April 2024

THE VEGAS DISH

ALL THE NEW CHEFS, DISHES, AND SPOTS IN THE CITY NOW

The Travel Issue

TO SAVE A RIVER AMARGOSA RESIDENTS PLAY DAVID AGAINST A MINING GOLIATH

FALLING FOR FALLOUT HOW A VIDEO GAME FUELS VEGAS TRAVEL AND MY LOVE OF HOME

April

Three

FIGHTING BACK

ALL THINGS

9

FLIGHT

Where have all the pilots gone?

By Anne Davis

17

COMMUNITY

The Mats Project turns unused plastic into sleeping pads

By Anne Davis

18

BIRD GAMES

A daylong birding contest raises money for conservation

By Morrigan DeVito

19

POLITICS

What to watch in the runup to June’s primaries

By Paul Boger

FOOD+DRINK

26

THE VEGAS DISH

Take a tour of the valley’s new dining spots

By Lorraine Blanco Moss

28

THREE QUESTIONS Criss Angel on his Overton eatery

By Heidi Knapp Rinella

CULTURE

31

THE GUIDE

Savor spring with these cultural events

By Mike Prevatt

36

MUSIC

Catch a concert at one of these five day trip-worthy venues

By Mike Prevatt

38

WRITER IN RESIDENCE

Why we need a better art history archive

By Scott Dickensheets

DEPARTMENTS

40

MORE THAN A GAME

How Fallout: New Vegas took on a life of its own

By Eric Duran-Valle

44

LABOR

The front-liners sport of grocery bagging

By Sarah Cadorette

MAY

JUNE

September

September

July

June

June

DOUG SMITH: WILD WOLVES OF YELLOWSTONE

August 10-11

Editor’s Note

STILL TRIPPIN’

Ayear ago, we published our first travel, outdoors, and environment issue. It went so well that we decided to do it again this year. What makes me think it went well? The issue earned us a second place in the 2023 Folio: Eddie Awards in the Southwest U.S. city-regional magazine category. It was also among the issues I submitted to the Nevada Press Foundation’s 2023 awards, in which we won numerous accolades, including a first place for general excellence in the print magazine division and Story of the Year for all divisions (that award was for our feature marking the five-year anniversary of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting). And while I’m at it, I should also note that Desert Companion Assistant Editor Anne Davis took first place for student journalism (she was still an intern then) and second place for human rights reporting in SPJ Las Vegas’ Battle Born Journalism awards last year. Shame on me for not giving her a shoutout here before now!

As I recall, when submitting that April 2023 edition for consideration in the Eddies, the highest-profile of these contests, I argued that it embodied what we do best at Nevada Public Radio. And flipping through that issue today, I still find this: a balance of enterprise reporting, trenchant commentary, profiles of up-and-comers, thoughtful food writing, useful guides, and in-depth storytelling, all sprinkled with a little fun (for my favorite shopping piece ever, see “Gear Me!” on p. 18). Importantly, six of the stories include QR codes linking to their audio versions or complements on NPR, KNPR, and Desert Air, the Desert Companion podcast. Together, it all hits the bullseye of our goal: journalism that fosters a connection between our readers/ listeners and their community.

So, hey, let’s do it again! As you read through this issue, I hope it gives you a sense of how the news that’s making headlines matters to you and your neighbors. I hope the stories make you think, make you laugh, or even make you mad (all caps yelly emails go to editor@desertcompanion.com). I hope you learn something and share it. And I hope to see you soon on a plane to L.A. (p. 14), at sleepaway camp for grownups (p. 55), or at a public comment meeting for a proposed lithium mine (p. 64). Until then …

Happy trails, Heidi

NOTES & LETTERS

Anne Davis and Joe Schoenmann’s January episode of KNPR’s State of Nevada on pediatric medical care drove several listeners to their keyboards. Kellie Vander Veur of Las Vegas wrote, “I was familiar with the need for more geriatric care in our city but had no idea that families with sick children had so many problems finding care. The city of Las Vegas and the State of Nevada need to step up. Families should be first, instead of sports.”

Reader Annoula Wylderich appreciated Corey Levitan’s February essay, “White Tiger Lies,” writing, “I’m familiar with Corey’s writing and value the introspective angle he takes with his subject matter. He also clearly did his research, which I can confirm from my animal advocacy background.”

Christopher Alvarez-Aguilar’s February SON episode and online article about the new airport south of Las Vegas gave listener Gus Moser a headache — and some inspo? “Unless there is some type of mass transportation not using I-15,” he wrote, “it seems it would add nothing but more congestion and aggravation to drivers and passengers just trying to catch a plane or getting to their hotel at the new Moser Solan ( sic ) Airport.” Patty Auburn added, “Please make sure that every available rooftop has solar panels. … Also, some kind of rainwater catchment system would be nice. If you are going to talk about an airport for future and sustainability, these items must be part of the planning.”

To share your thoughts about anything you hear or read from Nevada Public Radio, email them to heidi@nevadapublicradio.org. Thanks!

PRESIDENT & CEO Favian Perez

MANAGING EDITOR Heidi Kyser

ART DIRECTOR Scott Lien

ASSISTANT EDITOR Anne Davis

MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER/REPORTERS

Christopher Alvarez-Aguilar, Paul Boger, Mike Prevatt

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Ryan Vellinga

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Scott Dickensheets

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Allison Hall, Markus Van’t Hul, Britt Quintana

PROJECT MANAGER

Marlies Daebritz

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Jeff Jacobs

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Josh Bell, Soni Brown, Sarah Bun, Sarah Cadorette, Morrigan DeVito, Eric Duran-Valle, Alex Hager, Lorraine Blanco Moss, Reannon Muth, Heidi Knapp Rinella, Oona Robertson, Lissa Townsend Rodgers, Joe Schoenmann, Jeniffer Solis, Raj Tawney

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Tim Bower, Brent Holmes, Heather Jaquart, Dawid Rysky, Jeff Scheid, Louiie Victa,

CONTACT

EDITORIAL: Heidi Kyser (702) 259-7855 heidi@desertcompanion.com

ART: Scott Lien (702) 258-9895 scott@desertcompanion.com

ADVERTISING: (702) 258-9895 sales@desertcompanion.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Marlies Daebritz (702) 259-7822 marlies@desertcompanion.com

WEBSITE: www.desertcompanion.com

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERS

DON HAMRICK chair Chapman Automotive Group

RICHARD I. DREITZER, ESQ. vice chair Fennemore

KATHLEEN M. NYLEN treasurer

FAVIAN PEREZ secretary Nevada Public Radio

DIRECTORS

NEHME E. ABOUZEID

STEPHANIE CAPELLAS Carma/Connected

CYNTHIA A. DREIBELBIS Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck

ANDREA GOEGLEIN, PH.D ServingSuccess

WILLIAM GROUNDS Burraneer Capital Advisors

FRED J. KEETON Keeton Iconoclast Consulting, LLC

EDWIN C. KINGSLEY, MD Comprehensive Cancer Centers

AMANDA MOORE-SAUNDERS Live Nation

DERIONNE POLLARD, PH.D Nevada State University

ERNEST STOVALL Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino

DIRECTORS EMERITI

CYNTHIA ALEXANDER Dickinson, Wright, PLLC

DAVE CABRAL Business Finance Corp.

LOUIS CASTLE

Amazon Games Seattle

PATRICK N. CHAPIN, ESQ. Patrick N. Chapin, Ltd.

ELIZABETH FRETWELL Las Vegas Grand Prix

GAVIN ISAACS Consultant

CHRIS MURRAY Avissa Corporation

JERRY NADAL

WILLIAM J. “BILL” NOONAN

ANTHONY J. PEARL

MARK RICCIARDI, ESQ. Fisher & Phillips, LLP

MICKEY ROEMER

Roemer Gaming

TIM WONG Arcata Associates LAMAR MARCHESE president emeritus

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Go Fly Yourself

BY Anne Davis

Speak to any pilot for long enough, and you’ll eventually hear a variation of the same lament — “There’s a shortage.” That shortage, as it turns out, has stubbornly persisted for more than a decade, though it’s ebbed and flowed in severity.

Then, the pandemic happened.

“(COVID-19) really kind of exacerbated the problem,” says Dan Bubb, a former airline pilot and current associate professor and coordinator of Academic Affairs at UNLV’s Honor College. “Now (airlines) are trying to really catch up and meet the needs of passenger air travel” as passenger numbers reach pre-pandemic levels.

Catching up is easier said than done. According to what Las Vegas-based carrier Allegiant Air told

FLIGHT

The national pilot shortage comes to Las Vegas

news outlets last year, the American aviation industry was short about 17,000 pilots in 2023 — a figure that could double by 2032.

And in a city as reliant on airline passengers as Las Vegas, which is also home to the seventh-busiest airport in the nation, the shortages could impact tourism, as well as locals’ spring and summer travel plans.

The cause of the shortage, according to industry experts, is three concurrent factors: more pilot retirements, an expensive and lengthy training process for young aviators, and current union disputes.

THE COVID PANDEMIC had an immediate and painful impact on Nevada’s aviation industry: Harry Reid International Airport saw passenger counts drop 57 percent from 2019 to 2020. With less demand for flights in and out of the city, the demand for pilots also dropped.

“Historically it has been cyclical with pilots,” Bubb says. “But what’s unique with the situation today is, prior to COVID-19, we did have a pilot shortage. And then, of course, when COVID-19 happened, airlines offered early buyouts for many pilots who are pushing retirement — which, the retirement age according to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), is 65.”

The retirement packages Bubb is referring to were offered to thousands of pilots early on in the pandemic — Delta alone urged 2,000 of its older pilots to retire in 2020. Combine this with predictions that more than half of the nation’s pilots will hit the FAA’s maximum age limit of 65 in the next 15 years, and you get experts’ concern that service to smaller airports will be affected. Case in point: Allegiant ended service to Reno in January, citing limited demand and crew numbers.

Ron Kelly, CEO of the Las Vegas Flight Academy (LVFA), puts it this way: “The shortage that already existed just got multiplied.”

IN RESPONSE TO many late-career pilots handing in their wings, flight schools (many of which are local) are attempting to raise new ones in their

place. The LVFA, which provides training for pilots in the final stage of commercial airline preparation, is one such school. Kelly knows from experience how important youth outreach is to increase pilot numbers. After a colorblindness diagnosis derailed his plans to become an astronaut, he turned his attention to fostering a love of aviation among the next generation, especially those underrepresented within the cockpit — less than three percent of current airline pilots are Black, and under 10 percent are female.

So, in addition to creating the LVFA in February, Kelly founded the Minority Pilot Advancement Foundation, which aims to bring these percentages up. He says that many of the young people he interacts with don’t initially see themselves as pilots. “The reality is that I was exposed and realized that this was something I could do, whereas most minorities and most women really don’t know that that’s a possibility ... We’re going into schools and talking to kids, junior high to high school. I went to (Alain LeRoy) Locke High School, which is right under the flight path for LAX. And in talking to these kids who watch these planes fly over their head every day, when I told them that this was something that they could actually do, you could see some kids (with) tears in their eyes going, ‘You know, I’d always wanted to do that, I just didn’t think I could.’”

Deciding you want to be a pilot is just the first hurdle. The next one is getting through the costly multiyear experience that is modern flight training.

“(A pilot’s education will cost) around $100,000 to $125,000, depending on where you go,” Kelly says. “The typical way to go is that you become a private pilot, then you get your multi-engine, commercial, instrument ratings, and then you’ve now become a CFI (certified flight instructor) — that’s the way most pilots would do it today.”

But reaching first officer at an airline, even when flying daily as a flight

instructor, takes time, Bubb says. “Just because (pilots) come out of ground school doesn’t mean they’re really ready to go to fly a (Boeing) 767. They are trained to safely fly the plane, but it takes a few years for those pilots to really become seasoned.” That seasoning, for all commercial airline pilots, includes 1,500 flight hours, a requirement instituted by Congress following 2009’s deadly Colgan Air crash.

The result is a pipeline of welltrained pilots, but an hour-accrual process that takes years to achieve.

BEYOND RETIREMENTS AND early-career challenges, keeping pilots in the industry — and at smaller, regional airlines — is another stumbling block to ensuring there are adequate pilots in cockpits. Union leaders are adamant that quality contracts are the key to retention.

“Those airlines which have chosen to ratify agreements with their pilot groups are having far less difficulty finding and hiring qualified pilots,” says Captain Kurt Hanson, an Allegiant Air pilot and Teamsters Local 2118 executive board member. Hanson and his union colleagues were responsible for the “Allegiant Pilot Contract Now” skywriting above the Strip during Super Bowl weekend. He says the union is about 60 percent finished with negotiations, which include retirement stipulations and other benefits.

Within the agreements Local 2118 is working toward, the terms as they relate to compensation are especially important. “In order to get the best and most qualified pilots, and to attract individuals that will remain at the airline for their entire career, what we need to do is to fairly compensate pilots,” Hanson says. “Allegiant pilots are approximately 50 percent behind the industry when it comes to compensation. And we’re struggling for parity with our peers. One of the things we like to say is that we work for an ultra-low-cost carrier, but we simply aren’t interested in being ultra-low-cost pilots ...

