Good Times in Laughlin, Nevada

John R Beyer and Don Laughlin welcomes visitors

In 1964, Don Laughlin flew in a small plane over the Colorado River near the area where the Nevada, Arizona, and California borders met.

He liked what he saw.

“Hey,” Laughlin may have suggested, “let’s skim across the blue waters of the river and scare the heck out of those fishermen in their boats.”

The other passengers in the plane laughed. It was a great idea, and what fun that would be.

“We’ll buzz ‘em really good,” he said. “Maybe somebody can throw an apple at them as we fly by.”

No apples went flying out of the low flying plane that day, but a high-flying idea did get stuck in Laughlin’s mind.

Being a very successful business owner from Las Vegas, Laughlin saw great potential for a new venture along the coastline of the Colorado River.

A gambling mecca.

Laughlin gambling mecca all lit up

But let’s step back in time a bit. South Pointe was a small town located near the most southern tip of the state of Nevada developed in the 1940s. There was not much there. A motel, bar, and a whole lot of brown desert sitting astride the crystal-clear blue waters of the mighty Colorado River.

It was the location where many miners working the nearby gold and silver mines would meet up on Saturday nights for a really good time.

“Whatcha going to do with all that gold you done found?” one miner probably asked another miner. 

“Well, heck,” the miner replied. “I’m a gonna go to South Pointe and spend it all in the bar.”

“Fine idee, I’ll be joining you.”

During the 1940s, hordes of construction workers started building the Davis Dam, just north of present-day Bullhead City, and stayed in a locale called Davis Camp – which is still present and used as a campground for river lovers.

On their time off, which there was not much of, they too wandered into South Pointe for some adult entertainment.

The tiny berg prospered.

But in 1951, the dam was completed, and the construction workers left. Rumor has it that many of the miners who had frequented South Pointe also stopped going to the bar since their spouses decided saving the gold and silver nuggets was wiser than drinking the family profits.

As dedicated as I am as a researcher, I could not locate any solid evidence to back up my assumption why the miners stopped frequenting South Pointe.

The town, like a dried-up Joshua Tree, started to just languish in the desert sun.

And that is when Don Laughlin flew his famous jaunt over Lake Mohave, the reservoir which Davis Dam created, and down along the Colorado River over South Pointe.

He purchased the land, built the Riverside Resort motel and casino, and business was once again booming. Though the resort only had twelve slot machines and two live gaming tables, life was once more breathing in this southern section of Nevada.

The casino and hotel Don Laughlin built

A post office was soon needed due to the number of employees and guest arriving. At first, Laughlin wanted the town to be known as Riverside and Casino.

The postmaster shook his head. “Nope, let’s call it Laughlin. That is a good Irish name.”

And since the postmaster was also Irish, both men agreed to the new name of the town.

“That would be a fine name, me laddie,” Laughlin may have said to the postmaster.

A bit of Irish history here – I did do research on this.

The family name Laughlin was first used in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland in the thirteenth century.

So, South Pointe officially became Laughlin, Nevada in 1964.

And soon, other casinos opened. The Bobcat Club, which is where the current Golden Nugget is currently located, and the Monte Carlo soon followed in 1968.

People who loved to fish, water ski, boat, or just enjoyed sitting beside sandy beaches or hotel pools in the sun found Laughlin the place to be.

“You know,” one guest was overheard saying in 1972, “I love the fact, I can fish in the early morning, water ski in the afternoon, eat at inexpensive buffets, and then gamble into the wee hours of the night.”

Folks enjoying camping on the Arizona side of the river

Laughlin was a mecca, but there was a little problem of turning the mecca into a megapolis.

Bullhead City sat directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin and had grown due to the construction of the Davis Dam, but instead of drying up like South Pointe had, it continued to grow. The town had direct access to the water playground of Lake Mohave, the water activities of the Colorado River, dirt trails leading everywhere, including the very much alive ghost town of Oatman, and so much more. It was also on Highway 95 and near Route 66 which brought more and more visitors on a yearly basis. 

Plenty of water to enjoy all sorts of activities on

At this time there was no direct route from Bullhead City to Laughlin across the river, and Don Laughlin knew there was a lot of business he was missing out from all those residents and tourists visiting Bullhead City.

Don Laughlin was one smart cookie. He purchased a huge parking lot across the river from his Riverside Resort in Bullhead City and started free boat shuttles to his resort.

