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Show Enough Las Vegas Lots Are Sold For Gity Of 350,000 v - a proposition that came to the notice of the Better Business Bureau Bu-reau at Los Angeles. Advertised as "adjacent" to Las Vegas, it actually actual-ly wa?. "Vegas View" is only two miles or so from the city limits but many miles from town! And, by the way, it was all sold. -, Louis B. Spaeth, of the Los Angeles An-geles Better Business Bureau, who ' spent several days in travelling over the entire countryside, says: "Enough lots have been sold so that, if built up, they would accommodate ac-commodate a city of from 350,000 to 400,000. Even the chamber of commerce com-merce estimates only 25,000." LAS VEGAS, Nev., March ' (NEA) The fact that Las Vegas today is a boom town. that has failed fail-ed to boom despite the fact that the site on which the great Boxilder Dam is to be built is only 28 miles away, is due largely to the fantastic fan-tastic real estate speculations which have brought many a .prospective .pros-pective Las Vegan to grief. But in fairness to local business men," it should be said that these glaring frauds have been perpetrated by outsiders. There is here, as everywhere, every-where, a nuix'sus of permanent and bona fide residents who are not to blame. Scarcely was the ink dry on President Coolidge's signature in 1928 to the act providing for the great government dam and power project, when nearly every available avail-able parcel of desert land within 50 miles of Las Vegas became a "business" or at least a "choice residential" lot. Hundreds of invesiois In distant cities were persuaded to buy as the promoters went to incredible lengths to sell virtually worthless lands. The wildcat real estate promotions pro-motions of Las Vegas would be humorous hu-morous except for the fact that many of the "suckers" can't afford to lose. Various incidents have come to light throughout the country, when, some investor discovered that his land wouldn't even provide sustenance sust-enance fur the proverbial jack-rabbit. Big City on the Map For a comprehensive picture of Las Vegas real estate promotions, board Sam Cashman's sedan for a trip to the damsite, 28 miles away. It is about 33 miles by the auto road. You are soon out of Las Vegas proper, and there's the rub. The city is built in an area of approximately one and a half square miles but the city limits cover 14. square miles. It all looks great on a salesman's map, too. The dry washes, the gullies, the acres covered with hard gypsite through which water will not penetrate, pene-trate, are not shown. Naturally. At the end of the five or six blocks that form all of Fremont street, the main stem, trees bloom in fertile soil irrigated by underground under-ground springs. And then the car has not moved more than 50 feet further here is dry, hard desert! And it remains that until you get to the river. But the fact that the soil is bad and the prospects worse does not deter subdividers. You pass tract after tract having survey stakes. And the names they sound swell! Dandy Names, Too "Jericho Heights," for instance, is 10 miles outside of town, a couple of shacks and an artesian well. There you can buy "business lots" for a hundred or so dollars. The new highway will run through there to the construction town. It is the nearest patented land to this town, the government having closed the rest. "Fairview Heights"; "Artesian Park Estates" they all have attractive at-tractive names. Then there is "Woodland Park," "Country Club" addition; "Grandview" addition. Speaking of views, you should see the layout called "Vegas View" |