On January 31, 2000 has been hiding the historic Mapes Hotel in Reno from 75 kilos of explosives in the art-deco structures supports implodes. The destruction of the Mapes put an end to years of efforts to preserve the building on claims that the redevelopment proposals and action-oriented organizations. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has been the cause of Mapes, and demanded the destruction in a lawsuit that eventually reached the Nevada Supreme Court.

Although the logic and necessity of the demolition of the Mapes highly debatable, one thing that is certain is that the hotel is an important part of northern Nevada has been the history. The Mapes opened in’47 and with it begins a new era of casino gambling and the state of Nevada. Despite some historical revisionism which suggests that in the modern era began with the famous Flamingo Las Vegas Bugsy Siegel, the Mapes was actually the first American building, a hotel, casino and entertainment are all under one roof . The Mapes has attracted many famous guests who are at home when the operation would lead them to Northern Nevada - that included movie stars like Clark Gable, TV stars like the cast of “Bonanza” and Brokers political power as the notorious anti-Communist Crusader Joseph McCarthy.

In the 50 and 60 years was to do with Lake Tahoe Cal-Neva Lodge is the place in northern Nevada. On the top floor, window-walled Sky Room presents performances by legends: Sinatra, Louis Prima, Mae West, Milton Berle, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Marx Brothers and others. After years are not good in the downtown Reno, but Mapes thrived during the 60s and 70s. The hotel finally closed in’82, more because of financial difficulties encountered by the Mapes family by one of its other properties in Nevada Gaming Nordic than anything else.

Reno never known that the massive growth in Las Vegas and southern Nevada has taken place and therefore the destruction of the Mapes is open when the hotel destroyed in the south debate. The demolition of the Sands - perhaps the most historically significant casino state - is difficult to argue against the failure of such a small well that the current Las Vegas market and in order to maintain the value of the strip center real estate. The historical value of old properties can pop-culture historian, but their survival is not economically viable. They are simple “analog players in a digital world.”

This is not the case in Reno, where land and buildings for development in virtually every casino in the area abound. The city argued that the land on which stood the Mapes for consolidation efforts - a somewhat absurd, given the realities of downtown Reno and the absence of any real development on the site since demolition. Even if she had a number of viable concepts for the construction Mapes, the city Redevelopment Authority, all of them and the Mapes was destined for demolition.

The role of the city Redevelopment Authority has been made throughout the process in question. Given the Truckee River, the hotel was a great location between downtown and the casino area on the waterfront A series of good financial proposals have been presented, that the integrity of the structure, including condominiums, office space would be preserved, and perhaps as a viable and high-end apartments above. It is remarkable that all these new proposals for the Redevelopment Agency of the City, claiming that the demolition was always dismissed as a viable option, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

After the destruction of 2000, the game remained free for over a year, built a temporary ice rink has been pressed the following winter. The site is now a permanent ice rink, which although not a misuse of the land is not proposed to change the type of game improvement from the city Redevelopment Agency and its insistence intense that the building be demolished. Instead, it seems they had no clear plan or even a general idea of what to do with the land, but for some reason the hotel does not look down. This led to all sorts of speculation, ranging from financial self interest to a rumor that the structure of “Haunted” and should be destroyed to prevent future paranormal activity in Washoe County. Whatever the reasons, the city lost a valuable benchmark Reno has played an important role in the economic growth of the entire state.