He stated, “If I offer it, they will come.”

This was ingenious. What person does not like a free boat ride? No one. Trust me, I know a lot of folks that enjoy our boat without a wallet ever being opened.

But I digress.

Business in Laughlin skyrocketed. Instead of having to drive a long distance, tourists could plop themselves on a free pontoon ride across a short distance of river and in a flash, be at the Riverside Resort.

During the 1980s, the town was so popular that other investors came a-calling, resulting in the building of the Colorado Hotel – now the Pioneer, Harrah’s Del Rio, the Tropicana Resort. And more came in later, the Aquarius Casino Resort, the Edgewater Casino Resort, and the list goes on and on.

One of the most iconic establishments was the Colorado Belle, a hotel and casino built to look like an old-fashioned Mississippi river boat. 

Colorado Belle

In all transparency, Laureen and I used to spend some time in Laughlin with our girls. Sun, fun and the water was all it took to make a weekend memorable. We stayed here and there but one place that we truly loved was the Colorado Belle. 

Wandering the decks of this make-believe paddle wheeler was just fun. We would walk here and there looking at this and that and imagine being here or there along a long river trip.

My family has vivid imaginations when it comes to traveling – real or not.

I remember us visiting Pompeii once and . . . but I digress.

Sadly, as of 2020 the Colorado Belle may be closed permanently. COVID and other financial issues are said to be the culprits, but who knows. A river boat knows the sculpture of the rivers it maneuvers and perhaps there will be a moment when some investor looks at this building and knows there is a whole lot more life to this ship than what appears now.

Of course, that could also be my hopeful imagination in the works.

In 1987, Laughlin decided a bridge should be built just slightly north of his resort crossing the Colorado River from Bullhead City.

This entrepreneur knew the traffic from Arizona to Nevada would pass his resort first, so, he put up three and half million dollars of his own money to build the Laughlin Bridge.

Both the state of Arizona and Nevada jumped at the idea.

“Use your money to build a bridge that we should build?” a Nevada official may have remarked. 

“What a marvelous idea. Can it be a toll road for whichever state the traveler is driving into.”

“No,” Laughlin may have replied.

It was built, and today nearly thirty thousand cars cross it each day.

The bridge that Don Laughlin paid for

The city of Laughlin receives over two million tourists every year. That is a lot of people looking for fun ways to spend their hard-earned money. And the town does not disappoint.

Laughlin is not just a just a bunch of gambling destinations – no, it is a family destination.

Not long ago, Laureen and I attended a Rod Stewart concert at the Laughlin Event Center. 

It rocked.

There are venues all about Laughlin, with acts for all ages – music, comedy, theatre, and the like.

This city has something for everyone – and that is not just rhetoric.

Exclusive hotels, upscale dining, RV parks, simple camping, boating, hiking, gambling, international restaurants, guided desert tours, native American sites, museums, and so much more that is awaiting any visitor.

Pedestrian bridge from Laughlin to state park with hiking trails

Laughlin’s dream of building a gambling mecca was realized, but what he actually built was a place family and friends could come and enjoy just being family and friends.

And perhaps, that is what he wanted after all.

Ely, Nevada

All Aboard for Ely with Conductor John R Beyer

I had never heard of the town Ely, which is located at the intersections of Highways 50, 6 and 93 in what could be described as central- eastern Nevada, until my buddy, Paul told me about the annual Silver State Classic Challenge.

I like challenges – though, only the ones for which I will be the victor.

Turns out this challenge is centered around closing State Route 318 south of Ely so people with rather awesome vehicles can drive like bats out of something for ninety miles.

The real challenge is that each driver must keep to a strict speed and strict time – never increasing or decreasing the speed and adhering to the registered time limit for the entire ninety miles.

Paul’s brother-in-law had a new car capable of about six hundred miles per hour. They both had fun but did end up with permanent grimaces due to the ‘G’ forces for ninety miles at such a high speed.

As life sometimes work, within a year of Paul telling me about Ely, I was there. Not for the Silver State Classic Challenge but due to the fact Ely was the mid-point between the High Desert and Meridian, Idaho.

Seemed like a logical place to stop for the night while on the way to visit our new grandson in Meridian.

“It is logical to stop here,” I told Laureen.

“You sound like Mr. Spock,” she replied. 

“My ears are rounded.”

Ely was founded in 1878 by J.W. Long, who came west from Vermont to find his riches. Long did find gold in the hills and valleys near Ely but what is more interesting is how the town became known as Ely.

