UNLV University Libraries points to the Mirage as a pivotal part of the city’s transformation. Its “Building Las Vegas” project notes that Southern Nevada’s population increased sevenfold between 1970 and 2010, with the Mirage’s 1989 opening pushing Las Vegas’ growth into overdrive.

The community will gather across southern Nevada on Friday to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks that changed the course of the nation.

Veterans and employees gather at New York-New York in Las Vegas.

The shirts, still creased from wherever they’d been folded away for years, were laid out flat on a long table near the replica Statue of Liberty at New York-New York on the Strip.

Thousands of shirts, flags, stuffed animals, and handwritten notes left outside the New York-New York Hotel and Casino after the Sept. 11 attacks are being preserved at UNLV as a lasting tribute to those lost and the people who mourned them.

Twenty-five years ago, people began leaving T-shirts, flags, flowers, photographs and handwritten messages outside the Statue of Liberty replica at New York-New York hotel-casino. What began spontaneously in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks eventually grew into a collection of more than 6,000 pieces.

Behind the doors at UNLV is a carefully curated collection of items that showcase the history and personal touch of September 11th, 2001.

Public can view items at UNLV Special Collections and Archives

Historical research preserved at UNLV notes that Mexicans worked on local railroad crews as early as 1905, and Census records show substantial Mexican participation in the railroad workforce by 1910. Migration increased during the Mexican Revolution as workers came north seeking economic opportunity.

SCNG journalists' Day 2 en route to New York for the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was a search for “all that is honest and good.”

Las Vegas’ casino history isn’t just told in neon and nostalgia. It’s preserved in blueprints, sketches, and personal records housed inside UNLV’s Special Collections and Archives, where materials tied to some of the city’s most iconic resorts offer a window into how Nevada became what it is today.

The Nevada State Museum is celebrating the 90th birthday of photojournalist Clinton Wright, a man who spent decades documenting life on Las Vegas’ historic Westside. Thousands of Wright’s images are now preserved in UNLV’s Special Collections and featured in the exhibit “Rhythm and Resilience: Black Vegas.”