36 years ago this month

Amargosa country hummed with the often told tales of lost mines, rivers of gold and secret ledges of glittering ore.

For old timers, the celebration of Amargosa Days is to tell again the long-remembered legends of this mysterious country. But this year they had a new tale of more recently hidden treasure -- a prize cherished by those Death Valley men who remember Greenwater.

The burial ground of the ancient Washington Press, on which the famed "Chuck Walla" newspaper was printed at Greenwater in 1906, has been revealed.

Ed Seipp, who lived at Death Valley Junction as a boy, confessed that the valuable relic is down a well at the junction.

Carl Classcock spent 31 years searching for the printing press after organizing an expedition to comb the area. He could not have known that Seipp and his young buddies had stuffed it down a well. Seipp confessed to the whereabouts of the press after hearing of the relentless pursuit by Classcock.

30 years ago this week

A good turnout by Pahrump Valley voters will virtually guarantee Nye County Commission district realignment and a commission member from Pahrump in 1980.

The official voter registration figures from Nye County Clerk Jane Logan's office show that 3,889 voters are registered for the general election, with 1,289 of these being in Pahrump. That's 33.4 percent of the total.

State law requires that counties of 100,000 or less divide their commission districts so that each district contains about one-third of the voters who cast ballots in the general election preceding the year in which redistricting is required.

Lights for the Pahrump Valley High School football field and track will be sought by the town board.

Board members will approach the school board, county commission and parks and recreation committee for funds.

A spokesman for Valley Electric offered to install the eight wooden poles and cross arms for a total cost of $250 per pole. It was estimated that 56 mercury vapor arc lamps would be enough to supply the light needed. A previous estimate obtained by the school district was $57,000 for the project.

Principal Don Worden estimated that the total cost would be reduced to less than $20,000 with Valley Electric'ss help.

20 years ago this week

Judge William Beko favors District Attorney Phil Dunleavy and should be removed from involvements in the recall effort against Dunleavy -- that is the claim of a challenge issued by Peter Flangas, Sheriff "Stick" Davis' attorney.

Beko responded, asking the state Supreme Court to determine the merit of Flangas' challenge. Both a peremptory challenge and one "for cause" were filled by Flangas.

President Ronald Reagan is expected to sign into law a bill that would transfer 250,000 acres of Spring Mountain Range land near Mount Potosi to the National Forest Service.

The addition would bring the total amount of Forest Service land in Nevada to 662,000 acres. The Senate passed S-59, the Nevada National Forest Enhancement Act sponsored by Sen.'s Chic Hecht and Harry Reid, after a hard-fought battle over public lands in the state.

10 years ago this week

All things being equal, there is a better than one-in-10 chance that a Pahrump resident will be among those picked to appear on the "Wheel of Fortune" game show, which is scheduled to tape two weeks worth of shows in Las Vegas.

About 29 local residents are among the 240 "Wheel" hopefuls picked to audition for the show. The audition process includes a written test to help narrow the field followed by a mock "Wheel of Fortune" game.

Election night turned into an early-morning nightmare at the Pahrump Valley Times, followed by an enigma of almost epic proportions Wednesday.

Bottom line: Although the reported winners, with one notable exception, were correct in Wednesday's edition of the PVT, every one of the vote totals was incorrect.

What happened?

The votes in Pahrump were counted and posted, and after the results were put into the county clerk's computer in the Pahrump office, the first of many attempts to "merge" the results via modem with those of ballots counted in Tonopah began.

It didn't work as the two computers refused to communicate, resulting in incorrect election results.