When Las Vegas Was Young
A Wharton Drug Company postcard showing Las Vegas in 1912 at Main Street and Bonneville Street (public domain via Wikimedia Commons).The setting for my short story “Madame Noir” is a very young Las Vegas, newly incorporated as a town in 1911 that had started as a mere rest and refueling stop for trains six years before.
This is Vegas without The Strip, without “Old Vegas,” without tourists seeking to indulge, and without air conditioning. Although the mountains are still there, it is not the same city my husband and I have visited several times.
But it’s hot. It’s dusty. It’s growing.
By 1911, Las Vegas has an opera house, lights, a water system, houses, restaurants, hotels, shops, saloons, schools, a newspaper, a volunteer fire department, and a movie theater that shows silent films, including news reels.
It could be an attractive place for someone who wants to escape an old life of scandal and start anew. In a town full of newcomers, who would know Madame Noir has not always been a spiritualist and medium?
Her profession provides a way to avoid the hottest part of the day and the noise that comes with construction. She works at night, when spirits are believed to be more active.
She is accustomed to hot summers. St. Louis is hot and humid, while Las Vegas is hotter but dry. The air-conditioned lobby at the Apache Hotel is about 15 years away (air-conditioned rooms are even later).
The things Las Vegas would become famous for—quickie divorces and legalized gambling—are 20 years in the future. Until then, Las Vegas was like a lot of other cities.
“Madame Noir” is available on Amazon and other vendors.
Special for July 2025: My short story “Betrothed to the Red Dragon,” where Queen Gwenhwyfar must decide what price she’s willing to pay to protect her people, is free on e-book retailer Smashwords for one month only. Get it now. In addition, my first two novels, The Cross and the Dragon and The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar are half off on Smashwords until July 31.
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