After the completion of the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas needed a new strategy. The absence of the dam's paychecks left an enormous void. Tourism, in the way of visitors to the dam, filled part of the gap. Las Vegas advertised the dam as the greatest engineering marvel in the world, and even created annual events like the Helldorado cowboy extravaganza to attract visitors. Another source of income was the divorce business, which had grown even more prominent after 1931. In order to trump Idaho and Arkansas' liberal waiting period of 3 months, Nevada introduced a shocking six-week waiting period. But not even Ria Langham, who gave the town an economic boost as she whiled away her six-week wait in Las Vegas's clubs and casinos while her soon-to-be-ex, Clark Gable, did Hollywood with Carole Lombard, was able to bring back the prosperity of the dam years.

Only World War II rescued Las Vegas, as the federal government again propped up southern Nevada's economy. An air base northeast of town was commandeered by the federal government, which ultimately spent more than $25 million on facilities. The Las Vegas Gunnery School supplied the Pacific Theater with tail gunners, graduating 4,000 every six weeks. But it was Hoover Dam, the grandest public works project of its era and the largest federal water development project undertaken to that time, that kept Las Vegas afloat. It symbolized the combination of hubris and ability to conquer, which was the American attitude about nature and it illustrated the ways in which Nevada depended on outside forces. By the time the Strip started to develop in the early 1940s, Nevada's economy was almost totally dependent on federal spending. In war time and after, Las Vegas was a federal town. Only with the arrival of Bugsy Seigel in 1945 did that reality begin to change… but more on that in the next issue.