Southern Nevada | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
State | Nevada |
Counties | Clark Esmeralda Lincoln Mineral Nye |
Largest city | Las Vegas |
Southern Nevada (SNV) is a region and the southern portion of the U.S. state of Nevada which includes the Las Vegas Valley. It also includes the areas in and around Pahrump and Pioche. Tonopah and Hawthorne are sometimes also referred to as part of Southern Nevada, but all organizations based in the Las Vegas area, such as the Southern Nevada Health District, effectively limit the term to the Las Vegas Valley. [1]
Geographically, parts of Southern Nevada are within the Mojave Desert. The population of the region, as measured by the 2020 U.S. Census, is 2,327,680, with 2,265,461 living in the Las Vegas Valley (i.e., Clark County). Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Southern Nevada have been increasing in frequency and severity, [2] putting a further strain on Las Vegas's and Southern Nevada’s water security.
The primary drivers of the Southern Nevada economy have been the confluence of tourism, gaming and conventions which in turn feed the retail and dining industries. Las Vegas serves as world headquarters for the world's largest Fortune 500 gaming company, MGM Resorts International. [3]
Tourism also benefits the areas around Pahrump, which has served as a bedroom community of Las Vegas. Prostitution is also legal in areas of Southern Nevada, outside of Clark County.
The Mojave Desert and Great Basin Desert cover all or most of Southern Nevada. Man-made lakes, seasonal, and dry lakes periodically dot the landscape. Examples of these are Lake Mead, Lake Las Vegas and the Ivanpah Dry Lake.
Nevada is a landlocked state in the Western region of the United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, the 32nd-most populous, and the 9th-least densely populated of the U.S. states. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area, including three of the state's four largest incorporated cities. Nevada's capital is Carson City. Las Vegas is the largest city in the state.
Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley.
Las Vegas, often known simply as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-largest in the Southwestern United States. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife, with most venues centered on downtown Las Vegas and more to the Las Vegas Strip just outside city limits. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053, making it the 25th-most populous city in the United States.
Clark County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,265,461. Most of the county population resides in the Las Vegas Census County Divisions, which has 2,196,623 people as of the 2020 Census, across 435 square miles (1,130 km2). It is by far the most populous county in Nevada, and the 11th-most populous county in the United States. It covers 7% of the state's land area but holds 73% of the state's population, making Nevada the most centralized state in the United States.
Mesquite is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States adjacent to the Arizona state line and 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 20,471. The city is located in the Virgin River valley adjacent to the Virgin Mountains in the northeastern part of the Mojave Desert. It is home to a growing retirement community, as well as several casino resorts and golf courses.
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. The largest cities by metropolitan area are Phoenix, Las Vegas, El Paso, Albuquerque, and Tucson. Before 1848, in the historical region of Santa Fe de Nuevo México as well as parts of Alta California and Coahuila y Tejas, settlement was almost non-existent outside of Nuevo México's Pueblos and Spanish or Mexican municipalities. Much of the area had been a part of New Spain and Mexico until the United States acquired the area through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the smaller Gadsden Purchase in 1854.
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted for both its arid climate and the basin and range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin in Death Valley to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than 100 miles (160 km) away at the summit of Mount Whitney. The region spans several physiographic divisions, biomes, ecoregions, and deserts.
The Mojave Desert is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the indigenous Mohave people, it is located primarily in southeastern California and southwestern Nevada, with small portions extending into Arizona and Utah.
The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area is coextensive since 2003 with Clark County, Nevada. The Valley is largely defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a 600 sq mi (1,600 km2) basin area surrounded by mountains to the north, south, east and west of the metropolitan area. The Valley is home to the three largest incorporated cities in Nevada: Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas. Eleven unincorporated towns governed by the Clark County government are part of the Las Vegas Township and constitute the largest community in the state of Nevada.
The Spring Mountains are a mountain range of Southern Nevada in the United States, running generally northwest–southeast along the west side of Las Vegas and south to the border with California. Most land in the mountains is owned by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and managed as the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
Amargosa Valley is an unincorporated town located on U.S. Route 95 in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada.
The Amargosa Valley is the valley through which the Amargosa River flows south, in Nye County, southwestern Nevada and Inyo County in the state of California. The south end is alternately called the "Amargosa River Valley'" or the "Tecopa Valley." Its northernmost point is around Beatty, Nevada and southernmost is Tecopa, California, where the Amargosa River enters into the Amargosa Canyon.
Carpenter Canyon is a canyon on the western side of the Spring Mountains, partially within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, in Clark County, southern Nevada west of the Las Vegas Valley.
The settlement of Las Vegas, Nevada was founded in 1905 after the opening of a railroad that linked Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. The stopover attracted some farmers to the area, and fresh water was piped in to the settlement. In 1911, the town was incorporated as part of the newly founded Clark County. Urbanization took off in 1931 when work started on the Boulder Dam, bringing a huge influx of young male workers, for whom theaters and casinos were built, largely by the Mafia. Electricity from the dam also enabled the building of many new hotels along the Strip. The arrival of Howard Hughes in 1966 did much to offset mob influence and helped turn Las Vegas into more of a family tourist center, now classified as a Mega resort.
The Amargosa Desert is located in Nye County in western Nevada, United States, along the California–Nevada border, comprising the northeastern portion of the geographic Amargosa Valley, north of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
The landlocked U.S. state of Nevada has a varied geography and is almost entirely within the Basin and Range Province and is broken up by many north–south mountain ranges. Most of these ranges have endorheic valleys between them.
The Sunset 4A Region is a part of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association and is one of two conferences in Southern Nevada 4A high school athletics. The Sunset Region consists of large schools in the western parts of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas and Pahrump, Nevada. There are two division in the Sunset 4A Region, Northwest and Southwest. The Sunset 4A Region was a part of the Southern Nevada 4-A Region, until the conference was divided into two separate regions due to the constant expansion and development of new high schools in the Las Vegas metro.
Pahrump is an unincorporated town located at the southernmost tip of Nye County, Nevada, United States, about 62 miles (100 km) west of Las Vegas. Pahrump lies adjacent to the Nevada–California border and the area had a population of 44,738 as of the 2020 census.
Pahrump Valley is a Mojave Desert valley west of Las Vegas and the Spring Mountains massif in southern Nye County, Nevada, and eastern San Bernardino County, California. Pahrump, Nevada, is in the valley's center and the Tecopa and Chicago Valleys are immediately to the west. The valley has routes to Death Valley and a route to Las Vegas. Pahrump Valley Days is the annual event in February each year, along with the sanctioned JRH-HS Rodeo.