Laughlin like Vegas in the good old days

The one-time owners of a tiny eight-room motel on the banks of the Colorado River must be feeling a little like the Native Americans who sold Manhattan Island for, let's say, less than today's market value.Not that these motel owners were short-changed by visionary Don Laughlin - it's just that now, four decades later, Laughlin has parlayed that $235,000 investment into a big-time resort empire that so far has drawn eight other casino/hotels to his little stretch of the Colorado. In the meantime, Laughlin has pumped millions in casino profits back into such community projects as a bridge to Arizona and an airport capable of landing 737's.Who could blame folks if they named the town after him, too?Laughlin had made a few bucks selling a gambling club in Las Vegas and, while flying over what is now Laughlin, Nevada, the soon-to-be resort magnate looked down and saw a stretch of the river nestled between two sets of craggy mountains. The river also is the dividing line between Nevada and Arizona, and California's just a few miles up the road."If we build it, they will come." Not Don Laughlin's words, but no doubt his sentiments as he looked into his unusually […]

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