Uniquely Ours

To paraphrase the Cole Porter song:

We're the top, but we've got no Mona Lisa.

But Las Vegas and its surrounding areas have topped many records -- building bigger, faster, better attractions and structures than anywhere else in the world.

Most locals know that we have the largest man-made lake in the world in Lake Mead, that the tallest observation tower this side of the Mississippi is the Stratosphere Tower, and that the tallest, fastest roller coaster is at Buffalo Bill's hotel-casino in nearby Primm.

But aside from the obvious landmarks, there are a few lesser known attractions you can only experience in and around Las Vegas.

"Anytime you do something in Vegas, it needs to be the biggest, the best because it is Las Vegas," says Art Greene, marketing and public relations manager for GameWorks Las Vegas, which has the tallest free-standing indoor climbing structure in the world.

The faux mountain climbs past the second story of the arcade/restaurant, narrowing to a peak that reaches 75 feet.

And it attracts more than the usual thrill seekers.

"(There was) a wedding on a ledge on the rock and when the groom went to kiss the bride she was hoisted to the top," Greene recalls. "The groom had to climb to the top to seal the deal."

Although the giant indoor rock attempts to bring the outside indoors, geologically speaking, Southern Nevada has some of the most visible fault lines on the planet.

"In Las Vegas, the geology is very interesting. It's complex and also beautifully exposed, which is unique to the American West," David Weide, UNLV geology professor, says.

It's a break for geologists from around the world who come to the Southwest to view a visible fault line in the Spring Mountains in the southwestern section of the valley. The North American "plate" has pushed against the California "plate" and shot up vertically to create a "tabletop."

"You can walk up and have lunch sitting on the fault (line)," Weide says.

Or perhaps you want to belly up to the old western-flavored bar at the Pioneer Saloon.

The saloon in Goodsprings, 25 miles south of Las Vegas, has the distinction of being the only known stamped metal (ornate tin) building in continual operation since its opening in 1913. (The red-tinged tin was ordered from Sears & Roebuck Co. in Chicago.)

When you walk through the front doors of the saloon, it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust. The interior is illuminated by a few bulbs fixed into the original lighting and a pot belly stove -- the only source of heat, and it's plenty. When your eyes adjust, you'll find the locals in the bar staring at you, but don't worry, they're friendly.

"We thought you'd never get here," Russ Coggins, a grizzled local, says, welcoming strangers to have a drink at the old wood bar.

"In the case of the Pioneer Saloon, the exterior skin is just stamped tin," Pat Klenk, local architect and a member of the Historic Planning Commission for the City of Las Vegas, says.

"The amazing part is it's not a terribly durable material and it's still in operation. There's a few bullet holes here and there, but what the heck."

The porch of the saloon was constructed for the Cheech and Chong movie "Double Trouble," and was never removed.

Patrons hope you'll stay to knock back a few and let them regale you with a story or two.

A framed letter on the wall, dated July 3, 1916 and written by a coroner, explains why the five bullet holes tore through the tin walls. A drunken miner allegedly cheated at cards and his opponent decided to teach the young man a lesson.

Then there's the time the locals kept trying to keep Clark Gable's spirits up -- at least in his shot glass -- at the saloon while waiting for the remains of his wife, Carole Lombard, to be brought down from Mt. Potosi, where her plane had crashed on Jan. 16, 1942.

Las Vegas may be a convention destination now, but when a single-story, 100,000-square-foot beige building was erected in 1959, locals wondered why.

"A lot of people thought it was a crazy idea," Rob Powers, public relations manager for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, says. "Who would want to come here on business?"

Those naysayers may be a bit red-faced now, considering that the now 4- million-square-foot building holds the title of the largest single-story convention facility in the world.

Planes, tanks and trains have filled the spacious rooms, as well as farm animals, cheerleaders, magicians, million-dollar productions and Comdex, the world's largest computer convention, held each November.

How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

"All of them," jokes Paul Spears, public relations manager for the Luxor hotel-casino.

The light that sits atop the pyramid-shaped hotel is comprised of 42 Xenon light bulbs -- equaling the brilliance of 40 billion candles, all aglow.

"They can get hot enough to melt the glass," Spears says.

Fortunately, by design, the cooling system is directly under the lights, and keeps it as cool as the cocktails served poolside at the hotel.

It was created to be a beacon for tourists traveling here.

"You can see it from Los Angeles on a clear night driving in (to Las Vegas)," Spears says, adding: "You can read a newspaper (by its light) from 10 miles in space."

Did they send a PR person up there to test this theory?

"No," Spears says, but they did use a mathematical equation to devise the theory.

There's the royal flush, the straight flush and, at the Main Street Station hotel-casino, a historic flush.

Where once guns were mounted on the Berlin Wall, now four urinals are mounted on a 12-foot-high chunk of the famous spray-painted barricade.

Did customers know they were relieving themselves on the Berlin Wall?

"No," was the general answer.

A peace symbol pokes slightly above a white basin attached to the 18-inch thick concrete slab, mounted on a wall in the men's bathroom, just to the right of the craps table.

Steve Wynn may not have found gold in downtown's redevelopment, but he did supply his Golden Nugget hotel-casino with the world's largest gold nugget.

Back in 1981, this was actually an attraction. Locals would traipse downtown to oggle the elongated lump. The "Hand of Faith," found in Australia in 1980, was purchased for $1 million and flown on a Lear jet to be placed in a large glass case in the lobby of the hotel. It now slowly spins in a corner to the left of the registration desk.

Las Vegas may be known more for strategy at the gaming tables than at city planning, but a local business has just added a distinction to our list of toppers: Westwood Studios' computer game "Command & Conquer," the most successful war game series of all time, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

"It just goes to show you don't need to bungee jump off the Eiffel Tower or squirt milk out of your eye to be in the Guiness Book of Records," Laura Miele, vice president of marketing for the 140-employee company, says. "We just made a great game and sold it everywhere we could find a software store."

Precious stones sparkle at the Liberace museum, with its mirror-plated Rolls Royce, jewel-encrusted capes and, most notably for this list, the largest rhinestone in the world, weighing in at 59 pounds and measuring almost a foot in diameter. It was presented to Liberace in 1985 by D. Swarovski & Company of Austria, marking his return to Caesars Palace after a 14-year hiatus.

The only place to catch the "Folies Bergere" production show, born in Paris in 1869 as a musical revue, is at the Tropicana hotel-casino. Ironically, the famed Paris production closed down for financial reasons five years ago.

For everything that Las Vegas has, there are some things it has no more.

"There were a number of buildings that were significant," Klenk says. "Unfortunately, they've been torn down."

Klenk recalls the old ice house built in 1908 on the Union Pacific Railroad land, near downtown. It was torn down seven years ago.

"There were a lot of mechanical contrivances for cooling that were unique at the time for the large scale technology," he says.

The first two casinos built on the Strip are no longer with us: the original New Frontier and El Rancho. The latter burned down in 1959. Bugsy Siegel's bungalow was also razed earlier this decade to make room for the expanding Flamingo Hilton.

Richard Moreno, author of "Nevada Trivia" (Gem Guides Book Company, $10.95), and publisher of Nevada Magazine, sums it up: "That's Vegas, they knock everything down."

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