There are many versions to this tale.

Long came from Ely, Vermont. Long was sent west by New York Congressman with the surname of Ely as a historian. Smith Ely was also a Vermont resident who helped finance one of the early mining endeavors in the area. And a John Ely from Illinois came to this part of the country to also mine and make a fortune.

Rather confusing there is no one solid reason for Ely to be known as Ely. Long should have called it Long and let it go.

“We’ll call it Long, after me,” Long should have said to anyone.

Anyone would have only nodded and replied, “Humph, that is a logical name for a town founded by you and less confusing in the future.”

The original route to Ely was the rough trail scouted and utilized by Howard Egan in 1855 to move herds of cattle. Egan would drive the cattle between Salt Lake City and California to market. Though the high mountains had not been used by other explorers since it was considered too dangerous, Egan had found many passes through those same mountains saving time instead of having to skirt the entire ranges during his cattle movement.

This trail would later become known as the Central Overland Route.

With the construction of the Selby Copper Mining and Smelting Company in the same year the town was founded, Ely began to grow slowly. At the time there was not much interest in copper since most miners were looking for gold or silver. 

In 1887, the Nevada State Legislature designated Ely as the White Pine County seat of government. That was a huge feather in the cap for such a small town, and in November of 1887 a post office was opened – another feather in that Ely cap.

White Pine County Seat

Since the Central Overland Route ran right through Ely, the route was used by early travelers going to and from Salt Lake City, Utah or Carson City, Nevada on a regular basis.

In fact, the Pony Express used this same route for its young riders.

Ely served as a stagecoach station for folks traveling through the area. Soon the town began to increase both in population and buildings, and with the completion of the Nevada Northern Railway in 1906, Ely became the transportation hub for emigrants, mail, freight and passengers between California, Nevada, and Utah.

In the same year, more copper was located and with the railroad, transportation of the mineral was far easier than previously over the rutted trail.

A copper boom had begun.

Soon, from a modest population of only three hundred people, the town quickly grew to over five thousand.

It should be noted that when the last railroad spike was driven into the last rail in Ely on September 26, 1906, the whole town was there and declared it ‘Railroad Day.’ The celebration lasted three days – they knew how to party at the turn of the twentieth century.

Ely Railroad Station

Today, Ely has nearly four thousand citizens living there.

As we drove north along Highway 93 toward Ely, Laureen and I were amazed at how green the mountains were.

“I love greenery,” I stated.

“That’s because we live in a desert,” she replied.

Soon, we entered the city limits and before stopping at the hotel, decided to mosey about this mountain burg which sits at nearly six thousand five hundred feet in elevation.

Original 'chuck wagon' in front of hotel

Cruising along the main street, also known as East Aultman or Highway 50, we were impressed at how quiet and quaint the town looked.

Downtown Ely

Again, it was like stepping back in time – in the good way, not to the time of mullets or beehive hairdos.

Red brick buildings lined the wide main avenue. The residential streets were littered with houses with large front porches where family and friends could gather. Sidewalks where folks could walk and wave at those family and friends who were gathered on the front porches.

I felt as if I were in Mayberry, and Aunt Bee would soon invite us up for a shot of an adult liberation on the front porch.

The whole place had a homey and neighborly feeling – it was comfortable.

Even the dinosaurs like Ely

Though the population is not huge, the town had a feeling of hustle and bustle but without the noise and anxiety found in many other places we have visited.

Ely had a certain ‘chill factor’ to it.

We drove to the very large Nevada Northern Railway Museum, a National Historic Landmark, and spent quite a bit of time wandering here and there. 

According to the museum – ‘The Nevada Northern has been acclaimed as the best-preserved railroad complex in North America. For railfans, history buffs, and those who are generally curious, it is well worth the journey.’

The site is enormous with original steam locomotives, passenger cars, transportation cars, and so much more for those interested in the history of the railroad and how the railroad changed the country.

And who would not be interested?

Visitors can arrange to spend the night in the museum, the original depot – I am sure it is haunted and if not, should be. There are train excursions taking folks on a ninety-minute train ride through the mountains with stops at ghost towns – see more haunting places. And something called the Railroad Reality Week, a full immersion experience – no idea what that means but sounds interesting. And so much more at this museum for everyone.

