Historic DTLV Scavenger Hunt

Photos via Vintage Las Vegas.

Are you a Las Vegas history pro? Test your knowledge with this downtown Las Vegas scavenger hunt. (Answers below; don't cheat!)

1. Journalist Hunter S. Thompson had to get a grip during his famous trip to downtown Las Vegas in 1971. He stayed at The Mint where the sun still glints on the hotel tower that remains, but it now has another name.
2. This is the spot where it all began with a plan to start our city. Everyone was on-hand as officials auctioned the land. Follow the railroad tracks if you want to go back to this famous location that Marty McFly once visited. There is still a trace of Biff’s back to the future place. 
3. This famous San Francisco bridge is also the name of the place to see where the city’s first telephone still inhabits a special space.
4. Check out this historic location that was issued the first ever tavern license in the city of Las Vegas. Back in the day, it was a hang for Barbara Streisand and the Rat Pack gang.
5. You were expected to wear some spiffy duds if you were visiting an establishment owned by Bugs. This historic spot for slots opened downtown in 1941.
6. A former temple of beautiful noise, this historic theater once hosted the Beastie Boys.
7. This former Las Vegas mayor and attorney for alleged mobsters and bookies, remembers the steps of this building where he tossed his cookies. He is now a sometimes instructor at this famous structure.

Answers

1. The Mint is now known as Binion’s hotel-casino at 128 E. Fremont St
2. The Plaza Hotel & Casino, located at 1 N. Main St., is close to the site of the 1905 land auction that began Las Vegas. The hotel was also  featured in the 1989 film “Back to the Future II” as Biff Tannen’s Pleasure Paradise.
3. The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, located at 1 E. Fremont St. is still home to the first telephone installed in Las Vegas in 1907.
4. Atomic Liquors, 917 Fremont St. It was originally Virginia's Cafe. 
5. The El Cortez Hotel & Casino, located at 600 E. Fremont St. was purchased in 1945 to a group that counted Bugsy Siegel as an investor.
6. The Huntridge Theater, 1208 E. Charleston Blvd., opened in 1944.
   
7. The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, 300 Stewart Ave., was a former federal courthouse where Mayor Oscar B. Goodman had his first case. He was nervous and had his infamous incident with the front steps.