The map in the today’s brochure is an updated version of the map in the 1935 Boulder Dam brochure presented here a few days ago. The map shows a much larger Las Vegas, of course, as by 1963 the city’s population had grown by about 900 percent. The map also covers a slightly larger area, embracing Death Valley National Monument. Both maps included Bryce, Zion, and the north rim of the Grand Canyon where UP had lodges. Though published 28 years apart, both maps were drawn and painted by Gerald Eddy.

Click image to download a 15.7-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

The rest of the brochure is illustrated by color photos. One of the cover photos of Las Vegas is also found on a 1964 dining car menu. Another photo of Hoover Dam was taken at the same time as a photo on a 1968 dining car menu, as the same four people are in both photos, but in slightly different positions.

I noted that the 1939 brochure barely hinted at gambling as a reason to visit Las Vegas. Other than the cover photo of casinos, this one doesn’t mention it at all, focusing instead on conventions, entertainment, golf, and other recreation. It does have a few paragraphs about the “world renowned ‘Strip.'” With its eleven (going on twelve in 1963) “multi-million dollar resort hotels,” the Strip was, according to the brochure, the “entertainment capital of the world.” Yet in 1963, all of the hotels on the Strip were low-rise buildings, essentially two- to three-story motels with a casino, theater, and swimming pool, and nothing like the giant, high-rise hotels that developers began building in the late 1960s.

This brochure is also similar to a 1953 brochure we’ve seen about Las Vegas and Hoover Dam. In the intervening ten years, Hoover lost its status as the “World’s Highest Dam,” so the 1963 brochure calls it “America’s Highest Dam” instead. At the beginning of 1963, Hoover was the third-tallest dam in the world after Italy’s Vajont Dam (completed in 1959) and Switzerland’s Mouvoisin (1957). Two more dams would overtop Hoover in 1963 and today it is only number 33 and America’s second-highest after California’s Oroville (1968).