36 years ago this month

Wrong-Way Bill Collins is thinking about taking a 10-day, 300-mile walk through Death Valley for charity.

Collins, who last year did everything wrong but managed to become the first man to walk from Scotty's Castle to Las Vegas, said if he makes the walk it'll be to help a charitable cause and it would take place beginning about July 27, the hottest part of the summer when Death Valley ground temperatures pass 150 degrees.

Collins is an executive at the Aladdin Hotel, an institution which, records show, requires no sanity tests as a prerequisite to employment.

A voter registration drive had helped Pahrump Valley record a 53 percent jump in eligible voters for the primary election.

Nye County as a whole showed about 2 percent fewer registered voters compared to those eligible for the 1970 primary. All residents living in Nevada six months and in the same precinct for 30 days are eligible to register.

30 years ago this week

Town board members performed like seasoned mediators as they faced the 135 irate citizens who jammed the Community Center for the town board meeting.

The recent wave of lawlessness which has hit the valley brought a record crowd to the meeting to demand immediate action for better police protection.

After dispensing with all other town board business, acting Chairman Jim Clark asked Sheriff Jay Howard to take the floor. Howard explained that as an emergency measure he has put all three deputies who are assigned to Pahrump on night patrol with instructions to be on the road at all times.

Howard said the Nye County commissioners have cut $60,000 from his proposed budget, making it impossible for him to hire the personnel necessary for Pahrump Valley.

The recent rash of burglaries which hit Pahrump businesses, along with harassment of local citizens, the suspected distribution of controlled drugs and excessive vandalism, were the chief concerns of the chamber of commerce members when they met at the Community Center.

President Ray Wulfenstein said the situation can no longer be ignored and protective measures must be initiated.

The conclusion of the discussion was that the community must increase security patrols, especially at night.

Frank Clayton, a Pahrump Valley druggist, told members his store was recently burglarized with a large quantity of prescription drugs stolen. It was also noted the Cotton Pickin' Saloon was robbed the previous week.

20 years ago this week

Organizers of a major off-road vehicle race that would begin in Pahrump and end in Jean have applied for a special recreation permit with the Bureau of Land Management.

The Nevada 500, which would replace the Frontier 500, is scheduled to run in September, beginning on private property in Pahrump, according to proposals submitted to BLM by the High Desert Racing Association.

The 200 truck and buggy drivers would race from Pahrump north to Beatty, then wind their way through Bullfrog Hills north of Beatty and travel between Scotty's Junction Road and Lida Junction before turning around at Tonopah and heading south along existing roads and washes.

The 500-mile race is expected to take about 20 hours to complete and arrive at the finish line in Jean.

An anti-nuclear group recently released a 170-page report in Las Vegas claiming proof of "a massive radioactive contamination crisis: at the Nevada Test Site and several other U.S. Department of Energy facilities throughout the country."

The report, titled "Deadly Defense," found that underground explosions at the test site have contaminated underground water and that radioactive fallout from some above-ground tests has been carried as far as Salt Lake City, more than 400 miles from the test site.

A two-year study by the University of Reno's Mackay School of Mines, in association with the Nevada Department of Minerals, has revealed a potential wealth of mineral resources in 25 areas covered by the study.

Included are nine areas in Nye County. Using computer-enhanced photos taken by the Landsat V satellite, researchers found only one area in Nye County in which chances of finding mineral resources were very slight: the Wall.

10 years ago this week

The high-tech center that officials from the Community College of Southern Nevada have been calling a done deal since last spring is beginning to look like a dead duck.

University regent candidate Ed Gobel said that, as of right now, Pahrump residents have "a better chance of hitting Megabucks than getting a high-tech center," which has apparently slipped from the top five to number 11 on the Legislature's priority list.

Tim Hafen and Hollis Harris are two local developers who plan to appeal the commission's 3-2 decision not to remove large parcel maps from the land division moratorium. "The problem has never been with the division of land by large parcel maps," Hafen said. "The moratorium was put in place to prevent the division of parcel maps into smaller lots through subsequent parceling. Large parcels need to be removed from the moratorium."

On a hillside just barely visible from Highway 160, dozens of campaign signs sit in piles, promoting nothing.

They just sit there; face down mostly, at the Nevada Department of Transportation's Mountain Springs maintenance state, the place where illegally placed campaign signs go to die.

According to NDOT, this election season is already shaping up to be a busy one for the four-man crew, which is responsible for every state road between I-15 in Las Vegas and Highway 372 at the Nevada-California border.