Early History of El Rancho Hotel and Casino
The hotel and casino that was built on the site of El Rancho Hotel and Casino was originally called The Thunderbird Hotel, and opened in 1948. The fourth hotel ever to open on the Vegas strip, The Thunderbird was built right on the highway in close proximity to the original hotel, the El Rancho Vegas and the second hotel; Hotel Last Frontier. At this stage Vegas was just a small town in the middle of the desert with two hotels and another trying to be built. The war had just ended, and Americans were trying to deal with the backlash. Building supplies were hard to come by, especially in the middle of nowhere, but despite all of this ground was broken in 1946 for El Rancho Hotel and Casino. The name of the new resort was to be Thunderbird, after a local Navajo legend. Continue reading “El Rancho Hotel and Casino”