HEAR MORE from aviation experts on KNPR’s State of Nevada.

Our previous contract was signed in 2016 — the term of that contract was five years. And so, for many of our pilots, they haven’t seen a pay raise at all in more than three years.”

This could diminish Allegiant’s attractiveness to prospective pilots. The airline did not respond to Desert Companion’s interview request, but it wrote in its 2022 Annual Report that “the lack of a new collective bargaining agreement with our pilots’ union (now in negotiation) could also contribute to attrition and serve as an impediment to our being able to hire and maintain sufficient numbers of pilots.”

THE SOLUTIONS TO all three causes of the pilot shortage are clear, particularly to those in the industry: prolonging the time that pilots are allowed to fly by raising the mandatory retirement age to 67 (which Congress failed to pass last year), investing in the establishment of affordable local flight schools, and making sure commercial pilots are fairly contracted with the airlines they’re employed by. The good news is that many of these efforts are already in motion, both in the Las Vegas Valley and around the country.

Until they bear fruit, observers of the aviation industry, such as UNLV’s Bubb, say addressing the pilot shortage will be a foundational step toward Las Vegas’ tourism industry growth.

“(The shortage) has a significant bearing on Las Vegas, particularly because a little over 50 percent of all the people who come to Las Vegas come here by plane. And especially if we have future events like Formula One and the Super Bowl — where they’re trying to really make Las Vegas into a sports and entertainment center — (and) with all the concerts that we have, air travel is going to remain in very high demand, and we need to be ready for it ... I think we’ll get there, but it’s just going to take time.” ✦

Abortion travel, by the numbers

It’s been almost two years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning a woman’s right to an abortion. Soon after, the nonprofit Wild West Access Fund began distributing funds to help offset travel and medical costs for women who seek abortion care in Nevada, where it’s legal up to 24 weeks. As the court prepares to rule on access to medications that allow a woman to end a pregnancy, the organization shared some numbers, offering a window into changes in this type of travel.

the amount most callers ask for, though it varies case to case

Where most of the calls originate

calls in January 2024

>1,000

Calls to WWAF in 2023 for aid

Jet Dream

You, too, can travel by private plane for a reasonable price

ABY Scott Dickensheets

ir travel is a downer these days — a leaden, bureaucratic process optimized for its own convenience rather than the travelers’. The romance of jetting off to somewhere else has given way to an experience more akin to a DMV visit that deposits you in another city.

But for a traveler with a more, let’s say, flexible budget, there’s an alternative: boutique aviation companies that ferry commercial passengers on private jets.

JSX is the one we’ve tried. ✦

THE UNEXPECTED

On our most recent JSX flight back from Burbank, California, we spied LeVar Burton — from Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation — one row back. (We resisted fanboying him.)

CONVENIENCE

Big selling point No. 1: No TSA! Because these companies operate out of dedicated hangars, flyers skip most of the airport’s security rigamarole. No need to arrive hours early or tram to a distant gate. Get there 20 minutes before takeoff, loiter briefly in the hangar lounge, pass through a metal detector, and you’re wheels up. It’s the same easy process when you arrive.

COMFORT

These planes aren’t flying cattle cars; they have only 30 seats and no overhead bins, so you’re not crushed in sweaty humanity. And even the small detail that you stroll out onto the tarmac to reach your plane, rather than shuffle down an airless, sterile gangway, adds a jaunty note to the experience.

COST

At press time, roundtrip airfare from Las Vegas to Burbank and back June 7-9:

Southwest: $227

JSX: $418

Almost double the cost, but still — admit it! — not as expensive as you thought. If you have the means, it’s an uplifting option.

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SO YA WANNA HIT THE ROAD?

The highway out of Las Vegas doesn’t always mean high prices (but it certainly can)

BY Mike Prevatt

ARE YOU IN NEED OF ACCOMMODATIONS?

YES!

AN UBER/LYFT?

PALM SPRINGS IS $350 EACH WAY, SUGAR DADDY.

IS IT YOUR CAR?

GAS TO VISIT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS: $26-$36 (OR 1/5 THE COST OF YOUR THEME PARK TICKET).

PRICES VARY WILDLY DEPENDING ON YOUR WEAKNESS AT THE MINIBAR.

TAKING A BUS?

$50-$90 FOR UNNERVINGLY PRIVACY-FREE TRAVEL.

IS IT A RENTAL CAR?

$150-$300/ WEEKEND. ONLY NOOBS TAKE INSURANCE ADD-ONS AND AIRPORT RENTALS.

A BRIGHTLINE WEST HIGH-SPEED RAIL?

ARE YOU EATING?

ARE YOU DRIVING?

IS IT AN ELECTRIC CAR?

YES, IN AN RV.

IS IT YOURS?

$22-$100 FOR CAMPSITES DEPENDING ON GLAMPING LEVEL.

POCKET CHANGE FOR ANYONE WHO CAN AFFORD AN ELON-MOBILE.

BRO, SAVE IT FOR THE GREAT OUTDOORS.

IS IT A TENT?

$15-$50 FOR CAMPSITE FEES.

ARE YOU VISITING A NATIONAL/STATE PARK OR MUSEUM

HA! HIT ME UP IN 2028.

FASTING IS IN. NO

ARE YOU A COSTCO MEMBER?

HOW MANY YETI COOLERS YA GOT?

OLD ROOMMATE’S GUEST BEDROOM (PAY THEM BACK SOMEWHERE NOT CALLED CARRABBA’S).

BUDGET $50 PER FULL DAY FOR MEALS AND SNACKS.

ARE YOU OBSESSIVE ABOUT BUDGETING?

$5-$35 ENTRANCE FEES.

RECONSIDER.

ALLOW FUNDS FOR CAR ISSUES AND FORGOTTEN DEVICE CHARGER REPLACEMENTS.

HAWAII IS NICE THIS TIME OF YEAR.

Sleeper Agent

Mats Project turns plastic bags into a little comfort for the unhoused

BY Anne Davis

“Make a mat and make a difference” is one of many quips Merri Medley uses to describe her work with The Mats Project, a nonprofit program that creates sleeping mats out of unused plastic bags and gives them to unhoused Las Vegans. Since plastic is bedbug resistant, lightweight, and insulates body heat, it makes an ideal material for sleeping mats.

Medley, the project’s founder and a lifelong crocheter herself, knew that starting the program would require many helping hands. So, she

began recruiting volunteers through word of mouth. Tanya Rodriguez, a volunteer in Medley’s founder’s team, recalls how quickly excitement about the project spread.

“I told my Bible study about it,” she says, “and we actually formed groups, and we would help cut the bags. So that way when you’d come in on Wednesday (to The Mats Project), we could bring the (materials) in and start crocheting, because a lot of ladies wanted to learn how to crochet. So, Susan invited Gisela, Gisela invited Rita, and on and on — that’s how it went.”

Today, it’s clear that these recruitment efforts have borne fruit, even on chilly, early spring nights: About 20 men and women cut, tie, and crochet in a classroom at the Durango Hills YMCA, which is one of five locations around the valley where the Mats Project meets.

But beyond volunteers, Medley also realized she needed community partners. Her biggest breakthrough came from Advance Polybag, a Las Vegas-based shopping bag manufacturer. Its most recent donation was 200,000 bags, many of which have some defect that would prevent them from being used by consumers.

Since the project’s beginning in April 2023, Medley has donated 70 mats to Shine a Light, a local outreach organization that distributes food and supplies to people living in tunnels under the city. This April, The Mats Project plans to give Shine a Light 40 more.

This is a feat, considering that the creation of one mat takes 14 hours of cutting the bags into horizontal strips and looping them together to create what’s known as “plarn,” and another eight hours to crochet the ball of plarn into a finished mat. That timeline, however, is broken up into an assembly line process, based on volunteers’ skills and interests.

Find more information about The Mats Project, including how you can volunteer, at crochetclass.org/ the-mats-project.

Though 24 hours might seem like a long time to create one mat, this is on the lower end of the time spectrum when compared to similar groups, thanks to Medley’s self-drafted pattern and chunky plarn. “(Crocheting mats) has been going on across the country for decades,” Medley says. “But what they usually did was they cut the loops thinner and used a regular sized crochet hook. So, it would take approximately a year or six months to make one mat.”

More mats equals more people helped, which, Medley says, is the goal for all the volunteers who attend her weekly open-to-the-public gatherings. “It’s so rewarding,” Medley says. “To remind (the unhoused) that they do matter. They are loved. And someone cares.” ✦

COMMUNITY

The

Birding for Dollars

The Great Basin Observatory turns competitive birding into conservation fundraising

BY Morrigan DeVito

Across Nevada’s wetlands, deserts, and woodlands, birders will spot birds this May in the statewide annual Bird-a-thon, a competitive fundraiser to help conserve Nevada’s priority bird species.

Competitive birding? You read that right. “It’s a win-win,” says Ned Bohman, biologist and Bird-a-thon coordinator for Great Basin Bird Observatory, a nonprofit dedicated to studying and conserving birds in Nevada. Birders get to have fun doing what they love, and the observatory raises money for research on Nevada’s priority birds. Great Basin Bird Observatory hosted its first Bird-a-thon in 2020, and donations have increased each year; the event raised $5,150 in 2023.

How does it work? Birders can compete individually or on teams, and they can sign up for either the 24-hour or 10-day categories (the Big Day or Backyard, respectively). Competitors solicit donor pledges in a certain amount for each species they spot, so a $1 pledge would raise $25 for a team that spots 25 species. Great Basin Observatory tracks numbers of species recorded and donations pledged.

“It’s a fun day,” says Northern

Nevadan Dennis Serdehely. “You’re exhausted at the end, but (it’s) a good exhaustion.”

Serdehely’s team participates in the Big Day’ category, recording as many species as possible around the Lahontan Valley and Carson River. Among the species his team saw last year were migratory waterfowl and warblers that depend on the Lahontan Valley wetlands for food and shelter.

Even urban and suburban areas, such as the Pittman Wash Trail in Henderson, can attract a lot of birds.

To participate in or donate to the 2024 competition, visit gbbo.org in April or follow their social media.

Elle OumGhazi has participated since 2022, when organizers added the Backyard category.

“As a full-time single mom who doesn’t have the luxury to go someplace far away to bird, the Bird-athon makes me prioritize time to go outside for a good cause,” OumGhazi says. “This is something I can do locally.”

So far, the plucky, cerulean face of the Bird-a-thon has been the Pinyon jay, a mysterious songbird of pinyon-juniper woodlands.

“They’re not a typical songbird,

so you can’t use typical research methods,” Bohman says. “They could be there one day and gone the next.”

Pinyon jays don’t sit still. Their lifestyle depends on fluctuating crops of pinyon pine seeds, a tree they’ve developed a symbiotic relationship with over thousands of years. They can travel hundreds of miles in a day, scattering seeds as they go and helping the pines reproduce. These nomads are critical to the health of the whole woodland ecosystem.

But recent studies show that ongoing drought could be having a negative impact on the production of pinecones, making seeds more difficult to find for the Pinyon jays. That’s why Great Basin Bird Observatory used Bird-a-thon donations to launch the Pinyon Jay Hub GIS-mapping program in 2022, allowing people to record Pinyon jay sightings. With more eyes on the jays, scientists get a clearer picture of their habitat needs and how climate change is affecting their food supply and ranges.

Two birds are stepping up to be the face of this year’s Bird-a-thon: the LeConte’s thrasher and Bendire’s thrasher. Getting their name from the way they thrash their bills through underbrush to eat bugs and seeds, thrashers are a conservation priority because of habitat loss and climate change. With limited ranges, they depend on desert scrub in public lands across Southern Nevada.

Little is known about their life histories. The observatory will use 2024’s Bird-a-thon donations to study thrashers’ habitat and movements across Nevada. This information will inform land managers on the best way to protect these birds.

“I like their approach to monitor different habitats throughout the state, to monitor how they change over the years,” Serdehely says.

The competition also creates a connection between birders and bird habitats. “When I see a Pinyon jay,” OumGhazi says, “I feel a kinship.” ✦

POLITICS

Primary Concerns

Partisan voters say economy, immigration, and abortion will drive their choices in 2024

BY Paul Boger

It didn’t take a crystal ball to predict the outcome of Nevada’s presidential preference primary and the state Republican Party’s caucus earlier this year. As an incumbent, President Joe Biden’s nomination for reelection was secure, while Republican Party politics ensured former President Donald Trump’s victory in the state.

Nonetheless, the elections were an opportunity to talk to Democratic and Republican voters about the issues that are important to them this election cycle. Here’s what they said.

THE ECONOMY

Ask any voter what’s on their mind as they cast a ballot, and some version of “the economy” is almost always the first response. It’s a fair concern and a complicated reality.

