LOST VEGAS: The Old Vegas Theme Park

Las Vegas has always been brilliant at selling fantasies. One of its earliest and most persistent was the idea that the city grew out of a dusty frontier settlement—a place of cattle drives, saloons, and shootouts. This was the theme of Old Vegas, an amusement park that sold a version of Vegas that never existed. Horse Hockey Opened in 1978 along Boulder Highway in nearby Henderson, Nev., Old Vegas was a 55-acre tourist attraction developed by Robert Shelton as a “sister” property to his successful Old Tucson in Arizona.