Las Vegas is 103-years-old and never looked better. And this weekend, you have an opportunity to celebrate our city’s birthday and rich heritage by coming out for the Helldorado Parade Saturday night in Downtown Las Vegas.

At his press conference Thursday, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman proclaimed this week Helldorado week.

“We ask all of our citizens to celebrate our heritage by taking place in this wonderful series of events taking place,” he said.

Helldorado Days began back in 1935 as a way to get folks interested in staying in our community — and it apparently worked.

Jim Buell, assistant chairman of Helldorado Days said, “At one time, the Queens Parade was as big as the Rose Parade. Roy Rogers, Dale Evans were Grand Marshals in the 50’s – used to be a big, big deal,” he said.

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum currently is featuring an exhibit that chronicles Helldorado Days in Las Vegas.

“We have some great shots that have been blown up, thanks to the Las Vegas News Bureau. Some shots of some of the parade — also of when Bob Hope was the Grand Marshal one year,” said Marilyn Gillespie, the museum’s director.

Organizers say seeing the exhibit can bring you in touch with the soul of the city.

“We would really like for people to appreciate Las Vegas’ history. We are very rich in history, and we just hope to instill some of that — because it is Helldorado Days are so much a part of this city and history. I think that people that really want to get involved with the city of Las Vegas, and be Las Vegans, need to truly get involved with Helldorado because it’s certainly a major event,” said Buell.

The parade starts at 7 p.m. Saturday. It will be followed by a fireworks show in Downtown Las Vegas. Also the Las Vegas Natural History Museum will be offering special activities for children on Saturday until 3 p.m.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.