Las Vegas Strip, 1955 The Mary and Arthur Ackerman Aerial Photograph Collection at UNLV Special Collections @unlvspeccoll contains a set of stunning large format photos showing the length of the Las Vegas Strip c. summer/fall 1955. We’ve roughly pieced these photos together, with captions to show some of the landmarks. This begins over Hwy 91 (the Strip) at San Francisco Ave (aka Sahara Ave). Some of the places we didn’t have room to name in captions: (3) Next to Hotel Last Frontier was Last Frontier Village, an “Old West” theme park, and the Sportdrome race track, both used from 1948-1960. Frontier was the first to bring “themes” and family attractions to the Strip in the 1940s. (4) There is a tiny ranch house beside the Desert Inn owned by Harry A. White. This was the obscure “house behind the Desert Inn” where Black performers Pearl Bailey, Mills Bros, and Ethyl Waters were known to stay in the early 50s when they were not allowed to stay in the hotels. (5,6) The path of the Flamingo Wash can be seen passing through was is now Linq and Caesars Palace. When the Strip was built into a multi-lane road in 1951 a shallow bridge crossed over the wash.