Winchester

History

The southern part of the Las Vegas Valley was referred to as Paradise Valley as early as 1910, owing to a high water table that made the land particularly fertile for farming. County commissioners established a Paradise school district in 1914. In 1950, mayor Ernie Cragin of Las Vegas sought to annex the Las Vegas Strip, which was unincorporated territory, in order to expand the city's tax base to fund his ambitious building agenda and pay down the city's rising debt. A group of casino executives, led by Gus Greenbaum of the Flamingo, lobbied the county commissioners for town status, which would prevent the city from annexing the land without the commission's approval. A month after its establishment, the town was expanded to include the residential areas of Paradise Valley. Months later, however, it was reported that county officials had determined that the town had not been properly established, because the petition for the town's formation had an insufficient number of signatures and because it had violated a state law forbidding formation of a town spanning multiple school districts. On August 20, 1951, county commissioners accepted petitions to create two new towns covering the area of the putative town. Town "A" of Paradise included the areas that lay within a Las Vegas school district, extending from the city limits to a point one mile south, while Town "B" included the areas within the Paradise school district. Ultimately, in 1956 state law consolidated all local school districts into a countywide school district, which in the Las Vegas Valley's case is the Clark County School District.

Geography

Winchester sits in the east-central part of the Las Vegas Valley. To the north it borders Las Vegas, to the west and south is the CDP of Paradise, and to the east is Sunrise Manor. Relative to streets, it is the area bordered by Sahara Avenue on the north, Boulder Highway on the east, Desert Inn Road on the south and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks on the west, with a few additional enclaves west of Interstate 15. The Strip casinos which are part of Winchester include the Sahara, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Resorts World Las Vegas, Circus Circus, and the Westgate. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  20,726
• Verdin

  Auriparus flaviceps (Sundevall, 1850) · Aves
  19,403
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  16,123
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  15,809
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  15,509
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  14,740
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  14,426
• American Coot

  Fulica americana Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  14,287

Most recent

• M 2.72 — 2026-08-20
  17 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada
• M 2.99 — 2026-07-12
  17 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada
• M 3.17 — 2026-06-25
  18 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada
• M 2.6 — 2026-06-25
  18 km NNW of Indian Springs, Nevada
• M 3.75 — 2026-06-04
  11 km NW of Summerlin South, Nevada
• M 2.5 — 2026-04-22
  34 km W of Indian Springs, Nevada