overhead and over the ocean. It was really weird to see a big jet going up and up over the ocean.
     
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  12. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I've flown from LAX a lot..also San Francisco and San Jose...it's a pretty cool sight to see the coast of California and the Pacific Ocean from the air.
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I know there's a lot at state (and involved) in a smaller airline getting at least one regular commercial flight. From their site, I see that the Brownsville International Airport has United Airlines and American Airlines now, but when I lived in that area they didn't have any commercial flights. It was a fairly large airport, not Atlanta or Chicago sized, but good-sized, but all they had were cargo flights and some private air traffic. When I was teaching EMS, we would use the airport runways to set up for emergency vehicle operations courses, which we set up for police, fire and EMS training, because they had all this beautiful pavement that no one was using. They also had a large restaurant that was open 24 hours a day, although it was rare to find more than a few people eating there, and these were mostly airport employees or the fire department crew that was stationed at the airport. They served good food at good prices but since the airport wasn't near anything unless you were going to the airport, which few people did because they didn't have commercial flights, it was very much underused.

    I know that it was a big deal whenever they were in negotiations with an airline to run regular flights, and they were turned down multiple times. Before I left, I know one airline had begun flying out of Brownsville and, like I said, now I can see that they have two.
     
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  14. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    We live in a resort and vacation destination, known locally as the "Tri-State Area", where CA, NV, and AZ all meet together, divided by the Colorado River. The largest populations here are Laughlin, NV, about 9,000, Bullhead City, AZ, 40,000, and Fort Mohave, AZ, 14,000. The greater majority of visitors this coming weekend will be found in Laughlin and BHC. I'd guess 95% of them will be riding motorcycles! Here is a pic of just one parking lot last year, the Colorado Belle, representative, as all 9 others were similarly packed with bikes!

    [​IMG]

    Local officials estimate that at least 30,000 bikes will be here! That means the population of Laughlin and BHC will swell by 60%! 'Course, many bikes will carry two......... Today we were out and about, and saw quite a number of early-arrival bikers, though the event does not officially start until Thursday. Every room available will be spoken for, probably. Camping overnight along the river is prohibited; many won't know that, and may be rousted out next morning. Officials are reasonably lenient (a war might erupt otherwise, perhaps).

    At least half the bikers are retired old coots. For the most part, violence is minor, though some years ago three people were killed at Harrah's. These visitors spend one hell of a lot of money while here. Perhaps explaining why our county, Mohave County, has the lowest tax rates and cost of living of any in the state.

    Now, this same weekend was chosen by the Commemorative Air Force, which has 11,000 members and a fleet of 160 airplanes, for their AirPower History display here at Laughlin/Bullhead Airport. Highlighting the event will be this:

    [​IMG]

    One of only two flyable B-29 Bombers, just touching down here yesterday! Visitors can tour the cockpit, and even book short flights in it! Here's a few more pics:
    [​IMG]

    Below, right of the bomber, is our only scheduled flight preparing to return to Phoenix, American Airlines Eagle. It had to wait, though fully ready to depart, as "Fifi" the B-29 arrived, did a fly-over at about 200 feet altitude, then touched down just as gracefully as any modern plane! This was a thrilling moment for us both! Undoubtedly, the usual grumbling about a few minutes delay within the Eagle was minimal, as their pilot explained the reason for the delay, and the folks saw this incredible B-29!
    [​IMG]



    We stay home this weekend! Frank
     
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  15. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Here are a few more images of Fifi, much better than my wife could capture from our vantage point outside the airport. If you look closely, you will discern that B-29s had 4 machine gun e turrets, to fend off attacking fighter-planes. As it was, the bombing B-29s over Japan, were able to fly so high, as to avoid anti-aircraft cannonry, dropping their payloads from 30,000 feet, or higher. 6 miles up in the sky....

    I have a small article about Fifi, which I will scan and post tomorrow. Seems she had been destined to be destroyed by missiles as a target! Wichita Kansas Boeing Plant delivered upwards of 2,500 B-29s! Think of it!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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