Ahh, Las Vegas. Sin City. The Gambling Capital of the World. The Neon Capital of the World. Aliased under numerous nicknames, the city evokes an environment of bright lights, non-stop entertainment, desert fun — and lost wages…
When is Las Vegas Not Really Las Vegas?
…but are you really technically in Las Vegas?
Although the entire region is widely considered to be Las Vegas, the southern border of the city proper generally ends at West Sahara Avenue — which is also Nevada State Highway 589 — with few exceptions. One of those exceptions is if you happen to be on Interstate 15, West Desert Inn Road marks the southern border of the city of Las Vegas.
If you find yourself at the corner of East Fremont Street and North 11 Street, for example, you are within the city limits of Las Vegas — which extends much farther north than you might realize…
…so what is officially south of the border of Las Vegas?
A small unincorporated town called Winchester is south of the border of the city of Las Vegas. For example, if you happen to be on Las Vegas Boulevard — which is also famously known as The Strip — and you are at either the Sahara Las Vegas, Circus Circus, or Resorts World hotels and casinos, you are technically within the limits of the unincorporated town of Winchester.
Interestingly enough, West Desert Inn Road and East Desert Inn Road marks the entire southern border of the city of Winchester…
…which if you head even further south, you will official be in the unincorporated town of Paradise, which includes many of the hotels and casinos on The Strip — as well as University of Las Vegas and the international airport itself…
…so the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada sign is actually welcoming you to Paradise in Nevada.
Look out to the west and you will see the unincorporated town of Spring Valley, where few casinos are located within this area of the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area.
Final Boarding Call
Other cities and unincorporated towns comprise the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area — such as Enterprise, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, and Henderson, to name a few — but most of these areas are not where the action is located…
…so technically, when I wrote in this article that walking from the airport to the Las Vegas Strip is indeed possible to do instead of possibly experiencing the pitfalls of using a taxi cab, you can walk from Paradise to Winchester or to Las Vegas itself.
All photographs ©2017 and ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
