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USA, MEXICO #2/6
1977
LAS VEGAS
USA and Mexico research trip
San Francisco->Las Vegas->Los Angeles
San Francisco to Las Vegas to Los Angeles one-way ticket. March 1977. $93 dollars. The thicket was handwritten, and the receipt was a carbon copy. This was before the age of computers and digitalization.
Visiting Las Vegas
On March 7, 1977, I flew from San Francisco to Las Vegas, Nevada on a Trans World Airlines flight. On the way, I flew over Death Valley in the Nevada Desert, which was a really bare, dry land.
Las Vegas is a man-made city specializing in gambling halls with hotels. Landmarks in 1977 included Caesar Palace, MGM Grand Hotel, Sahara Hotel, The Dunes, The Sands, Stardust, Aladdin, and Flamingo.
They were all open 24 hours a day, and existed to provide an extraordinary playground for adults. There were no windows or other openings in the building, only artificial lighting, and as long as you didn’t look at the clock, you could continue to play day and night without being bothered.
Even in the United States, it was decades before everything was digitized. To unlock the door of the guest room, a metal doorknob was opened using a metal key, which was adopted in all hotels. Nevada, a desert state, was much drier than Cisco and Los Angeles. Every time I went in or out of the room, I will have a severe static shock. Now you can just tap it with the card, so it’s safe.
For the evening entertainment, a spectacular topless show was held in a large theater.
Caesars Palace
The parking lot of Caesar Palace Hotel in the evening. Many cars are parked there.
Photo by author, 1977
Dunes Hotel
The Dunes Hotel was a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It operated from 23 May 1955 to 26 January 1993.
Our group of three stayed in Dunes for two nights.
A huge billboard at the Dunes Hotel.
Photo by author, 1977
ALADDIN
Photo by author, 1977
MGM Grand
In 1966, Caesars Palace opened. In 1968, the Las Vegas Hilton opened. The MGM Grand opened in 1973.
Since the 1960s, high-rise hotels have been built one after another.
Photo by author, 1977
MGM Grand’s Entrance.
There are a lot of big American cars parked.
Photo by author, 1977
MGM Grand’s Entrance.
Photo by author, 1977
Photo by author, 1977
Grand Canyon Sightseeing
Handwritten tickets for Scenic Airlines. $261. March 8, 1977.
Grand Canyon Sightseeing SCENIC AIRLINE TICKET
A Scenic Airlines Cessna plane waits at a light airfield in Las Vegas.
Photo by author, 1977
We took a Scenic Airlines Cessna from a light airfield in Las Vegas for a tour of the Grand Canyon. We flew over the desert for a while.
“Hoover Dam”
The Hoover Dam is a huge dam that holds back the Colorado River near Las Vegas. It was completed in 1936. It is a dam that shocked the world during the Great Depression. Its size is said to exceed the combined water storage capacity of all dams in Japan.
During the construction of the dam, 97 people died due to heat stroke.
The shape of the dam is arched, 221 m high and 379 m wide, and the dam lake is called Lake Mead. The storage capacity is about 40 billion tons. Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, has a water storage capacity of about 28 billion tons.
Electricity from the Hoover Dam hydroelectric power plant is supplied to Las Vegas, as well as cities in California and Arizona.
All of Las Vegas’ green spaces, which are extremely dry, have sprinkler facilities in operation to keep them green. The source of this abundant water supply is from Hoover Dam.
Flying over Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam.
Photo by author, 1977
Descend into the Canyon !
The light aircraft descends into the crack of this canyon and continues to fly for a while !
1977年 筆者撮影
Photo by author, 1977
A horizontal bands of rocks came into clear view.
Photo by author, 1977
Photo by author, 1977
When we reached the Colorado River, the Cessna entered the canyon. It descended so much that both sides of my line of sight became steep walls, and the sky narrowed. Since it was an unannounced movement, I was surprised, but at the same time, I enjoyed a unique acrobatic thrill. After the aircraft fly through the canyon and rose above the cliff and landed without incident.
Photo by author, 1977
Flying through this canyon!
Photo by author, 1977
Photo by author, 1977
The natural formations are beautiful. The walls of the valley are all brown.
Photo by author, 1977
Photo by author, 1977
Landing on the Arizona side
The Cessna plane landed at a small airfield on the canyon cliff. This is Arizona, on the west side of the Colorado Canyon, across Nevada.
There is an observation deck near the airfield in Arizona, where you can get a close look at the geological formations of the canyon.
Photo of author, 1977
Photo of author, 1977
Photo of author and companion, 1977
The several casino hotels and hotels in Las Vegas that I photographed in 1977 could not match the changing times, and now they have changed their appearance, and you will not be able to see the same buildings now.
In comparison, the Colorado River Gorge, which is a natural landscape, will continue to withstand the passage of time.
There are no man made bridges within 100 km of the Hoover Dam in the Colorado River Gorge. Compared to the Japan archipelago, the North American continent is huge.
