From 1905-1931, Las Vegas was still a tiny oasis in a big dangerous desert. Its isolated people made their own whiskey. In "Young Las Vegas," author Joan Burkhart Whitely enlisted older Las Vegans t help capture the memories of a Mojave Mayberry, where neighbors took care of each other, not merely because nobody else would, but because it was their hometown, and they cared. In 1931 Las Vegas liberalized its divorce and gambling laws, which would ultimately transform the city into America's playground for grownups.