Brigham Young, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sent the first settlers to what would become Las Vegas in 1855.

The town incorporated in 1905 when it became a railroad stop between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

Other connections include a woman, whose family migrated to Las Vegas from Utah in 1905, who designed the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign for Young Electric Sign Co., which has its headquarters in the Beehive State.

Howard Hughes hired more than a few Utah Mormons to run his hotel and casino operations in the 1960s.

And two Logan-based companies - Interactive Rides and S & S Worldwide - designed three of the rides that can be seen throughout Las Vegas because they sit at the top of the Stratosphere Tower.

Karen Schank, a park ranger at Fort Mormon State Park just north of downtown Las Vegas that celebrates the town's first settlement, said Young sent 30 missionaries to the area.

“It took them 37 days to get here and most of their supplies were gone,” said Schank. “It was important to get a garden going. The closest store was in San Bernadino, Calif. They needed to grow their own food.”

The idea of the settlement was to provide a safe place for travelers between Salt Lake City and California.

The ranger said the settlers needed to build a secure fort, not so much for fear of attack from the Paiute Indians who had lived in the area for 1,000 years, but to protect food supplies from theft.

“Young's idea was to build the Mormon trail southwest from Salt Lake City,” said Las Vegas historian Michael Green. “He was thinking of proselytizing, self sufficiency and establishing friendly places for Mormons to stop.”

The mission lasted just 18 months.

“If the missionaries wanted to know what hell was like, they picked the right place,” said Green. “This was Las Vegas in the summer before air conditioning.”

The park will open a new visitor center as part of this year's Las Vegas Centennial celebration. Visitors can see a reconstruction of the fort and learn about its history. Ownership of the fort passed to rancher Octavius D. Gass and eventually to Archibald and Helen Stewart. As a widow, Helen Stewart would sell the ranch and water rights to the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad in 1902. When the railroad came to Las Vegas in 1905, a new town was born.

That was also the year Betty Willis' family moved to the Las Vegas area. Willis, who still has relatives in St. George, designed the famous welcome sign.

“It went up in 1959,” said the 82-year-old Willis from her Las Vegas home. “I expected it to last a long time, but I didn't expect it to become as well-known as it is. . . . I thought Las Vegas should have a Las Vegas-style sign, not a little wooden sign.”

Utah Mormons would next have an impact on Nevada's largest city in the 1960s, when billionaire Howard Hughes moved into town and began buying casinos and hotels, such as the Desert Inn and Frontier.

Jim Whetton, who now lives in Ogden, was hired by Provo's Bill Gay after reading a story in Time magazine about how Hughes was hiring Mormons. He would eventually manage the Desert Inn and supervise its remodeling.

“He liked Mormons because he knew we could be trusted,” said Whetton, who met with Hughes regularly and disputes many of the stories about the reclusive billionaire.

Utah would again play a major influence in Las Vegas in 1996 when S & S Worldwide of Logan built the Big Shot, the tallest ride in the world, at the top of the Stratosphere Tower that dominates the skyline.

“That put our company on the map,” said Kathy Archer, S & S Worldwide marketing manager. “Is that not the most visible ride in the world?”

Another Logan company, Interactive Rides, built Insanity the Ride and the X Scream, both of which are part of the four-ride complex sitting on top of the Stratosphere Tower.

wharton@sltrib.com

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

Showgirls pose in front of the famous welcome sign designed by Betty Willis for Utah-based Young Electric Sign Co.