Paradise, Nevada is officially an unincorporated town in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Paradise Town Advisory Board and the Clark County Commission work in conjunction to govern the city of Paradise.
Tourists visiting the Las Vegas area are usually unaware that they are actually in Paradise most of the time, rather than within Las Vegas itself. That's because Paradise contains most of the Las Vegas Strip, with its world-famous hotels like Caesars Palace and the Palms. Paradise is likewise where McCarran International Airport, University of Nevada and the MGM Grand are located. The city of Paradise remains somewhat unknown since the Postal Service of the US has assigned "Las Vegas, NV" as the place name for ZIP codes in Paradise. "Paradise, NV" never appears in postal addresses. If the city of Paradise were an incorporated city, it will be amongst the largest within Nevada.
The Clark County commission voted to create the unincorporated township of Paradise during 1950, after the then-mayor of Las Vegas, Ernie Cragin, tried unsuccessfully to expand the city's tax base by pushing for annexation of the Las Vegas Strip. Ernie Cragin needed capital to pay down the rising debt of Paradise and finance a development scheme. A group of Strip casino executives effectively lobbied the county for township status to prevent the city of Las Vegas from annexing the land. Since then the county commission has continued to preserve its authority by limiting the expansion of Las Vegas.
Clark County has a population of nearly 2 million, which is around three-quarters of the population of Nevada. The county was formed by the Nevada Legislature during the year 1909. The Las Vegas Valley, a 1,600 km2 basin, includes the unincorporated community of Paradise and the city of Las Vegas. Before Nevada became a state, much of the area was part of Pah-Ute County, Arizona Territory. Clark County was named for William Andrews Clark, a US senator, who was mostly responsible for routing the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad through the area. The railroad significantly boosted growth in the area.