But as the historian Patricia Limerick reminds us, we need to learn not only from the successes of urbanization, but also from the “landscapes of failure” that remain when the boom goes bust. The ideology of manifest destiny, the old belief that America was destined to expand westward to the Pacific, may truly be superseded by a 21st-century belief in the endless growth of tourist destinations.

But it is also a simple boomtown, in the tradition of the American West - of towns that grow quickly with multitudes coming to strike it rich in industries like mining, but rarely staying to attend to the social or environmental costs. As such it is a complex 21st-century city. Las Vegas is now a sophisticated urban environment, combining high-end entertainment and recreation with the dining and shopping amenities of “lifestyle” economies. Such phenomenal expansion has provided opportunity for many newcomers, and the city’s boosters are legion. Nowadays, options are more limited, though these buffets remain favorites among tourists.With a greater metropolitan population of more than two million, Las Vegas has in a generation transformed from desert resort to urban center, and city planners, at least until the current recession, expected another two million in the next decades. El Rancho Vegas’ Buckaroo Buffet only charged a dollar for all-you-can-eat fare when it opened back in the day.īefore the pandemic, Las Vegas had more than 70 buffets inside casinos, spanning from Aliante to Henderson, Summerlin to the Strip, serving gourmet fare at various stations. Those early chuck wagons might have served some hot dishes along with cold cuts.

It may have seemed like no big deal at the time, but the casino buffet would become a Las Vegas signature restaurant.” Knowing that the hungry gamblers would be happy with good, plentiful meats and snacks, the El Rancho Vegas’s managers created the all-night chuck wagon. “The buffet filled a need for the casino, which wanted to keep its late-night gamblers happy, but didn’t want the expense of keeping a full restaurant open all night. As UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research writes, “quantity was usually emphasized over quality.” El Rancho Vegas, the Strip’s first resort, came up with the chuck wagon, the earliest version of the modern-day buffet to turn up in Las Vegas.

Culinary trailblazers back in the 1940s found a way to keep gamblers inside the resorts with cheap food, and lots of it.

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