Question of the Day - 07 June 2021

Clark County designated the main road from the incipient Strip to downtown with the moniker Las Vegas Boulevard in 1959.

The main road followed the course of the old Arrowhead Highway, the first all-weather road to connect Los Angeles with Salt Lake City, passing through Las Vegas en route. In 1926, not long after the Arrowhead Highway designation, the route was renamed US 91.

It was also called the "L.A. Highway," but that was never an official designation; it was more a description of traffic patterns. Similarly, it was called the "Salt Lake Highway."

For a time, the official designation from Las Vegas to the California state line was State Route 6. At one time, it was even split into U.S. 466 (from Fremont Street southward) and US 93, from Fremont Street heading north.

As for the South Fifth Street designation, that applied only to the portion of the road within the Las Vegas city limits.

That’s a lot of names for one road, no matter how illustrious.

But the road also suffered through a schizoid existence as both US 91 and Las Vegas Boulevard for more than 15 years. It ceased to be US 91 in 1974, when I-15 was completed.

In the end, Las Vegas Boulevard has been the prevailing nomenclature for more than 60 years now.