MARK WAITE / PVT Philip Mark Williams holds a photograph of his father, Walt Williams, at the entrance to the Calvada Eye which will bear the name Walt Williams Drive. Advertisement

Many Pahrump residents are now living on property that was once owned by the late Walt Williams.

Williams owned the Pahrump Ranch, 10,000 acres of fee simple land in the heart of Pahrump, until he sold it to Preferred Equities Corporation in 1970.

PEC then subdivided it into tens of thousands of parcels as part of the Calvada project and the development of Pahrump began.

Walt Williams never had a street named after him until Tuesday, when Nye County Commissioners voted to name a short drive leading into the Calvada Eye "Walt Williams Drive."

Philip Mark Williams, 60, Walt's only remaining son, was on hand for the renaming, clutching a black and white photograph of his dad standing next to the airstrip once located near the Calvada Eye.

Nye County historical author Bob McCracken once called Walt Williams, "the king of cotton" in Pahrump Valley.

Philip Williams recalled how his father was farming cotton and alfalfa around Pecos, Texas when he spotted an ad in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about property in Nevada.

"The water situation in West Texas where we were living was becoming dire. The water table was dropping and he knew that there were going to be problems," Williams said.

Walt Williams flew to Las Vegas with his wife and another couple, visited Pahrump Valley, took some water and soil samples back to West Texas and were impressed by what they saw.

Philip Williams recalls his father stating he bought the fee simple title to 10,000 acres for $400,000 which included a lease for another 12,000 acres of property owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

That's less than some single parcels of land are now selling for on Highway 160. But Philip Williams notes those were 1958 dollars, when gas was 20 cents per gallon and a new car sold for $2,000.

The Pahrump Ranch extended from the intersection of Highway 372 and 160 down to Homestead Road. Philip Williams said his father farmed 2,000 acres of cotton and alfalfa. He had 10 deep irrigation wells pumping out 1,200 to 2,500 gallons of water per minute.

The Williams family lived in Las Vegas, but Walt Williams commuted to Pahrump every day, purchasing supplies for his farm before making the commute.

"When we came here 50 years ago there was no power and no telephone, except the households that had generators of their own had their own power and there was a telephone booth up by the corner (of Highway 160 and 372), by the Union 76 station and the cafe," Philip Williams said.

The Union 76 station and cafe were owned by Mary and Leroy Vaughn, he said. Only 300 people lived in Pahrump in 1958, Philip Williams said. His father donated 40 acres where the Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Gambling Hall now sits, to build the Nevada Ginning Company. Previously the hay was baled in Pahrump and carted at great expense to Bakersfield, Calif. for ginning.

The young Philip enjoyed accompanying his dad on trips from Las Vegas to Pahrump and liked being around the farm machinery. Philip said he learned to drive at age 11 on the street that will now bear his father's name.

Walt Williams lived in Las Vegas until his death on New Years Eve, 1993.

"Back then the valley was very isolated and remote. So until Preferred Equities came in here and invested the money and started building infrastructure, really nothing else could happen. It was kind of waiting for that giant step to start the whole thing in motion," Philip Williams said.

Philip Williams lives on land his father purchased in Oregon, but still commutes to southern Nevada where he owns property in Pahrump, Amargosa Valley and Sandy Valley. He expressed his appreciation for the county commission action remembering his father.