Speaking of ghost towns on the train ride, there are numerous ghost towns within an easy drive from Ely like Lane City, Hamilton, Treasure City, Taylor, and No Ghosts Here City.

Like many of the places I visit that are out of the way, there are many events which happen all year-round drawing both locals and visitors from all over the state, country, and world.

There’s the Eli Film Festival for the more artsy folks, the three-day Fire and Ice Winter Festival for those who relish three-day festivals, the Race the Rails bicycle race for those who enjoy seeing if they can beat trains through the railroad crossings, the White Pine County Fair and Horseraces for those who visit fairs and horseraces, and the Search for Sasquatch Outing.

A lot to do in this town which also boasts some fine restaurants, hotels, and other such amenities for those just traveling through or planning to stay a few days.

According to the White Pine County website, ‘From the spectacular grandeur of the Great Basin National Park to the quiet serenity of Cave Lake State Park . . . From the historic mining towns of McGill and Ruth to the 24 – hour night life of Ely . . . We have a wonderful place to visit and live.’

And I believe they do.

Unfortunately, we did not have the luxury of spending much time in Ely since we were on a mission to Idaho, but it is a town that will beckon us back during various seasons to see what more we can see.

Traveling is like that – sometimes one can spend time and sometimes one must hit the black ribbon highway and make miles.

It should be noted, Ely is pronounced ‘Elee’ but in deference to our first grandson, Elias – the town hugging so many highways in Nevada will be unofficially pronounced as ‘Eli’ in our household.

For more information, http://www.elynevada.org/

Butch Cassidy and Winnemucca, Nevada

 As a child, I often got blamed for things going wrong around the house. Of course, many times it was me that caused those things going wrong but sometimes I was not the culprit, at least I pleaded so.

“Johnny,” my grandmother would say. “Did you put a snake in the clothes washer?”

My loving Nana would always say clothes washer instead of washing machine. Not sure there is a difference but sounds like there should have been.

“Well,” I would reply, while bowing my head in deep thought before answering. 

Nana was pure Irish and knew a lie when one came flying at her. The Irish – they know how to embellish stories and know when those stories are being embellished.

Though I am sixty-five percent Irish, I use only pure research when writing my articles – be it a faraway chance when this writer would ever embellish a story.

I know this to be true when I happened upon a leprechaun and a Sasquatch having lunch one fine afternoon in a dell in the sweet green grasses near Dublin. They both finished their pints and said in tandem – ‘You be the most truthful person we ever have met, laddie.”

Whatever story I concocted at the time did not fly with my Nana. I had to remove a very wet snake from the washer and the snake was not in a good mood at the time.

“No more made-up stories from you,” she said.

I nodded, knowing it was in my blood to make a dull story a wee bit more interesting if I could.

The point of these nearly two hundred and fifty words?

Well, sometimes people will claim a person may have done something when they really have not.

And that is not a bunch of blarney.

A perfect example, on September 19, 1900, three men walked into the First National Bank of Winnemucca, Nevada at the corner of Fourth Street and Bridge Street and carried out a risky midday robbery.

Scene of the crime

They held guns on the patrons and workers. They swore, spit and then one brandished a knife as if the guns were not enough to carry out their daring raid.

It was rumored that one of the outlaws held his hands up during the robbery and said, “Really, a knife, we have six-shooters pointed at everyone. A little overkill, wouldn’t you say?”

One of the other robbers growled, “Makes us look fierce and dangerous.”

The third robber shrugged his shoulders, “Probably should have also thought of masks when we made these plans. Don’t you think?”

“Well, shoot,” one robber said. “No, I didn’t mean that!”

After a bit of hesitation and the threat of great bodily harm, George S. Nixon, the cashier, finally opened the vault and handed over nearly thirty-thousand dollars in gold coins. That would be well over a million dollars today.

Quite a haul for any group of fellows.

The robbery was then blamed on the notorious but well-liked robber, Butch Cassidy, and his Hole in the Wall Gang.

This was where truth sometimes is hidden in a bit of fiction.

Stately Courthouse - the hangings happened out back

The city of Winnemucca was named after Chief Winnemucca who lived in the area in the 19th century. He was a member of the Northern Paiutes. The Chief received his moniker when some early travelers came through what would be later known as Humboldt County in Nevada and saw him wearing only one moccasin.

Winnemucca is a loose translation meaning one moccasin – sort of like what probably happened to the Chief’s lost moccasin.