Since the pandemic, Nevada has experienced slower economic recovery than the rest of the country because of its dependence on hospitality and tourism. Unemployment rates are among the worst in the country, wage growth remains sluggish, and Nevadans spend a higher percentage of their paycheck on energy, grocery, and housing costs than the average American.

At the same time, traditional metrics indicate that the economy continues chug-

ging along. Inflation is down, consumer spending is up, and economic growth is exceeding expectations. That’s especially true in Nevada casinos, which have reported bringing in more than a billion dollars in gambling profit every month since 2020.  Either way, most people would agree that a dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, and some voters will likely express their frustrations about that at the ballot box.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

In 1990, voters approved a state law protecting abortion up to 24 weeks. Since then, polling has consistently shown that roughly two in three Nevadans believe access to abortion should be legal in “all or most cases.” It would require another ballot initiative to change the law, meaning reproductive rights are as safe here as anywhere else in the country.

That said, Democrats see voters’ desire to have abortion access protected nationally as a mobilizing issue. Therefore, they’ll keep focusing on it in 2024. It’s also why state party leaders and their allies are working on a series of ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion rights in the Nevada Constitution. If that campaign is successful in getting an abortion-related question on the ballot, it could have a dramatic impact on voter turnout this November and again in 2026.

BORDER SECURITY/ MIGRATION MANAGEMENT

Republicans equate the situation along the U.S. southern border to a national disaster. According to a December 2023 AP-NORC poll, 55 percent of GOP voters say the federal government should focus on immigration this year. The same poll also found that an increasing number of Democrats were also voicing concern.

Illegal border crossings from Mexico reached an all-time high last year, with the U.S. Border Patrol reporting just under 250,000 arrests on the Mexican border in December. In response, Biden has taken steps to increase border security and restrict asylum seekers from entering the country. However, the administration’s failure to secure a border deal through Congress may spell disaster for a campaign trying to win the votes of those who want to see progress.

KNOWN UNKNOWNS

HEAR MORE on KNPR’s State of Nevada.

Ultimately, the presidential primary and caucus results tell us only so much. As closed elections, they did nothing to help the public understand how either candidate would fare among nonpartisan voters — Nevada’s largest voting bloc. There is also potential for a third-party or independent candidate to draw much-needed support from either of the major candidates. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign began working earlier this year to gather enough signatures to appear on the November ballot.

Many Nevadans may also choose to stay home on Election Day. Voters are expressing politics fatigue, and why not? This election is the second time Biden and Trump will face each other on the ballot. It’s the third election in a row when Donald Trump’s name — with all its baggage — will be at the top of the GOP ticket. And Biden first took federal office the year the Vietnam War ended.

It adds up to a year of the most predictable factor of all … uncertainty. ✦

THE OTHER STRIP

Global Plaza West

South Durango and West Spring Mountain

BY Oona Robertson

Global Plaza West may go unnoticed as you pass it en route to Desert Breeze Park across the street, the snow-dusted mountains to the west, or Enterprise to the south. For this installment of our guide to Las Vegas strip malls, we stop for a look inside the cluster of specialty shops with their sweeping view of the Valley.

At Kakanin Filipino & Pastry bakery, I follow my friend Izzy around the store picking out containers until our arms are full. We sit at

a table to unpack our haul: Puto bumbong and palitaw, chewy rice flour-based sweets flavored with ube and coconut; buko pandan, a coconutty and slightly pine-flavored pudding with chunks of different jellos; pinipig polvoron, shortbread cookies made with malted barley flour and wrapped in jewel toned cellophane; and suman malagkit, coconut sticky rice that we unwrap from banana leaves and dip in a coconut caramel sauce. At the counter we order halo-halo, and Izzy tells me the name translates to mix-mix.

Zaytoon Restaurant & Market

“My grandmother says you have to mix it evenly and try to keep the flan intact,” Izzy says, stirring it slowly from the top down, the flan submerging and getting lost at some point in the process. It doesn’t matter — it’s all delicious.

Other Mama, which won Desert Companion’s dish of the year in 2018 for its Japanese fried chicken, recently added a small bar separate from the main dining room for those looking to have a drink or order from a rotating daily menu of small plates. There is also an expanded menu for the entire place, including a complete sushi menu and sake program, chef and owner Daniel Krohmer says.

At Groomingdales , a happy little dog named Moppy with a bright blue mohawk is getting a full body trim, which costs about $50, because he’s a small breed. Pre-haircut Moppy is quite cute, but post-op he’s adorable. We stay to watch him get his do trimmed in a straight line, capturing priceless before and after shots. Cash only. They do cats.

I chose this strip mall because it holds a favorite place for me in all of Las Vegas: Zaytoon Restaurant & Market, home to an extremely well-stocked grocery store, which is also attached to an outstanding restaurant. On the market side, you’ll find a refrigerator of fresh herbs, a table of varieties of flatbreads, a produce section with some hard-to-find-in-Vegas produce, such as kohlrabi and Persian cucumbers, half an isle of rose, orange blossom, and other flower-water, spices, and Persian, Turkish, Armenian, and Israeli ingredients. In the space between the restaurant and the market, there’s a deli case holding myriad delicacies — baklava, halvah, three kinds of feta, olives, and khameh, labeled in English as “breakfast cream,” which is, in my opinion, the city’s tastiest dairy product.

“I have customers from all over. It’s like the United Nations here but much more peaceful,” says Saam Naghdi, who owns Zaytoon with his wife, Golenaz Mazaheri. “It’s been a good learning lesson, because I don’t speak Hebrew, I don’t speak Arabic, but I’ve seen Israeli customers translate Arabic for me, or I’ve seen Arab customers translate Hebrew to tell me what products (they want). I have really good clientele. It’s been a blessing.”

My mind filled with recipes, I buy pita, semolina flour, cucumbers, French feta, a huge bag of herbs, two hot Persian teas, and a container of baklava that we eat in the parking lot. Then we head off into the sunset, perfectly sated.  ✦

1829, it took 12 WEEKS. You’ll only need a FEW HOURS.

Earth Way

These local shops are doing their part to solve the plastics problem

BY Sarah Bun

Eco-friendly living is more than about reducing, reusing, and recycling. In line with this year’s Earth Day theme, Planet vs. Plastics, these three local businesses give customers creative ways to reduce plastics and microplastics, while stocking up on products for travel, the outdoors, and the environment.

At Me Mother Earth, husband and wife Alberto Gomes and Amanda Runkle are about living plastic-free. It’s not easy, but the little things they did initially, such as swapping plastic straws for a stainless steel one, led to their pop-up events on sustainability and, now, an e-commerce site. Their compact all-in-one bamboo travel toothbrush and case ($8.99) solves outdoor dental needs for light travelers. Did I mention bamboo is naturally anti-microbial? Also, this one is Bisphenol A (BPA)-free.

are made from vegan, cruelty-free, and ethically sourced ingredients; it reuses containers; and it’s microplastic-free. Nectarlife’s mess- and wastefree hand spray lotion ($6) comes in Fruit Smoothie or Vanilla Musk scents. It’s handmade in Nectarlife’s Las Vegas factory. Oh, and it hydrates, too!

as little as they want. Owner Angela Ying carries Yay for Earth’s sensitive skin face lotion, a salve that fans say is so versatile it can be used for sunburns, bug bites, and itch. It’s available in a one-ounce travel tin ($21) or two-ounce jar ($34), and for pick-up in Henderson only.

FOOD+DRINK

FLOR-IDEA

All’Antico Vinaio, at Uncommons, draws inspiration for its sandwiches from Florentine owner Tommaso Mazzanti’s family traditions.

The Vegas Dish

New spots, locations, chefs, and tastes to try around the valley

BY Lorraine Blanco Moss

In a flashy town such as ours, there’s no shortage of food spectacle. At the new Papi Steak (Fontainebleau, papisteaklv.com), you can order a steak presented in a diamond-encrusted gold “beef case” for $1,000. Extra sweet tooth? A gigantic cotton candy burrito stuffed with ice cream and sprinkles at Creamberry ( 7965 S. Rainbow Blvd.,

#140, creamberrylv.com ) continues to flood food lover feeds. And I can’t count how many times I’ve rolled my eyes at fine dining spots that take modernist cuisine to extremes with foams and gels and dry ice, only to create something that’s blah at first bite. Food hype makes me nervous; I proceed cautiously when restaurants go viral.

AT ALL’ANTICO VINAIO ( 8533 Rozita Lee Ave., #100, allanticovinaiolasvegas.com) in Uncommons, I stood in a long line similar to those seen in photos from locations in New York and Florence, Italy. As the scent of freshly baked schiacciata bread (like focaccia, but thinner and chewier) wafted over, I wondered whether it would be worth the wait. I devoured la paradiso — a sandwich layered with mortadella, stracciatella (pulled mozzarella curds mixed with heavy cream), and pistachio cream — and was transported back to my pre-pandemic Italian vacation. The shop’s Florentine founder, Tommaso Mazzanti, says the secret behind his family’s distinctive sandos goes beyond the edible components. “It’s not just work. It’s not just a business. It’s the tradition, the quality, the passion,” he says. “Two of the guys I have here in Vegas have worked with me for more than 50 years.” He adds that Las Vegas is a dream 20 years in the making. “It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I’m honored. Wow.”

ANOTHER WOW MOMENT happened at a Tuscany much closer to home, the newly renovated Bistecca ( 255 E. Flamingo Rd., tuscanylv.com ) in Tuscany Suites & Casino. The seductive space features dark walls adorned with original artwork, black shelves stacked with wine bottles, and corners lit with white candles. The new menu offers elevated dishes such as a tasty Scotch fillet, a ribeye with the bone removed. Everything, from the mushroom amuse-bouche to the medium rare filet mignon cooked to pink perfection, impressed my date and me. Bonus: The parking is free and easy, and the restaurant is — gasp — close to the casino’s front entrance!

BISTECCA

WINEAUX

JUST PAST THE front doors at Mucho Loco Mexican Cantina (1121 S. Fort Apache Rd., mucholocolasvegas.com) you understand the place’s name. An animatronic skeleton with orange eyes pours a drink near the host stand. There’s a wall full of sugar skulls and a bar concocting various smoky cocktails. This could be an influencer’s paradise or a food writer’s nightmare. I order the trompito loco, a wild version of tacos al pastor that arrives tableside with its own miniature spit and a knife to carve your pineapple-marinated pork onto a handmade corn tortilla. Surprise! It’s stunning and delicious. I’ve been thinking about that tender spiced meat for days. Although the dishes were delectable, the serving staff could use more training. When asked the ingredients in two different salsas, the wait staff had no idea. And our server described the ceviche as “fish.” Let’s hope after a little time, they’ll learn the menu better — or at least ask the chef when they’re unsure about the ingredients. But overall, you’d be crazy to skip this fun new eatery.

SPEAKING OF JOY, my favorite new place to wine and dine (or just wine …) is Wineaux ( 6887 Helen Toland St., #110, wineauxlv.com). It’s a desert chic locals’ retreat, where you can unleash your inner wine nerd. Although you’ll find a great cab or pinot noir, this is your chance to go for a unique grape. With the guidance of a charming sommelier, I tried my first Timorasso wine, from an Italian white grape that’s textured and aromatic. It paired wonderfully with the roasted aubergine spread, an eggplant masterpiece with garlic confit, feta, mint, sesame, and chilis. The restaurateur is planning an outdoor patio next year— catch me outside, wineauxs!

That’s the Vegas Dish for now. Until we eat again … ✦

Lorraine Blanco Moss is a classically trained chef who has worked at several restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip and in Los Angeles. She has also cooked at the James Beard House and Rainbow Room in New York City with the James Beard Foundation’s Women in Culinary Leadership program. You can find her on Instagram @cheflorraine.

Criss Angel

BY Heidi Knapp Rinella

Most people know him for his mindfreaking level of magic, but in the quiet community of Overton, about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Criss Angel is the major domo of Cablp, which stands for “Criss Angel’s breakfast, lunch and pizza,” and which is, yes, a restaurant (also known for its Italian ices).

Angel is engulfed in his magic show and other projects, but even he likes to relax occasionally. While he and his family were scouting dirt-biking destinations a few years ago for his elder son, Johnny Crisstopher, they became taken with this remote corner of Clark County.

“In 45 minutes, you’re transported from the stress to an entirely different way of

life,” he says. He invested in the area and, as part of that, bought the former Sugar’s Home Plate. Cablp was born in July 2021. So, how does his rural restaurant coexist with the glamorous Las Vegas Strip? Read on.

Has the experience of owning a restaurant been much like you expected it to be?

The experience of owning a restaurant is what I expected, because I grew up in this business. My dad and uncle owned many coffee shops, and as a kid I worked in them to make money to buy magic.

What sort of things have surprised you?

It’s very challenging to find

COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH LAND OF GINCHANTMENT

AT VEGAS VICKIE’S

Winter cocktails are usually things of cinnamon and spice, cranberry and cream. To savor something that prepares you for the change of seasons, order the Land of Ginchantment at Vegas Vickie’s in Circa. The beverage has a base of Hendrick’s gin and fino sherry, but neither takes a dominant role, blending subtly into the more verdural flavors of rose and snap pea syrup. It looks like a cloud and tastes like a garden — the perfect drink to order when you’re craving that first sip of spring.

