One of the best day trips from Las Vegas doesn’t even require you to lose sight of the big city’s gleaming lights. Henderson, Nevada’s more peaceful second-largest city, which is only a 20-minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip, carries its historical record in an incredible collection of art. The region’s earliest native ancestors can be seen in 300 rock panels of the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area (2998 Nawghaw Poa Road). Centuries later, modern American settlers founded a magnesium plant, Basic Magnesium Incorporated, that grew during World War II to employ 14,000 people manufacturing wartime parts. But it wasn’t until a post office arrived in 1944 that the postmaster christened the town, which was then just an extension of the magnesium plant, with the name by which it’s known today.