38 years ago this week

The Old Spanish Trail was getting ready for traffic again as 34 miles of blacktop between Tecopa, Calif., and the Pahrump--Las Vegas highway was about to be completed.

According to Inyo County, Calif., Commissioner Bob Fisher, the five-year project was to cost more than $250,000.

Ray Wulfenstein broke ground for a new sales office fronting Highway 16 (today 160) adjacent to the Charlotta Inn. Wulfenstein Prime Land Development Inc. was also in the process of completing initial engineering for a mobile home park and an overnight camping facility.

Ground was likely to be broken in the fall.

Bill Collins was getting ready to walk across Death Valley, and his wife was among those who thought he was nuts.

"My wife thinks I'm crazy," he said. "That's all she says -- 'You're crazy, you shouldn't do it.'"

Death Valley is so hot in July, so the joke went, that toads, jackrabbits and snakes "are said to retreat to Malibu for the summer. Those who remain refuse to appear until dark."

30 years ago

The Nye County Commission was to review a proposed county ordinance that would ban brothels. There was some discussion about possibly outlawing brothels in the county but allowing them within towns on a local-option basis.

Judge Stanley Smart tossed out the suit filed by Lathrop Wells Sheriff's Dep. William Fox that called for Sheriff Joni Wines to be removed from office.

Smart also ruled that Fox would be responsible for paying court costs.

In the wake of a truck that leaked radioactive nuclear waste, Gov. Bob List halted any further shipments to the Beatty storage dump.

Readings at the scene noted 45 millirems of radioactivity on the truck. Two millirems was said to be the accepted safe level.

Tri-State Co., which also had a truck catch fire at the Beatty site in May, owned the truck that leaked.

The Calvada Inn was advertising, among other things, roast baron of beef dinners at $3.95 for an adult's plate. Draft beer was 25 cents during happy hour.

20 years ago

"Grandma" Thelma Edge Mankins, who had lived in Pahrump since 1966, died in an automobile accident near Bakersfield, Calif. She had been born in Oklahoma in 1905. Her husband Pete Mankins was injured but survived.

District Judge Thomas Springfield's dismissal of charges against Sheriff Harold 'Stick' Davis was appealed to the state Supreme Court by Deputy Attorney General Brian Hutchins.

Hutchins said he thought the judge was in error and Davis ought to be tried for two counts of fraud for alleging bilking taxpayers for mileage he never traveled.

State Trooper George Warner was said to be a suspect in the death of his wife, who died of burns after she was caught in a fire that charred the mobile home in which they had lived.

Nye County employees were granted a 4 percent pay hike, thanks to the county commissioners.

Bo Bohannon and Irwin Fink, both town board incumbents, were joined on the ballot by hopefuls James Teninty, Marvin Venneman and Dave Ringle. The election would be held in the fall.

10 years ago

Iron Castle Inc. showed up to talk about its plans to build a $30 million hospital here that would encompass 100,000 square feet.

General Contractor the Dick Corp. was also involved in development of the 72-room Rosemont Hotel and Casino in Pahrump.

"I support this," said town board Chairman Gary Hollis. "We need this hospital."

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Pahrump Community Hospital Board heard that the Pahrump Medical Center was likely to lose money "as long as it operates the way it does now."

Eighteen months after leaking containers were found on a truck headed for the Nevada Test Site, the first truckload of radioactive waste showed up from a cleanup site in Fernald, Ohio.

It was the first shipment from the uranium foundry in Fernald since 1997.

Tom Buqo addressed the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board in Beatty and announced he would present no evidence of "fatal flaws, drop-dead issues , or anything like that."

Buqo was contractor for the Nye County Early Warning Drilling Program.