36 years ago this month

M. Kent "Tim" Hafen, Rep., a 21-year resident of the Pahrump Valley, filed for a fourth term in the Nevada Assembly to represent the newly enlarged district of Mineral, Nye and Esmeralda counties.

Hafen is serving his third term for the district encompassing Nye and Esmeralda counties and the Mina and Luning townships of Mineral County. The three major population areas in the new district are Hawthorne, Tonopah and Pahrump Valley.

It was 1912 and Bob Tubb, who was just a lad, knew the fearsome looking man known as Jack Longstreet was an outlaw, not only by the six- guns he wore, but by the way people acted in his presence -- sort of respectful and nervous at the same time.

Longstreet, one of Nevada's most notorious outlaws, was over 70 when he settled in Amargosa Valley near the Tubbs family ranch in Ash Meadows.

Rumor had spread that Jack had an ear cut off by vigilantes? "I looked into those cold grey eyes and saw those notches on his guns and somehow I couldn't ask which ear had been cut off," said Tubb.

Jack wore his hair long so no one could tell.

"It's just as well," said Tubb. "Jack was kind of touchy about his ears."

30 years ago this week

A two day WJRA rodeo will be added for the first time to the activities at the 14th annual Harvest Festival County Fair to be held in September.

The El Riatas Riding Club is sponsoring the event, which is expected to draw about 150 young riders, 17 years old and younger, for two performances.

The gymkhana which has been a two-day event in years past will be a one-day event this year. The Western Junior Rodeo Association event has been sanctioned and this will be its last event before state finals.

A site for the new elementary school, which will be built in Pahrump if the voters approve the upcoming bond issue, was the main topic of discussion at the town board meeting.

Several sites have been offered and reviewed by local school officials and school board members. The two locations to be recommended are a 10-acre site near the present grade school and a 10-acre site in Calvada Valley a half mile from the high and middle schools and next to a proposed park.

Mae Taylor, chairman of the Miss Pahrump Pageant, said 11 girls have registered for the contest.

Laurie Isom, former Miss Nevada Universe, will meet with the girls for a counseling session prior to the contest. The 11 candidates are Brenda Sears, Susan Ledford, Mary Jane Mize, Jennelle Marie Stone, Cynthia Wulfenstein, Sandy Dee Clark, Cynthia Sue Lewis, Jennelle Tomie, Judie Maxine Zander, Geraldine Nagazyna and Charlene Price.

There were 14 entries last year and a record turnout at the program.

20 years ago this week

Bond Gold Bullfrog Inc. this week approved the start of a year-long construction project for its gold mining and milling facilities in nearby Rhyolite. The project is expected to eventually increase Beatty's population by over 500 people.

"We're presently starting with site preparation, which is stockpiling the topsoil for future reclamation," Jack Bingham, manager of Bond Gold's Bullfrog/Montgomery-Shoshone project said. They expect to have 200 employees on the job by October.

A game of oneupmanship developed this week in the legal battle between Nye County Sheriff "Stick" Davis and District Attorney Phil Dunleavy.

Davis' attorney, Peter Flangas, filed a motion asking that the charges brought by Dunleavy be dropped. He claimed 10 of the misdemeanors and 11 of the gross misdemeanor charges listed occurred more than a year ago and were no longer subject to prosecution.

But Dunleavy apparently anticipated the Flangas argument and filed an amended brief the day before Flangas submitted his motion for dismissal.

The seventh in a series of belt buckles produced as part of the Pahrump Valley Harvest Festival features renderings of the old Pahrump store and one-room school house. It salutes the Valley's senior citizens.

Two pairs of dice are also included in the design, flanking the date and state's name at the bottom. At the top of the design is the old boot which has been used for several years as the symbol of the Festival and the companion PRCA rodeo.

A limited edition of the buckle is produced each year with a sellout every time.

10 years ago this week

Parents, children, drivers and district officials all seem to agree that Pahrump's school buses have been unbearably hot this summer -- the first summer four local schools have been using a multi-track, yearround schedule.

However, exactly what can be, is being and will be done about the problem remains a matter of dispute. Temperatures on the buses, which are not equipped with air conditioning, have topped 120 degrees during the afternoon runs.

Tennessee-based Province Healthcare is apparently not too interested in building a hospital in Pahrump after all.

Sherry O'Dell, a representative of the private, for-profit health-care company said Province officials have canceled a second fact-finding visit to the valley.

According to O'Dell, the company has chosen, instead, to concentrate its efforts on the 58 medical facilities it already owns, leases or operates.

It isn't exactly a win-win situation for the county, but the commissioners decided to go ahead and finish road work in the Golden Springs subdivision with the hope it will get paid by Preferred Equities Corp. without having to take PEC to court.

Public Works Director Bob Wickenden brought the matter to the commissioners. The proposal on the table was to terminate the agreement with PEC because the county had not been paid the most recent and final, $100,000 installment for road work performed in the subdivision.