— Lissa Townsend Rodgers

help. Since COVID, food prices have increased astronomically, and it’s become even more challenging for any small business. My situation is unique because I didn’t open the restaurant as a standalone business or to make a career out of, but with the intention that it would be one component to an escape camp for children with childhood cancer and other lifethreatening diseases. Still, waiting years and years later for the county and Bureau of Land Management.

Bureaucracy is bliss …

The restaurant has a secret door, which opens to reveal a room displaying some of your magic memorabilia. Has that feature been popular with kids?

And adults. It a fun, clean place to eat with a great environment. If it was closer to where I reside I would probably eat there every day! ✦

“ I heard it on NPR. ”

NEVADA BALLET THEATRE

APRIL 27 – MAY 5

THE SMITH CENTER

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Choreography by Ben Stevenson, O.B.E.

CULTURE

The Guide

Spring for any and all of these shows, art exhibits, and festivals

BY Mike Prevatt

LITERATURE

An Evening with Tananarive Due

APRIL 5

>>>Author. Journalist. Film historian. Podcaster. Tananarive Due wears a lot of hats and wears them well. In 2002, she garnered the American Book Award for The Living Blood , the second novel in her African Immortals tetralogy. And for this event, she’ll be reading from last year’s acclaimed title, The Reformatory , a horror tale set in the already horrific Jim Crow South. But for as much as her supernatural/mystery/ speculative fiction works have given her a storied (ahem) career, Due has been very active of late in film/TV, working with institutions such as the horror streaming service Shudder and Get Out filmmaker Jordan Peele. Whatever amount of time Due has to talk about her myriad endeavors, it won’t be enough. 7:30p, free, The Beverly Theater, thebeverlytheater.com

ART

Over the Top

THROUGH APRIL 27

>>>For its latest exhibition, the downtown art institution Priscilla Fowler Fine Art Gallery is doing things a little differently. First, it’s highlighting the work of not one or two, but 22 artists, from Joseph Watson and Christina Piña (who had the sole exhibit in February) to the gallery owner herself. Additionally, the space will be reconfigured to showcase each artist with its own “mini-gallery.” With 22 different art stations to take in, “Over the Top” is aptly titled. Sun, Mon, Wed, 1-5p; Thu-Sat, 1-7p; Free; Priscilla Fowler Fine Art Gallery; priscillafowler.com

FESTIVAL

The Great Vegas Festival of Beer

APRIL 6

>>>A beer festival in 2024 isn’t just about beer — though that would be enough. Motley Brews’ 13-yearold brews ‘n’ bites event suspects some of us need an activity to complement the nonstop glugging. So,

it now includes a silent disco, karaoke, and/ or a scavenger hunt, which all allow at least one free hand for drinking suds. For the purists: There is beer, and some beer, and a lot more beer. And while it’s good to see a heavy helping of visiting breweries — from San Diego’s Modern Times to Delaware’s Dogfish Head — the brightest spotlight will be on the 16 locals, including Beer Zombies, CraftHaus, North 5th Brewing, and even Tonopah Brewing. Pro tip: The Nevada Craft Brewers Associa tion kiosk offers a rare/

limited local pour every 20 minutes. 2p, $50-130, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, greatvegasbeer.com

ART Love is a Place

APRIL 8-19

>>>UNLV’s MFA candidates must show an individual exhibition as part of their degree requirements, and interdisciplinary artist Nishan

DANCE

Swan Lake

APRIL 27-MAY 5

>>>This two-weekend stint is not Nevada Ballet Theatre’s first rodeo with the canonical 19th-century tragedy. Audiences regaled the goose-pimpling Tchaikovsky score and Ben Stevenson’s elegant choreography back in 2019, and for those who missed — or savored — it then: You’ll get a second chance this spring to revel in Prince Siegfried’s quest to break the spell that afflicts his prospective true love, the swan/human Odette. Will he be successful? Or, put another way, will this edition be loyal to the original ballet — or will it adopt the “happy ending” version? Only one way to find out. Times vary, $31-160, The Smith Center, nevadaballet.org

show explores giving permanence to LGBTQ+ stories and histories through a series of glazed-stoneware pieces. A closing reception is scheduled for April 19, and Ganimian will give an artist talk on April 17 at the nearby Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art. Mon-Fri, 9a-5p, free, Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, unlv.edu/event/ love-place?delta=2

sensation begins at an amusement park where a handful of kids die on a roller coaster called the Cyclone (likely because the real Cyclone at Coney Island feels like it may actually kill you). Once in purgatory, they’re greeted by the park’s mechanical fortune-telling machine, which initiates a singing contest that awards the winner a trip back to the

MUSIC

Herbie Hancock

APRIL 12

>>>Two things we rarely see in Las Vegas’ bigger rooms: live jazz and Herbie Hancock. Fans of both get a bone thrown at them this spring as the composer extraordinaire finally includes Las Vegas on one of his tours. If you’ve pined to experience what so many other American cities have enjoyed from the breakout star of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet and the mastermind behind classics such as The Headhunters , fear not: Hancock’s setlists have been fairly consistent over the last few years, leaning more toward his fusion and funk work. And if you needed one more reason to grab tickets, it’s his birthday that night. 8p, $41-183, The Pearl, palms.com

living world. What ensues is a competition that alternates between morbidity and life affirmation — and hopefully bears no resemblance to the reality TV singing shows your mother still watches. Chalk up another staged celebration of cult pop culture and viral theater by Majestic Repertory. Thurs-Sat, 7p; Sun, 5p; $50; Majestic Repertory Theatre, majesticrepertory.com

FILM

UNLV Film Comedy Showcase

MAY 1

>>>UNLV and Clark County recently joined forces to infuse the enduring Commercial Center with more arts and culture offerings — and, in turn, shine a brighter light on the work of the university’s student creatives. While one theatrical program will take place in the parking lot, the majority of the events will be staged in the Composers Room — including this comedic show. Students will offer live and written comedy, their work influenced by the Upright Citizens Brigade, an institution in both L.A. and New York. All the UNLV Commercial Center events are free, though some may require reservations.

7-8:30p, free, The Composers Room, thecomposersroom.com/ event/unlv-film-comedy-showcase/

MUSIC

Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 “Organ”

MAY 11

>>>The main lure here isn’t what’s bound to be an inspiring rendition of the French composer’s 1886 masterwork by the Las Vegas Philharmonic, which will be closing out its 25th season. Or even that the Grammy-winning Paul Jacobs

will be sitting behind the organ for this performance. Ultimately, crowds will descend onto Reynolds Hall to bid farewell to Donato Cabrera, who will end his 10-year run as the Philharmonic’s music director and conductor with Symphony No. 3 and his friend Jacobs. Loud and long huzzahs will be in order once the maestro takes his bow. The program opens with Chausson’s Viviane and Daugherty’s Once Upon a Castle 7:30p, $29-121, The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com

DANCE Spring Fling With Love

MAY 24-25

>>>The month of May signals a lot of things in Las Vegas. The kids are out of school and already bored, a beastly summer is scratching at the door, and most of the arts organizations in town are winding down their seasons.

Contemporary West Dance Theatre is no exception, and it offers you a Memorial Day Weekend alternative to crowded movie theaters and dayclubs: a modern dance showcase. CWDT ends its 2023-2024 slate with Spring Fling, which will feature new work by company founder/artistic director Bernard H. Gaddis and choreographer/dancer Norbert De La Cruz. It’s your last chance for a few months to support a Vegas cultural pillar.

7:30p, $23-28, Charleston Heights Arts Center, lvdance.org

THEATER From Broadway With Love

MAY 25

>>>Broadway in the Hood’s de facto spring showcase — coming just six weeks after they’re

MUSIC

Las Vegas Bluegrass Festival

APRIL 13

>>>At this point, few music genres are unrepresented on the Las Vegas festival circuit — though that should not dissuade promoters from adding the holdouts, or more of the others, frankly. Even bluegrass gets its day in the desert sun, thanks to the City of Las Vegas. No less than eight bluegrass and Americana acts make up this music ‘n’ more marathon, headlined by what some have called the Queen of Bluegrass, Rhonda Vincent. Food and spirits, handcrafted goods, and children’s activities round out this experience, which bucks the spendy-Vegas-festival trend by offering free admission. 11a-7p, free, Centennial Hills Park, lasvegasnevada.gov/Residents/ Events/Detail/bluegrass-festival

scheduled to stage Little Shop of Horrors in the Pearl in the Palms — isn’t just honoring Black entertainment legends and highlighting Broadway chestnuts. The afternoon show is a fundraiser for the announced Legacy Theatre, slated to be the future home for Broadway in the Hood and the first Black-owned and -operated theater to open in Las Vegas in several years. There’s no better way to support local arts groups than attending one of their shows. 7:30p, $30-130, The Smith Center, broadwayinthehood.org

FESTIVAL Schellraiser Music Festival

MAY 30-JUNE 1

>>>Two years ago, this latest addition to the Nevada festival calendar snuck in and the word of mouth afterward gave nonattending Silver State music fans serious FOMO. What did we miss? A multi-genre alternative music event that was comfortable, affordable, and brought music acts that don’t normally play these parts. The kicker: It takes place in the breathtaking Great Basin just a hair north of Ely, not in an old parking lot. This year, organizers doubled down on the lineup, snagging the likes of indie favorites Mercury Rev, Ladytron, Sinkane, We Are Scientists, and The Besnard Lakes, while also augmenting its camping options. No missing out this time, folks. $120220, McGill Pool Park, schellraiser.com

SEE MORE events, and submit your own for inclusion in The Guide online.

Side by Side

For my family, Steve and Eydie were personal

BY Raj Tawney

The March 7 passing of swingin’ crooner, actor, and comedian Steve Lawrence lays to rest one of the few remaining original Las Vegas headliners, as well as the second half of a singing duo that was among the past half-century’s greatest. Lawrence and his wife, Eydie Gormé (pictured together at right), were not only household names for decades, but also admired for their actual love and devotion to one another. For an entire adult population who purchased their albums, watched them on television, or had the pleasure of seeing them perform live, Steve and Eydie represented America’s idealistic hopes and dreams for a period of time.

A wholesome fixture in popular entertainment, Steve and Eydie embodied strength in the institution of marriage — a concept that struggled during the mid-20th century as divorce rates climbed. Through recordings of songs such as “Side by Side,” “We Got Us,” “This Could Be the Start of Something,” and “We Can Make It Together,” listeners got the sense that the couple practiced what they preached. Even if you weren’t hip to their sound, you might fall apart watching their playful, adoring banter on variety specials, late-night talk shows, and Las Vegas stages.

Though both found individual success as solo singers, they seemed to work best as a team — perhaps because their rapport and mutual love were palpable. For a largely optimistic, post-World War II generation,

Steve and Eydie represented class and sophistication without the drama — a departure from homewrecking Hollywood scandals such as Elizabeth Taylor breaking up Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, or unimaginable splits like Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. In a rapidly changing popular culture, Steve and Eydie offered stability to millions.

Among those millions were my Bronx-born grandparents, Elsie and Anthony. They adored Brooklyn-born Steve and Bronx-born Eydie as if the couples knew each other personally from the old neighborhood — perhaps because the desire, shared by many children of immigrant and ethnic minority groups, to assimilate and elevate into mainstream American society. In the ’50s, when the couple would appear on “Tonight Starring Steve Allen,” Elsie and Anthony

watched in awe, delighting in their friends’ company. In 1957, when Steve and Eydie married, Elsie and Anthony did, too. Seemingly emulating the entertainers’ marriage, my grandparents played their records almost every day, and tried their best to dress nicely and entertain guests even if they hadn’t enough money for rent.

Success aside, Steve and Eydie offered something more valuable than material

possessions or high living — they were selling the idea of honest companionship. Still, the glamour performers exuded was ever most appealing. My grandparents’ wedding was a simple church ceremony with a modest reception in the back room — they couldn’t afford a cake, so they put out a platter of cookies.

Yet Elsie had saved up for months so that she and Anthony, along two other close couples, could dine at the Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan that evening. Whenever I’d sit down with my grandma and look through old photo albums, she’d marvel at the old picture that a cocktail waitress had snapped of them at their table (below left). A flattened matchbook from the club lay next to the image on the album sheet. It was the one and only night they ever visited the Copa, and that evening remained encapsulated in Elsie’s memory bank for the rest of her life.

My grandpa died in 1987 from cancer only months after I was born. Elsie lived more than 30 more years but never remarried. She continued to play Steve and Eydie records in her home daily. Perhaps the duo’s voices gave her comfort, offering an opportunity to reflect on earlier days, when the promise of hope for a bright future didn’t seem unreasonable.

