MARK SMITH MORE COLUMNS Sarah Craighead Advertisement

Well, we'll see.

The new chief at Death Valley National Park is saying about what I said a year or two ago, and we'll see if anyone in Pahrump takes notice, or if the effort is more than it can handle.

Sarah Craighead spoke this past week about Death Valley partnering with Pahrump.

It seems so simple as to be too obvious. Pahrump is the nearest large population center to the country's largest national park, and one's initial impulse upon reading Craighead's suggestion is to go slackjawed and drool and mutter, "Duuuuh..."

Sarah, you were in Pahrump.

Check out this town and see if, aside from a couple of road signs out at Bell Vista, there is any indication or inclination on the part of anyone here to take advantage of Death Valley's proximity.

The town worries about "Pahrump, Valley of Festivals" or "Pahrump, the town with a big heart." But suggesting something like "Pahrump -- Gateway to Death Valley," well, that's just too much to hope for.

Check out the postcard rack at one of the local supermarkets, Sarah. You'll see plenty of postcards for Vegas (like anyone who gets here hasn't already had his fill). But you won't find one of Death Valley -- an hour's drive away from here, no farther away than the Strip.

Not one.

You will find a few T-shirts.

Meanwhile in Arizona, Flagstaff is 80 miles from the Grand Canyon, and you won't have to look far to find all the postcards of that attraction you could imagine.

Oops, I almost forgot -- yes, you will find some postcards of the Grand Canyon. Here in Southern Nevada, 200 miles away.

Yet here is where the tour buses pull in almost daily, loaded with passengers who are clamoring to get to Death Valley.

Is there no one who can see the point to a whole Death Valley Gift Shop?

Well, guess they can pick up their gifts and books and postcards when they're over there, it's not for us to worry about.

Look up and down Highway 160, Sarah, and find me one place that makes a big deal, or even a small, sniveling deal, out of Death Valley.

Good luck. Until you get to Bell Vista, you won't even find a directional sign, and if you're trying to get to Shoshone to go the back way to Badwater, you're on your own.

I was involved recently in a weekend geology tour around and in Shoshone, and it was fascinating. I mentioned to one frequent visitor to Shoshone that I live in Pahrump, and her reaction was telling: "Oh," she said, laughing, "don't people just go there to retire?"

She was trying to be kind, but all I could think was, "Can anyone imagine a serious geology tour taking place around Pahrump?"

Where is the Death Valley Cafe or the Death Valley Theater, or the Badwater Bowling Lanes?

Instead, we have a characterless town with Walmart and Home Depot and McDonald's -- cutout boxes that could be in Cedar City or Kingman for all they say, "This is Pahrump" -- and the local museum is in a utilitarian steel building a mile from the main drag. (Last fall Harry Ford and Tim Hafen and a few others were featured speakers at Shoshone Days, 30 miles away in the next state over.)

We have no sense of history despite its being all around us.

Recently, I looked through "Literature Review and Ethnohistory of Native American" -- OK, deep breath now, almost done -- "Occupancy and Use of the Yucca Mountain Area."

It was a January 1990 spiralbound volume put out by the Department of Energy, and if you care about the background of the region, it's really intriguing. And despite the formidable title, it qualifies as light reading.

But I have to wonder: Is anything like it part of the high school curriculum here?

For some reason this town has bound itself up and shut the door of its imagination. Even Ash Meadows is largely ignored, except for the occasional school field trip. But given what's right outside our doors, shouldn't there by an honors course in geology at the high school?

And no, there aren't any Ash Meadows postcards around either.

Back when I lived in New Hampshire, I covered an area called the Mt. Washington Valley. It was focused around the villages of Conway south of the mountain. One day, coming across the Connecticut River from Vermont, I noticed a green directional sign saying I was entering the Mt. Washington Valley. I was still miles from the nearest terrain that could be even loosely connected to the valley, and later I asked someone about it, wondering whether that wasn't just a little bit of a stretch.

Not at all, I was told, because it works -- it gets people thinking, "Mt. Washington Valley ... Mt. Washington Valley..." and when they finally get to the Mt. Washington Valley, they're ready for it.

By the time people actually get to Ash Meadows or Death Valley, they should be ready for it.

And that could start right here.