AMARGOSA VALLEY -- A statue of Jack Longstreet looked over the entrance to the casino bearing his name, on Highway 373 along the California state line, but there weren't many other visitors around on a hot Friday afternoon.

That's why management at the LongStreet Inn and Casino opted July 2 to follow the example of Marta Beckett, the famous prima donna at the Amargosa Opera House down the road, and take the summer off.

A sign on the door to the casino explained that due to circumstances beyond their control, the hotel, restaurant and swimming pool at the LongStreet Inn and Casino will be closed until Sept. 15. The casino and convenience store will remain open, but only from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

LongStreet General Manager Joe Opapari said about 25 employees were thrown out of work for the two and a half months. They will be welcome to start work again in mid-September.

For Amargosa Valley residents it means the nearest restaurant still open is Fort Amargosa in Lathrop Wells. The State Line Casino across the street has been closed for a couple years.

"It's slow, it's a slow time of year, everybody's slow. That's all it is, a matter of having to make a decision then having to do it," Opapari said.

He reminded the public the casino and bar are still open until 10 p.m. every day.

"The restaurant wasn't generating (revenue), neither was the hotel, so we made a decision to close it," Opapari said.

The casino will have a grand reopening party Sept. 15, he said. Twice As Nice will perform that weekend. Business will be picking up after that, Opapari said. The LongStreet Inn and Casino does good business on bus tours of Death Valley National Park and other park visitors.

"Winter time we're swamped. We're already booked September up, but summer time is slow and this year is extremely slow, and that's not just for us but for everybody," Opapari said.

Part of the decrease in business has been fewer foreign tourists arriving in Death Valley to experience the extreme heat in the summertime.

The 60 rooms at the LongStreet Inn were closed once before, after a fire Thanksgiving weekend 2004, it reopened July 4, 2005.

The LongStreet, which almost resembles a mirage in the desert driving up Highway 373, first opened in May 1996. Pahrump residents often drive out to get away from town and enjoy the view of the Funeral Mountains from the casino bar. The gazebo in back hosts occasional weddings.

Former general manager Dave Greber told the Pahrump Valley View on the fifth anniversary of the casino in 2001 about the location, "It was a gamble. I think it's paying off. We consider ourselves to be at the gateway to Death Valley, an oasis in the desert."

Jim Marsh, a car dealer in Las Vegas and owner of various establishments in rural Nevada like the Santa Fe Saloon in Goldfield as well as the Tonopah Station and the Banc Club casinos in Tonopah, outfitted parts of the LongStreet casino with antique western memorabilia.

The casino is named after Jack Longstreet, a member of the Confederate army from Louisiana in the Civil War who settled in Amargosa Valley in the summer of 1880 and married a local Paiute woman. He was at times a lawman, outlaw, miner, storekeeper and rancher.

The only guests staying overnight for now at the LongStreet Inn and Casino are the peacocks, the cow and the burros in the livestock pen in a corral in the back, next to the swimming pool.