Shortly before my grandma died in 2018, I read her a news story telling how, in Atlantic City in 1990, Frank Sinatra had told then-casino owner Donald Trump “to go f*** himself,” because Trump, unfamiliar with Steve and Eydie, had tried to cancel the couple as Sinatra’s opening acts. Elsie chuckled as I read aloud to her about Sinatra, the most important voice to her generation, whose albums Anthony had also played religiously. “Shame on him for not knowing them,” Elsie said. “I hope my friend Steve got a laugh out of it.”

I hope he did, too. ✦

Raj Tawney writes about family, food, and culture from his multiracial American perspective. His debut book was Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience (Fordham University Press, 2023). His second book, a novel, is scheduled for release in fall 2024.

Arts Festival Arts Festival

Mountains of Uncertainty

In her recent Las Vegas-based documentary, L. Frances Henderson explores toxic waste and personal loss

BY Josh Bell

Director L. Frances Henderson’s documentary This Much We Know (available now on VOD platforms) explores the topics of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and the suicide rate in Las Vegas, filtered through Henderson’s own personal perspective. It’s an often-impressionistic essay film, spending time with the family of Levi Presley, the 16-year-old who jumped to his death from the Stratosphere Tower in 2002, as well as with various experts on both Yucca Mountain and suicide. Henderson frames the movie as a way to process her own friend’s Las Vegas sui-

cide, although the tone is more open-ended than definitive. Henderson spoke with Desert Companion about the process of making a film on such difficult subjects.

When did you first start working on the film?

It’s been quite a journey. I started the film about 12 years ago, after I read John D’Agata’s book About a Mountain . I was really drawn in to Las Vegas. I had never been to Las Vegas before, but that book had a lot of themes that I was really thinking about in my own work. Las Vegas was a place to explore all of those issues and challenges that I felt I was having working in documentary film, and also relating to my own friend’s suicide.

Before starting the film, did you have any ideas or expectations about Las Vegas?

Certainly. I think the book augments that feeling as well. It’s a similar feeling to what I think a lot of people have about Las Vegas who’ve never been there — that it’s all Strip-centric and it’s really about the casino life and the spectacle. Before I came, I just thought of it as that place. I came to Las Vegas for the first time in 2011, and since

I started working on the film, I think I’ve been there about five or six times more. Each time I went, I shed that idea of Las Vegas.

How did the movie evolve over the years you spent working on it?

I went in expecting to just do an adaptation of the book, and the more personal I made it, the more it deviated from the Yucca Mountain story. Originally it was going to be a narrative with actors. I had actually written a script and was thinking about what actors I wanted to cast. But that was not my comfort zone. I come from documentary. I like working with real people. I like engaging in the unexpected that happens in front of the camera. So, the film evolved from narrative into this documentary hybrid where there’s narrative scenes, but also then there’s the layer of my experience that is more of a documentary essay, and then there’s archival footage.

How did UNLV film professor West McDowell get involved as an associate producer?

West was just an amazing resource and collaborator. He got involved pretty early on. He actually was introduced to me through Jesse (Pino), who was Levi Presley’s best friend. He was very experienced in the film world, and basically was like my project manager and scout, and then became an associate producer and introduced me to the whole local crew.

Did making the film help you process the loss of your friend?

Yeah, for sure. Grief doesn’t have an end. It just has evolution, I guess. It ebbs and flows. My friend’s death was a mystery for a long time, and it just became this nagging crack in my heart for many, many years. I just thought, ‘Okay, maybe that’s what it is.’ But it never stopped me from mulling over the facts over and over again. Every year around her death, I would revive all those problems that I had with not knowing. What this did was connect me with people who shared in that same problem. We can bury ourselves in all the facts we know, but there’s a value in having an emotional reaction that doesn’t make any sense. It can almost be more healing. Discovering that in the Presleys’ journey helped me feel more comforted in my own. ✦

Support resources for anyone having suicidal thoughts are available via the 988 Lifeline and the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention.

How (and Where) to Powwow

These celebratory gatherings organized by Native American tribes welcome all

BY Soni Brown

Singing. Traditional dancing. Drum circles. While Indigenous rituals are off-limits to non-Native people, powwows offer a chance for the public to experience authentic Indigenous culture firsthand. These celebratory gatherings grew out of traditions that brought people together to share food — some danced while others cooked. Over time, the clothing and practices evolved into the regalia and ceremonies we see today.

There are many powwows throughout the desert Southwest — including the following selection within driving distance of Las Vegas. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Since customs and rules vary, visitors should check an event’s website or social media for updated information. And if you’re unsure what to do, err on the side of respect.

San Diego State University Powwow

APRIL 13, SAN DIEGO

>>> This is among the longest-running powwows organized by a university and is hosted by the Native Resource Center, which supports Native American students pursuing degrees. Expect dance exhibitions, bird singing, and honorings. 11a, free, San Diego State University Main Campus, 5500 Campanile Dr., sacd.sdsu.edu/nativeresource/programs/powwow

Powwow for the Planet

APRIL 19-20, LAS VEGAS

>>> A coalition of UNLV’s alumni, faculty, staff, and student organi zations, along with the urban Indigenous community, present this event focused on celebrating tribal sacred places, promoting environ mental stewardship, and raising awareness for protection of public lands. Visitors will find a variety

of arts and culture activities, vendors, and presentations. Fri. 4-8p, Sat. 11a-8p, free with registration, UNLV Main Campus, CHEM Lawn, unlv.edu/event/2024-powwow-planet

Intermountain Championships Powwow

JUNE 1-2, HEBER CITY, UT

>>> In its second year, this powwow is all about the dance and drum competition. Hosting this year is The Boyz, a well-known drum group on the powwow circuit, whose powerful beat and soaring vocals keep crowds moving. The layout of food and arts and crafts offers plenty to peruse. Bring camp chairs and canopies, and book your campsite early because it’s going to be very warm. 10a-10p, $6-10, River’s Edge at Deer Park, 7000 Old Highway 40, @culturalfireevents on Instagram

Fathers Day Powwow by the Sea

JUNE 15-16, IMPERIAL BEACH, CA

>>> Though held on Father’s Day weekend, this powwow honors women and the life they bring forth. This year’s theme, “Honoring the Ocean,” brings awareness to the ongoing desecration of the Pacific Ocean. The Ashaatakook Bird Singers are honored guests. Bird singers are stewards of the songs retelling the Cahuilla People’s origin story. 11a to dusk, free, Imperial Beach Pier Plaza, (619) 708-7858

Annual Pahrump Social Powwow NOV. 22-24, PAHRUMP

>>> Among Pahrump’s best-attended cultural events, this powwow takes place every year just before Thanksgiving. It’s a celebration of Western Shoshone and Paiute tribes, but this year, Danza Azteca Xochipilli from Mexico will perform Indigenous Aztec heritage dances. All Gourd dancers and drummers are welcome. 12p, free, Petrack Park, 150 NV-160, pahrumppowwow.com

Native American Veterans Honoring All Nations Powwow

DEC. 7-8, LAKE HAVASU, AZ

This event celebrates and honors Native American veterans. Competitors can win cash prizes for tradition, fancy, grass, jingle, and chicken dancing. Organizers have introduced new competitions this year for best gourd dancing, fry bread, and women’s dress. 9a, $15 each day, Lake Havasu State Park, 699 London Bridge Rd., vetsuniteaz.org/powwow ✦

Fans on Tour

Catching Vegas-phobic acts elsewhere can mean visiting some iconic Southwestern venues

BY MIKE PREVATT

Patti Smith. Frank Ocean. Tom Waits. If you’ve seen those artists in the last few decades, you hightailed it out of Las Vegas to do so. Living near venue-rich metropolises such as Los Angeles and Phoenix means being a short car or plane trip to catch music acts that leave Southern Nevada off their tour itineraries. A sampler of the Southwest’s many concert venues worth visiting — regardless who’s on stage:

Pappy + Harriet’s (Pioneertown, California):

This dusty throwback near Palm Springs became a live music destination after both Joshua Tree National Park and Indio’s Coachella festival soared in popularity. Since then, performers as big as Paul McCartney have graced the institution’s indoor and outdoor stages. This spring, Vegas fans of the Old 97's and Robyn Hitchcock — among others — might want to consider a trip to Hollywood’s easternmost outpost. pappyandharriets.com

Santa Barbara Bowl (Santa Barbara, California)

There’s a reason Radiohead includes this amphitheater on nearly every tour: its hillside placement among gorgeous oak trees, with sweeping views of both the ocean and its host city. Willie Nelson may be snubbing Las Vegas, but he’ll be at this venue in April. sbbowl.com/concerts.

Orpheum Theatre (Phoenix) Being a younger city, Las Vegas doesn’t boast any pre-WWII theaters. But in Phoenix, the Orpheum has been standing proud for almost 100 years. If you think a band such as Sigur Rós sounds majestic on its own, imagine the added grandeur of a sky-painted dome surrounded by murals and a faux Spanish cityscape. orpheumphx.com

Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Hollywood) Los Angelenos have been catching movies in the city’s most historic graveyard for almost a quarter century. But in 2009, the cemetery began hosting live music acts both on its lawn and in its Masonic Lodge, offering unmatched concert ambiance. Wanna see André 3000’s heralded flute act? This is your closest option. hollywoodforever.com.

The Rady Shell (San Diego) The Hollywood Bowl may sport the most iconic stage shell in the country, but the three-year-old Rady Shell has the best spot: the San Diego Bay. This summer, be soothed by both the voices of 2024 Vegas no-shows — like Sarah McLachlan and Norah Jones — and the cooling Pacific Ocean breeze. theshell.org ✦

I’ve lately been racking what’s left of my brain for details of an old exhibit — a show by local artists who created work to protest Steve Wynn’s implosion of the Dunes. So, this would’ve been sometime in 1993, maybe? Organized by the then-newish Contemporary Arts Collective, it took place in a storefront on Maryland Parkway near UNLV. I think. I mean, it’s been a few years.

To be clear, I didn’t set out to ponder my leaky memory. Rather, the show in question was the earliest example I can recall of local artists rallying their work around a specifically Vegas cause — just the sort of idle rabbit hole into which I will happily plunge. But as I asked a few longtimers for their memories, and didn’t hear many, and as I looked for archival traces of the exhibit, and couldn’t find much (in a far eddy of the internet I dug up an old memorandum about the CAC’s history, which didn’t mention this show at all), I began to wonder how much of our cultural life just evaporates after the fact, and what, if anything, that means.

Hello, completely different rabbit hole.

I’D LIKE TO think most of us believe the arts matter somehow. They have a sizable economic impact, as advocates remind us when politicians threaten to trim cultural funding. They’re a chief way we remember great civilizations. Certainly, we don’t want the future residents of the Las Vegas biodome to assess our era solely through tallies of casino wins and the fossilized remains of Girls Direct to You billboards. I hope there’s a big tranche of local art in that mix to deepen, complicate, and humanize the picture of who we were. Hell, even politicians agree, at least tacitly, simply by funding culture at all.

And yet, for something we consider socially vital, we sure do a haphazard job of documenting it.

Most cultural events are accompanied by a calendar listing, a social media mention, and, if they’re lucky, a morsel of press coverage. After that, they disperse into online hinterlands, or disappear. (And sometimes that’s fine; not every exhibit, poetry reading, or theater production is built for the long haul.) We essentially rely on the archives of local publications to maintain most of our cultural record. Such official documentation as may exist usually retires into unread files none of us can access, while organizations and municipal culture providers move on to the next thing.

WRITER IN RESIDENCE

Resurrecting the Record

Las Vegas isn’t good at documenting its art history. Does it matter?

BY Scott Dickensheets

I get why this is: time, money, manpower. The usual. Nonetheless, I submit that these are, let’s say, less than best practices. We like to think nothing truly disappears from the internet, but whole media archives have either blinked out of existence recently (The Messenger) or face a tenuous future (Vice) as business plans shift; this happens on the local level, too (the important capital news site DCist). The journal Nature reported in January that millions of online scholarly articles have been lost or misarchived. This inaccessibility presents the same problem

for academics that fleeting cultural information does for the Las Vegan interested in her city’s backstory: It severs us from elements of our usable past.

Here’s one way this matters: accountability. If you’re determined and already know a few Google-able keywords, you can patch together a spotty account of the Great City Hall Art Debacle of 1990 (city commissions huge artwork; mistakes are made; original concept is replaced by ugly piece everyone hates). But it will be light on primary sources and hard, verifiable facts. I’ve long thought

that episode has haunted the city’s public art process, and thus influenced the valley’s visual life, and curious residents should be able to understand how it unfolded without having to burrow like scholars through ancient newspaper microfiche.

Our shared artistic past has plenty of chapters worth reflecting on — the exhibit of paintings by serial killer John Wayne Gacy that roiled the Arts Factory in 2011, or the exhibit kicked out of a Clark County gallery in 2018 after a small but instructive squabble. (Rather hilariously, the artist piled stacks of his personal junk in the exhibit space as the art. The county has since expunged the incident from its list of gallery shows.) Each has its lingering relevance, if only by posing thoughtful questions — but if you don’t remember them, you’ll need blind luck to learn they even happened, let alone get the full picture.

