Clark county i Nevada

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Länk: Clark county

Clark County är ett administrativt område i delstaten Nevada, USA. År 2010 hade countyt 1 951 269 invånare, vilket gör Clark County till det i särklass mest befolkade countyt i delstaten Nevada. Då countyt har haft en mycket kraftig befolkningsökning de senaste decennierna uppskattade United States Census Bureau att countyt år 2009 hade en befolkning på drygt 1,9 miljoner.

Originally part of the Mexican Territory of Alta California, what is now Clark County was first traversed by American fur trappers looking for beaver. Word of their journeys inspired the New Mexican merchant Antonio Armijo in 1829 to establish the first route for mule trains and herds of livestock from Nuevo Mexico to Alta California through Clark County, along the Virgin and Colorado Rivers. Called the Armijo Route of the Old Spanish Trail. The route was later modified into the Main Route by the passing merchants, trappers, drovers, Ute raiders and settlers over the years by moving to a more direct route. In Clark County it was northward away from the Colorado to a series of creeks, waterholes and springs like those at Las Vegas, to which John C. Frémont added Frémont's_Cutoff on his return from California to Utah in 1844.

What is now Clark County was acquired by the United States during the Mexican American War, becoming part of the northwestern corner of New Mexico Territory. In 1847, Jefferson Hunt and other Mormon Battalion members returning to Salt Lake City from Los Angeles pioneered a wagon route through the County that became the Mormon Road. In 1849, this road became known as the ”Southern Route”, the winter route of the California Trail from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles during the California Gold Rush. By the mid 1850s the route now known as the Salt Lake Road in California and the California Road in Utah Territory, was a wagon trade route between the two. In the mid 1850s Mormons established a settlement at Las Vegas. In the 1860s Mormon colonies were established along the Virgin and Muddy Rivers.

All of the county was part of Mohave County, Arizona Territory, when that Territory was formed in 1863, before Nevada became a state. In 1865, it became part of Pah-Ute County, Arizona Territory. The part of Pah-Ute County north and west of the Colorado River was assigned to the new State of Nevada in 1866, however Arizona territory fought the division until 1871. Pah-Ute County became part of Lincoln County and the westernmost part, the southernmost part of Nye County.

Clark County was named for William Andrews Clark, a Montana copper magnate and U.S. Senator. Clark was largely responsible for the construction of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad through the area, a factor heavily contributing to the region's early development. Clark County is a major tourist destination, with 150,000 hotel rooms. The Las Vegas Strip, home to most of the hotel-casinos known to many around the world, is not within the City of Las Vegas city limits, but in unincorporated Paradise. It is, however, in the Las Vegas Valley.