An interesting point in the story is that Sarah Winnemucca, the Chief’s daughter, later became an important advocate for the Native Americans living in and around the county. It was she who had the United States government begin to treat the Paiute and Shoshone tribes with more respect, offering education to all who desired it.

Sarah was also the first Native American to have her autobiography published, detailing her life as a daughter to a chief, working as an interpreter, a scout and messenger for the United States Army.

In fact, the autobiography has been referred to as, ‘one of the most enduring ethno-historical books written by an American Indian’ according to the 1983 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology.

Gold was discovered not far from Winnemucca in the late 1860s bringing forth thousands of miners swarming to the hills and mountains not far from what would become the capital of Humboldt County.

In September of 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad arrived and in October of that year, it became part of the of the transcontinental railroad system.

Soon immigrants from all over started to arrive to this hilly landscape which happened to be perfect for raising sheep. 

Basques, the immigrants who arrived from northern Spain and southern France, moved into Winnemucca in the mid-19th-century and worked as sheepherders. Many became very successful and expanded their enterprises to the point that modern day Winnemucca hosts one of the largest annual Basque festivals in the United States, known as Euskal jajak.

So, with the town of Winnemucca growing quickly from the gold discoveries, the railroad and all the immigrants making their way across the Great Basin, bank robbers realized the local bank would probably have gobs of gold just waiting to be stolen.

There was and it was stolen on that summer day in 1900.

A short time later, Butch Cassidy and his gang were blamed – but there was an important issue missing. Butch was not there on the date of the robbery.

Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang

Though Cassidy was known for bank robberies, his best-known antics leaned more toward train robbing.

It is rumored that Butch once said, “I like banks but blowing up mail cars on a train is a lot more fun. In fact, I bet that sixty-some years from now someone will make one of those moving pictures shows about me blowing the heck out of one of those mail cars.”

When the First National Bank of Winnemucca was robbed, Cassidy was nearly six hundred miles away in Tipton, Wyoming. He was planning a train robbery, which took place on August twenty-ninth of 1900, and he got away with fifty-thousand dollars in gold.

Time travel had not been invented yet in 1900, so unless Cassidy robbed a train and high-tailed to Winnemucca, the chances he was involved in the bank heist is a little hard to believe.

But Butch’s name is forever etched into Winnemucca’s history. Of course, perhaps the three men who did rob the bank may have been a part of the Hole in the Wall Gang

As the Sundance Kid may have said, “Yes, we were a gang but kind of a loosie-goosy kind of gang. We did things together and sometimes did things on our own”. 

To this day the three men’s identity is still a mystery, and the gold has never been found or spent, according to research.

Winnemucca is a great destination, as Laureen and I found out. The downtown area feels as though the visitor has stepped back in time and reliving what life was like at the turn of the twentieth century. Minus the bank robberies.

We walked up and down the streets taking in all the sights. The huge, beautiful Humboldt County Courthouse stands majestically on a high hill overlooking downtown Winnemucca.

A large convention center is within walking distance and hosts various events each year for locals and visitors alike.

View looking west across downtown Winnemucca 

Winnemucca is also home to the Buckaroo Hall of Fame and has a wonderful Heritage Museum to peruse.

Some of the largest events held in this modern but slow-paced city, besides the Euskal jajak, is the annual Ranch Hand Rodeo, the Run-A-Mucca Motorcycle Rally, the Tri-County Fair and Stampede, and the I Am Going Run the Hecka Out of the Way of the Stampede Event.

For those travelers looking for an adult libation, a visit to the Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall Bar on Bridge Street is a must.

And for those more adventurous souls, there are dozens of ghost towns from the old mining days in Humboldt County just waiting to be visited.

There is Camp McGarry, Camp Winfield Scott, Jumbo, and Willow Point, just to name a few and the best part they are all an easy drive from Winnemucca.

What a better day than to visit historical sites and then return for the evening and perhaps have a great Basque meal while tossing back a glass of Txakoli.

Of course, when visiting a ghost town or any other historical site be careful where you walk and leave the place as you found it, so others may enjoy it in the future.

There are some real dodo-heads who don’t follow that advice and ruin everything – don’t be one of them.

As we drove away from Winnemucca, I turned to Laureen and said, “I liked Winnemucca. Did you like Winnemucca?”

She nodded. “Yes, but you just like to say Winnemucca.”

It was true, but I truly enjoyed our first jaunt through Winnemucca.

For more information: http://www.winnemucca.com/