Just as importantly, a broader account of our cultural life might yield patterns useful in a doomed-to-repeat-it sense — who’s been given a voice, and who’s been underrepresented or left out entirely, and what course corrections might be called for.

And, on a philosophical level, a local cultural history of robust specificity would further ground us in this place, with all its glorious singularity, backdating our claim that this isn’t an arts wasteland, and resisting an accelerating monoculture that would swamp everything in a monetizable sameness.

Anyway, there’s a lot of great stuff being lost! For 20 years, the Las Vegas Book Festival has imported big-name writers — John Irving, Walter Mosley, Jennifer Egan, Chuck Palahniuk — to give keynote talks. When I asked if the festival had a list of those authors, they responded by asking me, a longtime festival volunteer, if I had any old emails that would shed light on that question. (Sadly, no; I clearly suck at taking my own advice.) I guess I won’t ask about videos, *smiley face*

So, if this essay amounts to anything, it’s a plea for more arts orgs to prioritize public-facing archiving. Especially with recording tech so cheap and easy to use — iPhone, tripod, hit record, voila! Don’t leave the record of our cultural life to the whims of newspaper assignment editors. The insistent utopian in me believes this will pay off in the long run by offering the valley a richer, more varied cultural continuity.

BY THE WAY, the CAC exhibit that got this essay rolling was titled The Dunes Show, and it ran through January 11, 1994, in the

Temporary Contemporary, the group’s makeshift gallery in a storefront at 4171 S. Maryland Parkway. I gleaned these details from a story published in the Las Vegas Sun on January 4 of that year — written, as it turns out, by me, yet another fact I had completely forgotten.

Anthony Bondi didn’t. About 1990, the local artist began clipping and scanning arts and culture stories from the local papers. He was diligent about it, too, occasionally paying people to help. He eventually had hundreds of stories covering the vital years 1990-2015. Realizing this might have some archival value, he began handing out flash drives containing the whole thing. He’s now put it all online at lasvegasarts.org. It’s rudimentary, sure, but it’s there, including my story. (You know where my story isn’t? On the Sun’s website.)

Others have also taken it upon themselves to flesh out the story of our cultural life. They include artist Wendy Kveck, first with her website Settlers + Nomads, now with Couch in the Desert, and Sarah O’Connell’s theater-focused Eat More Art. Until he died in 2019, the late scenester Ed Fuentes would show up practically anytime someone uttered the word “art”; his blog, Paint This Desert, was an important chronicle of those years.

local culture. You’ll encounter my byline frequently in those pages, but that shouldn’t stop you. It’s a great ’80s-’90s time capsule.

I SUPPOSE THERE’S an argument to be made for not worrying about this at all. Maybe evanescence is built right into the experience of art — you encounter it, take it in, and move on. If it’s good, it’ll keep informing you on deep background, while the mediocre stuff falls away, and what else do you need? It’s fair to wonder how many of us care about the larger tidal motions of culture over time.

A broader account of our cultural life might yield patterns useful in a doomedto-repeat-it sense — who’s been given a voice, and who’s been underrepresented or left out entirely, and what course corrections might be called for.

These are all easy to get to; you needn’t burrow through hard copies in a museum back room to get a sense of what came before. But there could, and should, be a lot more.

IT’S WORTH NOTING, this is hardly a problem unique to Las Vegas. And credit where it’s due: Some institutions do make an effort. The Black Mountain Institute has event videos on its YouTube channel, though I’d like to see them go much farther back. Clark County’s website lists past exhibits in its gallery spaces. There appear to be Contemporary Arts Collective materials stored in UNLV’s Special Collections and Archive, though I lack the search-ninja skills to access them through the school’s portal. Meanwhile, the Henderson Library has online facsimiles of Arts Alive, a longago magazine that extensively covered

But I don’t think I’m out on this limb by myself. Plenty of people understand the way art opens a window into a society’s values and collective psychology. For the annual City Arts and Culture Summit in February, organizers devised a Las Vegas cultural timeline to remind attendees “that there is a rich history there,” says Jasmine Freeman, a cultural affairs manager with the city.

“We thought maybe we were gonna get 15 or 20 things to highlight,” she says, “then allow for space to put your own pieces of history on Post It notes and put them on the wall.”

The list is currently above 350 items, she says. The entries are wide-ranging, from the 1962 opening of the Teenbeat Club, “the first teen nightclub in the U.S.,” to a 1990 art show touted as marking “the social birth of the arts district.” I’m told the full timeline will eventually be added to the Cultural Affairs section of the city’s website.

So if your suggestion box is open, Office of Cultural Affairs, here’s what this insistent utopian proposes:

Build your timeline into a truly useful resource hub. Ferret out and link to all the far-flung web pages, YouTube channels, media accounts, hard-to-access archives, and art-loving blog posts where this information resides. Don’t treat it solely as an occasion to celebrate — include the controversial events that might prompt conversations, rather than pretending they never happened. Remind us of the women and artists of color who’ve had to struggle for a foothold. Then do your best to tell the world it’s there. Let a thousand new rabbit holes open! ✦

AWELCOME TO FABULOUS NEW VEGAS

The world of this old Vegas-set video game remains so compelling, fans travel here to visit the real thing

By Eric Duran-Valle

s I stand in the Goodsprings cemetery, I do my best to be respectful of its residents, especially since only bona fide citizens of the town can be buried here. The place has a sepulchral serenity. Miniature American flags on headstones flap in the wind. There is a bench for contemplation. The sun shines all day. It’s a fine place not only to spend eternity, but also to reflect on the fleeting nature of life, the passage of time, and one’s own mortality.

But for a package courier approximately 257 years from now, Goodsprings cemetery is where life begins.

The 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas, developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks, is a role-playing adventure set in the Greater Las Vegas area after a nuclear war has destroyed most of the planet. Players take on the role of a courier unwittingly embroiled in a power struggle between tribals-turned-mafiosos, opposing civilizations from California and Arizona seeking to

expand their territories, a mysterious and seemingly immortal tech billionaire with his own plans, and other factions seeking their cut of Sin City. It’s up to you, the Courier, to decide which outcome is best for New Vegas.

Fan devotion to Fallout: New Vegas remains strong even though the game is now old enough to be a freshman in high school. (Although, with an M for Mature rating, it’s still not old enough to play itself.) Subreddits, social media pages, and fan sites remain vitally active. And some who have the means even take their zeal a step further and brave the white-line nightmare (read: the U.S. Interstate Highway System) to see the real Mojave Wasteland.

During their virtual quests, gamers can visit the Strip, Downtown, Boulder City, Red Rock Canyon, Mt. Charleston, Primm, and Nipton, among other places. Fallout: New Vegas director Joshua Eric Sawyer even hopped on a motorcycle to do location research with the Obsidian team. One of their stops included Goodsprings, where

the game begins with your character taking a bullet in the noggin in the town cemetery, a murder attempt that you miraculously survive. Because of this, Goodsprings has earned a special place in the hearts of players. No matter which paths you choose or whether you finish the game, everyone starts in Goodsprings.

“I’m a Star Wars geek,” Old Man Liver tells me. “I understood it right away.” Old Man Liver, real name Stephen Staats, is the owner (since 2021) of the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings. I’ve driven out here to learn how the town’s prominence in Fallout: New Vegas has affected tourism. On his website, Staats claims he won the saloon in a poker match, a dubious claim that, despite my best efforts, I can’t get him to confirm. Regardless, he seems to have quickly embraced the town of Goodsprings and fleshed out its connection with Fallout fans.

On a previous visit to the saloon, which is re-created with high fidelity in Fallout: New Vegas , I observed that trinkets and replicas of in-game items were stowed beneath the counter in the general store next door, only brought out for fans looking for them. Now, an entire portion of the dining area is dedicated to New Vegas memorabilia. Piles of bottle caps (the ingame currency), New California Republic soldier dog tags, and a combat gas mask are eyed with a bit of contempt by the portraits of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard across the room.

In 2022, Staats organized the saloon’s first Fallout New Vegas Fan Celebration, inviting New Vegas fans and influencers (yes, influencers) to show off their cosplay, reenact moments from the game, and meet fellow Fallout diehards.

Hosting it in July was a rookie mistake, but otherwise the event was a smash. According to Old Man Liver, the first year exceeded expectations, with about 1,000 attendees. “We were thinking maybe 50 or 100 people would show up,” he says. Fans camped in the surrounding area, stayed in nearby Jean, or rode a shuttle to the saloon from the Tuscany in Las Vegas. Attendees supported Goodsprings by lining up around the saloon for drink and grub, or joining the “Asshole Association,” a community chest for town services. The 2023 meetup, which drew a reported 4,000 fans, was sensibly moved to November. The next is scheduled for November 16-17.

Surely, this phenomenon warrants academic research. David G. Schwartz, who serves as the UNLV ombuds and has a

Challenger

doctorate in U.S. history, is the preeminent scholar on this topic. He breaks it down in his paper, “Back in the Saddle: Fallout: New Vegas and Meme Tourism in Goodsprings, Nevada’s Pioneer Saloon.” He describes “meme tourism” as a “subset of entertainment-influenced tourism, which is itself a subset of cultural tourism.” Other examples include Trekkies visiting Vasquez Rocks, in California, to see where a rubber-suit alien got a good beating from Capt. Kirk, or Joker viewers taking photos at a step street in the Bronx made famous by Joaquin Phoenix’s choreography. Vegas also takes part in the fun, with companies such as Annie Bananie Las Vegas Tours offering meet-and-greets with the casts of Pawn Stars and Counting Cars

But while the proscenium of film and television keeps the audience as passive observers, video games turn you into an active participant. In Fallout: New Vegas, you can be a crusader for justice or a violent marauder, an ambitious go-getter or indifferent drifter. The choice is up to you. The choice is you.

“A trip to Goodsprings,” Schwartz says, “has markers of a spirit quest. Even for Southern Nevada residents, it involves a considerable drive out of town, both in miles and in spirit.” There is a sense of transmutation that occurs in the seven miles between the I-15 and the Pioneer Saloon. Many games offer “player agency” through decision-making, but often they feel shallow. Player actions in New Vegas are poignant because they often involve agonizing deliberation and unexpected repercussions. One crushing questline involves helping a travel companion decide whether she wants to stay with her isolationist community, the Brotherhood of Steel. If she stays, it’s with the understanding that their unwillingness to work with the outside world will lead to their downfall. If she leaves, the Brotherhood will slaughter the new community she joins. These scenarios give weight to characters who are, technically speaking, a bunch of ones and zeroes.

ponent of, yet a major influence on, the world around you. It’s a revelatory text that converts casuals into pilgrims seeking out its landmarks.

of independence. Once I got the keys to the family car, where did I go besides the taco shop after school? Old Mormon Fort. Hoover Dam. Boulder City. Goodsprings. Primm. All locations you visit in New Vegas. There was an excitement to it, recalling that here was the spot where I went toe-to-toe with dangerous, dynamite-wielding convicts. Or here, using temporary insight I gained from a medicine magazine, I performed life-saving surgery on a weary traveler.

In a Zoom call, Schwartz acknowledges that players also spend much of their time shooting mutants, people, and wild animals. “I would hope that’s something people don’t try to re-create in the real world,” he says.

Short of open murder, there aren’t “right” or “wrong” paths. What you choose reveals your values and what you’re willing to sacrifice to maintain them. Fallout: New Vegas ends with a slideshow recounting your adventures; the harrowing music makes you realize how you are both a small com-

If it’s not already obvious, I am one of these Fallout pilgrims — I don’t usually stand around in cemetaries otherwise. As a kid growing up in Vegas, I never felt any movie or TV show cared to represent the city in any way more nuanced than The Hangover. I discovered Fallout: New Vegas at an age when I was being allowed a degree

Fortunately, it seems most who went to Goodsprings for the celebration are on the courteous side. “The Fallout community has so far been some of the nicest and most creative people I’ve ever interacted with,” Old Man Liver says. After the two-day event, volunteers stay behind to help clean up, a gesture residents seem to appreciate.

Schwartz also points to the video game’s modding community as a reason players might feel a deeper sense-of-self with Fall- ERIC

out: New Vegas than with a movie or TV show. “Mods,” for the uninitiated, are aftermarket modifications to a game that can enhance the visuals, gameplay, and performance. Mods are typically created by fans and thereby give players a unique sense of ownership and customization. “I think of it similar to how in the early days of cars, you also needed to be a bit of a mechanic, too,” Schwartz says.

As someone who spent many hours fixing his heavily modded copy of New Vegas in the same way a greaser would have labored over a souped-up T-Bird, I can tell you that Schwartz’s theory is well-founded.

Even if the game was often a buggy mess (it was developed in just 18 months, a major crunch in the video game world), the developers clearly did their homework, both geographically and historically. The game pays homage to Vegas icons such as Bugsy Siegel, in the character of casino manager Benny, and Howard Hughes, model for the enigmatic lord of the Strip, Mr. House. One quest involves recovering a WWII bomber from the bottom of Lake Mead, which was based on a real-life B-29 Superfortress

that crashed into the reservoir in 1948. It’s still down there.

