The pic that was there before sinsboldly dumped it was a little too creepy for me. I guess I'm too familiar with Nevada, which is littered with the ruins of mining boomtowns that people thought would be the greatest cities in America in 10 years, only to end up with a population of zero. I should put up some of the crazy predictions made for Goldfield, the biggest boomtown of the Second Boom, with people saying that there would be a waiting list to get in, and that it would be limited to "only" 10,000 at a time, and etc.
1908 population: 30,000. 1948 population: around 150. Since then it's gone up to about 450, with all the retirees looking to flee Vegas. The only things left are the grand hotel, now a ruin but once the finest establishment between San Francisco and St. Louis, and a handful of other buildings, including the onetime offices of mine owner George Wingfield. Most residents live in mobile homes or in the handful of brick mansions that have survived.
Most travelers on US 95 gas up in Tonopah, another Second Boom city (current population: maybe 2,500) and bypass Goldfield entirely. The area simply was never that viable. A city in the desert would be like all the others, more Resident Evil Extinction than glittering metropolis within a short time. Las Vegas has grown far too fast for a dwindling water supply, and now the depression has slammed it. The residents of the north state are happy that for once Las Vegas won't be around to steal their water and money.