Today a booming city within the Las Vegas metropolitan area, North Las Vegas began in the 1910s as a sparsely populated, unregulated subdivision. During Prohibition it was known as an area of bootlegging, and in the 1930s it became a popular location for inexpensive housing. The establishment of the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Flexible Gunnery School (later Nellis Air Force Base) during World War II spurred growth in the 1940s and subsequent decades. In 1946 North Las Vegas incorporated and later was able to ward off annexation attempts by its larger neighbor to the south. Well into the 1960s, North Las Vegas was still known as a “slum,” according to historian Eugene Moehring, but it has shaken the old image and is now a desirable bedroom community. The landscape is dominated by residential subdivisions popping up along the valley floor as fast as developers can build them.
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