“I think it’s great,” Old Man Liver says. “They come because of the game, and then they meet the people here and find out about our unique history.” My desire to learn the chronicles of my city, and subsequently deepen my civic engagement, had a lot do with Fallout: New Vegas. Partially because the game was so enjoyable, but also from the feeling that we had finally been seen in a way that honors our community.

Perhaps the best way to encapsulate all of this is the quest for the in-game collect ibles, snow globes. These rare items com mand a hefty bounty (2,000 bottle caps for each one you find) and reward players for digging through every nook and cranny of the Wasteland, with snow globes hidden in the closets and neglected areas of plac es such as Nellis Air Force Base and the Nevada Test Site.

Snow globes are, of course, the pinnacle of tourist tchotchkes. You can find them in any museum or attraction gift shop, even in locales not known for winter weather. So, in a way, the Courier, between efforts to repair broken generators or get a new brain for a robot dog, is also “playing” a tourist. In an interesting turn of life imi tating art, Fallout fans have crafted snow globes and delivered them to their real-life locations. The Old Mormon Fort has re ceived several, displaying one prominent ly in the gift shop and giving another to Schwartz after his presentation about Vegas in its museum.

It may seem a little ridiculous to identi fy so deeply with a game, to handcraft a snow globe, a laser rifle, or a souvenir di nosaur and render it to its mythic point of origin. To attend a desert party dressed as a video game character. To feel a sense of connection while standing in a graveyard where no one I know is buried. But there’s a powerful homecoming in this journey that I have yet to see with any other fandom or media franchise. The 2010 trailer ends with the tagline, “Enjoy Your Stay.” If the game were to get a remake or rerelease today, it might say instead, “Welcome Home.”

As I drive back from Goodsprings, I look around at the desert. The mountains bear witness. The Strip begins to peek over the horizon. For a moment, I’m not a writer living and working in the 2020s. I’m a Courier surviving in the 2280s, determined and unforgiving in who I am. Because, as the series tagline reminds us, war…war never changes. ✦

IN THE BAG

An annual grocerybagging competition in Las Vegas brings out the ‘essential’ in essential workers and the ‘skill’ in unskilled labor

By Sarah Cadorette

Inside a ballroom in an opulent Las Vegas Str ip casino, competitors who have been training all year step up to the stage. Spectators sporting feather boas hold up giant cardboard faces and scream. Each athlete lines up on their mark. The emcee counts them down — “Three, two, one, go!” — and the nation’s best com pete in what might be society’s most common and least recognized sport: grocery bagging.

This is the National Grocers Association’s (NGA’s) Best Bagger Competition, held every spring at Caesars Palace. According to Laura Strange, the NGA’s chief commu nications and member engagement officer, this annual competition is “a way for these store employees to feel good about the way they’re supporting their organizations to serve their communities.”

Although NGA President and CEO Greg Ferrara has stated that baggers are “essen tial,” because they’re the last impression a customer receives of the store, their work may be even more critical than his assess ment implies: They assist customers who may lack the strength or mobility to bag their own groceries, make grocery shopping more efficient, and ensure no one goes home with broken eggs and squished loaves of bread.

And yet, their work is often categorized as “unskilled labor.” For many of the participants, this competition is a way to be recognized by their community, and to prove just how much skill goes into their work.

FOUNDED BY THE American Paper Institute in 1983, then evolving into the “Texas –Oklahoma Checkout Shootout” in 1987 (which featured just two baggers competing under the commentary of emcee and former NFL quarterback Terry Bradshaw), the NGA Best Bagger Championship is now an annual event featuring the top baggers from across the nation. This year, winners from fourteen states competed for the grand prize of $10,000. For baggers who make an average salary of $35,373 per year, according to estimates by Glassdoor, that’s a significant chunk of change.

For the competition, baggers line up onstage at mock cash registers underneath swiveling colored lights, like they’re working at a realistic replica of a nightclub grocery store. They’re judged on four categories; perhaps the most obvious is Speed, which accounts for 10 of the total 30 possible points

that a competitor can achieve. To win all 10 points, the bagger must finish bagging all of their items in fewer than 53 seconds. During the championship, the baggers will have to bag between 25 and 35 items, according to Strange, which means they have about 1.5 to 2.1 seconds to bag each item and win the maximum number of points.

An equally significant category, also worth 10 points, is Proper Bag Building Technique. In this area, contestants can lose points for things like placing “crushable items,” such as bread or eggs, on the bottom of the bag, forgetting to bag items, or throwing them into the bag in a disorderly manner. The other two categories, each worth five points, are Distribution of Weight Between Bags, and Style, Attitude and Appearance. Both of these categories are explicitly customer-focused: evenly distributing weight among bags makes them easier to balance as they’re carried out of the store, and, as the criteria for the Style category states, “All contestants should present a neat appearance, be polite and convey a customer-oriented attitude.”

Strange, who is part of the group that

determined the items used in the 2023 championship, says, “Typically speaking, we try to find an assortment of what people will find in a full-service supermarket. We try to include what you would find in everyday American grocery baskets. And then some fun little surprises in there — there’s always one or two.”

Since competitors are not told exactly what they’ll be bagging beforehand, they have to get a little creative when it comes to training.

“Last year, my boss and I created a cardboard cutout of where to place everything and placed it to the side of the register,” says Sarah Mehany, the 2023 Tennessee state champion. “We did it half with the setup the TGCSA (Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association) gave us, and then half without, because we know it won’t be exactly the same.”

Both Mehany and the 2023 state champion from Minnesota, Marissa Schumacher, say they practice every day in the week leading up to the competition. Mehany says she scheduled a six-hour shift every day that week to train. Schumacher watched

the video of the 2022 competition to evaluate the competitors’ techniques and paused the video to answer the host’s post-competition questions herself. The showmanship is, after all, part of the spectacle.

MEHANY AND SCHUMACHER are similar in another way: They are both young and female, which is very different from the norm in their field. The average grocery bagger in the United States is white, male, and 39 years old, according to data compiled by Zippia. In fact, the overwhelming majority of grocery baggers — 71 percent — are male, which is what makes it even more surprising that the championship winners for three out of the past four years (2020, 2022 and 2023) have been women. As Mehany notes, the competitors also skew toward a younger demographic than the national average. “From what I’ve seen, everyone has been a rising freshman or college student” in the Tennessee state competitions, she says. Mehany is a college junior, while Schumacher is still a senior in high school.

No matter the age, though, all grocery baggers are working in a position that requires them to simultaneously practice superb customer service skills, endure the physical demands of being on their feet and lifting heavy items for a full shift, and solve the puzzle of bagging items efficiently. For the NGA, the purpose of the competition is “to highlight the hard work and dedication of a role that is truly such an important role in the store, but isn’t always recognized,” Strange says.

The critical nature of baggers and other grocery store workers became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were categorized as “frontline workers,” who ensured all of us were still able to eat, but the sudden appreciation for baggers during a desperate time didn’t come without its cost. The pandemic “put emphasis on the role itself, but there is also an element of employees who came through during tough times and responded to their community’s needs, which put pressure on those who worked in stores,” Strange says.

Between 2022 and 2032, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates a 26-percent drop in the number of the country’s grocery baggers. This may be attributed to the low pay. The anticipated decline may also be explained, at least in part, to the rise of self-checkout options at grocery stores. Strange, however, believes that some grocery store owners will continue to opt for the more human touch of employing cashiers and baggers.

“Some (store operators) have leveraged self-checkout for efficiency, to have more lanes open,” she says. “But there are stores that differentiate (themselves) on the experience itself, so having that warm, friendly face to help you check out is where some of our members provide value.”

BEING THAT FRIENDLY face has helped Schumacher to grow into herself a bit more. She says she used to be shier, but talking with customers all day has given her the confidence needed to compete on the national stage.

“I’m talking to so many people, and most of my conversations are just fine. You don’t really need to overthink so much. It’s just a conversation,” she says. “Working here (at Kowalski’s Market) definitely got me out of my comfort zone.”

Grocery baggers are working in a position that requires them to simultaneously practice superb customer service skills, endure the physical demands of being on their feet and lifting heavy items for a full shift, and solve the puzzle of bagging items efficiently.

Schumacher, who plans on studying meteorology or atmospheric sciences when she begins college later this year, also competes on her school’s cross-country and track teams year-round. She says that her competitiveness and self-criticism are the same in these sports as they are when she’s bagging.

“I can be a bit hard on myself,” Schumacher says. “I think, ‘Oh I could have done better in this area,’ or, ‘Next time, I can improve on this.’ I see those similarities quite frequently.”

As with most competitions, participating in the Best Bagger Compeition can validate the hard work that the competitors put into their job performance. “It would be an accomplishment (to win),” Schumacher says. “All my time working here … it would feel honoring, knowing that I did that.”

Though for Schumacher, just being at the

championship itself was thrilling. “The end goal is to win,” she says, “but I also want to meet new people, like the other competitors, and explore Las Vegas.”

Strange says she has spoken to a lot of competitors over the past decade who are simply excited about experiencing something new. “Last year I spoke to a young man who had never been on an airplane, or even out of his state before,” she says. “It’s fun to provide experiences like that for people.”

For Mehany, the competition is about “opportunities.”

“I feel like this is such a niche and unique thing, and (this competition is) giving people the opportunity to prove that they’re the best at it,” she says. Mehany is a junior in college, double-majoring in politics and international studies. Somehow, she also finds time to participate in her college’s swim and cheerleading teams. Mehany is currently studying abroad in Berlin, and she flew back from Germany just for this competition because, she says, it’s “such a unique experience.”

Bagging has been essential to her college journey: The TGCSA provided scholarships for her wins at the state level, where she snagged second place two years in a row before winning first place this past year. “I would be in a completely different place in my college journey without TGCSA,” she says. Recently, she adds, she decided she wants to go to law school.

Like Mehany, many of the past winners of the championship have used their grand prize money to make major purchases, stabilize their finances, or both. “I know a number have been able to use the money to pay for school, purchase cars or homes, or pay off some debt,” Strange says.

For competitors such as Mehany and Schumacher, who are currently or will soon be attending college, winning could mean supporting themselves through school or preventing additional debt from student loans, which may grant them greater freedom in terms of academic and career pursuits. While a win could be life-changing for these competitors, they also spend hours of their precious free time optimizing their bagging techniques — simply for the love of the game.

Mehany says, “Bagging is one of the strange aspects of my life that I love!” ✦

As this story went to press, the 2024 Best Bagger Championship at Caesars Palace was underway. The winner was Madison Ireland, a bagger from Harmons Neighborhood Grocer in Utah.

FORK IN THE RIVER

The Colorado’s upper and lower basins have different plans for managing water. Here’s why they disagree

The seven states that use water from the Colorado River have proposed competing plans for how the river should be managed in the future. They’re split into two factions, with the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming on one side, and their Lower Basin counterparts — California, Arizona, and Nevada — on the other.

Those two camps have been at odds over water management many times over the past century. Now, with climate change shrinking the Colorado River’s supply, they’re under intense pressure to rein in demand. The current guidelines for sharing the river expire in 2026, and states are trying to agree on the rules that will replace them.

Neither of the two competing plans submitted the week of March 4 are final. Federal water officials and state leaders had been targeting a mid-March deadline for states to submit some kind of plan, with the aim of getting the ball rolling while there’s still enough time for the current administration to implement any new water rules. The upcoming election in November could bring a change of presidential administration that could complicate the implementation of new rules.

The Upper Basin states’ proposal puts one of their most oft-repeated talking points into writing: The four states in the Upper Basin bear the brunt of climate change — which is causing a reduction in

the amount of snow in the mountains where the Colorado River begins — and any new rules for the river need to reflect that.

“We can no longer accept the status quo of Colorado River operations,” Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s top water negotiator, wrote in a press release. “If we want to protect the system and ensure certainty for the 40 million people who rely on this water source, then we need to address the existing imbalance between supply and demand. That means using the best available science to work within reality and the actual conditions of Lake Powell and Lake Mead. We must plan for the river we have — not the river we dream for.”

By Alex Hager ALEX HAGER

Mitchell and her Upper Basin colleagues are attempting to “plan for the river we have”

by proposing a new structure for water releases from Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir. In 2023, water levels in Lake Powell dipped to a new all-time low, about 20 percent of total capacity.

The Upper Basin states are suggesting releases as low as 6 million acre-feet of water per year. Currently, they are legally obligated to send at least 7.5 million acre-feet downstream each year, calculated as an average of the previous 10 years of flows from the river’s Upper Basin to Lower Basin. But that new plan for reduced releases exists in murky legal territory.

The 1922 Colorado River Compact, which sets the table for today’s Colorado River management, says, “The States of the Upper Division will not cause the flow of the river

… to be depleted” below a specified level.

The Upper Basin states are now suggesting they could allow less water to pass downriver because climate change is causing the lower flows, not water use by the states themselves. The idea has not yet been tested in court.

Lower Basin leaders say that suggestion is impractical.

“Arguing legal interpretations until we’re all blue in the face doesn’t do anything to proactively respond to climate change,” J.B. Hamby, California’s top water negotiator, says.

Efforts to stop its levels from dropping further have been a core part of Colorado River management over the past few years. If water levels dip below the intake tubes

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for hydropower turbines within Glen Canyon Dam, operators would have to shut down electric generators that supply about 5 million people across seven states. At an even lower mark, referred to as “dead pool,” water could drop to levels too low to pass through the dam at all.

Those concerns drove a raft of emergency water releases from other upstream reservoirs and have fueled calls from environmental groups to plan for a future without the Glen Canyon Dam.

The Upper Basin states’ proposal specifically mentions mitigating dead pool as an outcome of its suggested rules.

The Lower Basin states, meanwhile, tout their own plan. Their plan introduces a new framework for measuring how much water is in western reservoirs and a method for distributing water cutbacks accordingly.

Currently, the main barometers for the amount of water in the Colorado River system are the elevations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead. The new accounting system, which the Lower Basin states describe as “more holistic,” would also include a handful of other reservoirs that are part of the Colorado River Storage Project. Those include Blue Mesa in Colorado, Navajo in New Mexico, and Flaming Gorge in Wyoming and Utah.

The Lower Basin states’ proposal suggests using data about how much water is in that bigger system to determine when it’s time

to cut back on water allocations to different states, and how big those cutbacks should be. Under current rules, only Lower Basin states have to face cutbacks during times of shortage. Under the proposed new rules, Lower Basin states would be the first to face cutbacks, but Upper Basin states would see water reductions, too, once reservoir storage dips below a certain threshold.

“It’s very easy to craft an alternative that doesn’t require any sacrifice,” Hamby says. “But that’s not what the Lower Basin alternative does. The Lower Basin is home to three quarters of the Colorado River Basin’s population, most of the basin’s tribes, and some of the most productive farmland in the country. Our proposal requires adaptation and sacrifice by water users across the region.”

Some policy analysts have suggested that this week’s divergent proposals are an important step toward reaching consensus and may be a necessary first step before negotiators are able to find some agreement.

“We need to think about the whole basin as one interconnected system,” Elizabeth Koebele, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno, says. “I think there are elements of both plans that kind of get at that thought and maybe those are places that we could see come together in a future consensus plan.”

Despite divides in the substance of their proposals, both the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states say they are open to more dialogue and have hopes of reaching agreement.

“We look forward to working with our sister Lower Basin states to resolve differences in approach and create a seven-state consensus alternative,” Estevan López, New Mexico’s top water negotiator, wrote in a press release.

Officials with the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that manages Western dams and reservoirs, says they expect to work with states over the spring and summer and reach a draft proposal for post-2026 river management by the end of 2024. ✦

This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC in Colorado and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage.

WATER WE DOING? Glen Canyon Dam (top) and the Colorado River Water Users Association’s December 2023 meeting

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Happy Campers

WHY ENCLOSE YOURSELF IN ANOTHER HOTEL ROOM WHEN THESE DELIGHTFULLY OFFBEAT LODGINGS AWAIT?

By Lissa Townsend Rodgers

IIf you’re interested in an escape from adulting for your spring and summer travel and want to make your lodgings part of the adventure, read on. Within a few hours’ drive from Las Vegas, you can spend the night in a restored vintage trailer, a desert-grounded boat, or a faux-Conestoga wagon after a day of beachside biking, helicopter rides, or just chilling in a hot tub while listening to the jukebox. Consider it a sleepaway camp with no curfew, no chaperone, and no one checking your luggage for contraband.

Waypoint Ventura

Ventura, California

Acollection of 21 vintage Airstream and Spartan trailers clustered between Ventura’s beach and downtown, Waypoint Ventura offers a special place to crash after a day on the beach (or the freeway). “It’s a wide variety of guests,” manager Danielle Stanford says. “We get couples for sure. We get lots of families in the summertime. We get pets — the family who owns it are major dog lovers, so bring all the pets!”

Accommodations range from a petite retro streamline to a renovated tour bus with airbrushed murals, multiple bathrooms, and bunks to accommodate a half-dozen people. Some have been restored to their original mid-century glory with wood-veneer cabinetry, Pepto-Bismol-pink kitchen appliances, and stainless-steel showers reminiscent of an airplane cockpit. Others feature contemporary amenities such as king-sized beds and full-sized, 21st-century bathrooms. Each has a private deck with lounge chairs and fairy lights.

If you want to venture beyond your little corner of the trailer park, there are two public fire pits furnished with lounge chairs, blankets, and, in the evenings, the makings for s’mores. You can hang out on the swings, play cornhole, or borrow a book or board game from the common area. In the morning, there’s coffee, tea, fresh orange juice, and cookies — enough sustenance to get you to your next adventure.

Clockwise from opposite page: The Ventura Pier, Waypoint Ventura’s courtyard, the interior of the Crown trailer, the exterior of the Alice in Wonderland trailer, and a guest using the campfire amenities COURTESY WAYPOINT VENTURA; VENTURA PIER: RODRIGO KAMMER/UNSPLASH

Hicksville

“Everybody who comes here is excited to have a good time, to see something unique,” Stanford says. “We have people tell us all the time, ‘We met the coolest person out by the fire pit, and now we’re going to their wedding.’”

A few minutes’ walk from Waypoint Ventura you’ll find the beach and the pier — surfers will enjoy the waves, and anyone else can stroll along the shore or boardwalk. It’s also a brief jaunt to downtown Ventura’s restaurants, bars, and shopping. You can borrow one of the hotel’s free bikes; the streets are easy to ride on, and there’s no shortage of places to take in a view, poke around a shop, or grab a beverage or bite. There are clothing boutiques and bookstores, as well as a string of thrift stores, from Goodwill to the more curated and high-end. Dining options lean toward seafood: eat-at-the-counter fish taco/shrimp burrito joints such as Spencer Makenzie’s, or more refined versions such as Rumfish y Vino’s South American gastropub. A few dozen bars range from the Fluid State Beer Garden, with its vast array of local taps and exotic pizzas, to the Bank of Italy Cocktail Trust, where you can sip mezcal negronis and amaro sazeracs in a beaux-arts bank building. waypointventura.com

Acluster of picturesque themed trailers on the outskirts of Joshua Tree, Hicksville Trailer Palace’s vibe would entertain anyone from a 10-year-old to a rock star.

“The trailers are all unique and special,” co-owner Erica Beers says. “Some of the themes are drawn from the local area, like the Integratrailer, an alien/space-themed 1956 Airstream inspired by the Integratron. The Pioneer is a 1955 Little Caesar, and our homage to Pioneertown, a nearby old west movie set. Other themes come from sub-pop culture and things we just think are

IMAGES COURTESY HICKSVILLE; JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK: JAYMA LEAVENGOOD/UNSPLASH

From top to bottom: A view of Hicksville’s pool area and the tipi in front of The Pee Wee wagon

Guests at Grand Canyon Glamping in Meadview, Arizona, can rustle up fun with nearby horse trail rides.

Consider it a sleepaway camp with no curfew, no chaperone, and no one checking your luggage for contraband.

cool.” That would include the vinyl-and-zebra-upholstered “Lux,” honoring legendary punk band The Cramps. There’s also a beached boat with a tiki-themed interior, and a sideshow-styled trailer furnished with two-headed taxidermy and a fortune-telling machine. Fans of Pee-wee Herman can sleep in a circus wagon from Big Top Pee-wee, stocked with Pee-wee paraphernalia and a DVD of the movie.

Hicksville isn’t only offbeat, it’s also off the beaten path — you’ll need GPS to get there, and you’ll want to pick up any necessities at the supermarket in town before heading up the hill. (Should you forget, wellstocked vending machines pop out everything from potato chips to iced coffee to toothpaste to beer koozies.) Once there, you’ll find plenty to do. There’s a small heated pool, as well as an elevated hot tub in which you can soak while you soak in the expansive desert views. You can poke around the tipi, the lifeguard booth, and a few mini-western buildings, or cook something up on the grill. If you really want to get down with your inner child, there’s an arcade

with video games, a ping pong table and a six-hole miniature golf course, as well as archery targets and a BBgun range to test your dormant and/ or rusty skills. The site’s picturesque charm has made it the site of a Lana Del Rey music video, as well as other special events. “We do have a fair amount of weddings,” Beers says. “The folks who want to have their weddings with us are some of the coolest people I’ve ever met.”

Hicksville is about a half-hour from the sprawling scenery of Joshua Tree National Park or the legendary live music venue Pappy + Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace. For dinner or a drink, the Joshua Tree Saloon is a sprawling indoor-outdoor, western-themed bar and restaurant that features a menu of burgers and ribs, as well as music most nights. The Tiny Pony Tavern is a High Desert hipster hangout, the place to go for a pickletini or espresso martini alongside late-night bites or brunch. If you want food to take back to your trailer, Sam’s Indian Food & Pizza can hook you up with samosas, curry, or a truly amazing chicken tikka pizza. hicksvillepalace.com

Grand Canyon Glamping Meadview,

Arizona

If you’re looking to really escape from civilization and get your night’s sleep with only the light of the stars and the sounds of the birds to (not) disturb you, Grand Canyon Glamping may be the spot you seek. It’s two hours from Las Vegas and 15 minutes from the Grand Canyon; you drive through a panorama of desert and farmland to a sprawling complex that leans heavily into the Wild West fantasy.

That begins with the accommodations. You can sleep in a wagon, a Conestoga-style mini-cabin, or a “tipi,” a round tent outfitted with king-sized and/or bunk beds, as well as a mini-restroom (yes, there are A/C and heat in all units). Tents are classic wood-poles and canvas-flaps, with bathrooms nearby. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner can be ordered and brought up to your tent or tipi: eggs and bacon, sandwiches, and an assortment of burgers, hot dogs, and steaks off the grill. There are plans to open a western village, as well as a full-service restaurant and bar on-site. “We’re scheduled to open in the spring,” says Raul De La Cruz, director of events and marketing. “It’ll be a 3,000-square-foot bar, restaurant, and gift shop.”

While one can (and should) simply luxuriate in the peace and quiet while gazing at the stars, visiting the buffalo and horses, and strolling in nature, there’s also no shortage of

The “Sweet” trailer at Hicksville

THE SWEET COURTESY HICKSVILLE; GRAND CANYON GLAMPING COURTESY

activities. Early evening horse trail rides take you through fields, up hills, past herds of horses and cows, to some of the most glorious sunset views you’ll ever behold. Many of the horses are retired from rodeos, farms, or other strenuous gigs, so it’s pleasant for both horse and rider. If you’re more action movie than western, there are also ATV rides. And for pure wonder, you can also take a helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon, rising above the rocks and dipping toward the river in a display guaranteed to drop even the most jaded of jaws.

The nearest town is Meadview, a little less than 30 minutes away. You won’t find mixology lounges or fusion bistros here, but there is an oldschool dive bar/bottle shop with jukebox and pool table, the Fisherman’s Landing, and a big-helping

barbecue joint, Anchor Smokehouse. If you’re not looking for nightlife — and you’re not, or you would have stayed in Las Vegas — possible excursions include a dip or boat ride in the less-populated east side of Lake Mead or a scenic hike through the Joshua trees of Grapevine Mesa. grandcanyonglampingresort.com ✦

Clockwise from top right: Grand Canyon Glamping’s conestoga wagons and an on-site tipi, and nearby touring/ ATV attractions

River Watch

Can a diverse coalition of locals, working with the federal government, stop lithium drilling in the Amargosa Valley before it permanently alters Ash Meadows?

It’s a long shot they’re willing to take

By Jeniffer Solis of the Nevada Current

Amargosa Valley residents file into seats on a basketball court in an aging community center with water-stained ceilings. The residents attending the Amargosa Valley Town Board meeting in February are the picture of rural living: plaid shirts, denim, mud-stained boots, and baseball caps with American flags and eagles.

Over the next year, the survival of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge — a critical wetland habitat in the Amargosa Desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas — will come down to them. At least that’s the pitch Mason Voehl, executive director of the Amargosa Conservancy, makes to these locals as they snack on cookies.

“We’re a small organization. It’s me and like 10 volunteers,” Voehl tells his audience on a damp Thursday night in the Amargosa Valley. “We are counting on the communities of the Amargosa to join with us.”

But news travels fast in Nevada’s rural towns. Word of Canada-based Rover Critical Minerals’ (formerly Rover Metals) new application to drill as many as 21 boreholes less than a mile from the refuge — at depths of up to 150 feet — in search of valuable lithium deposits had already reached the valley.

Colette Johnson, a slight 56-year-old woman with a neat shoulder-length bob, quickly marches up to the podium and vows to sign any petition opposing the

exploratory lithium project planned 25 miles from her home.

“I would be more than willing to get involved in this,” she says.

Coordinated resistance to mining is new for the residents of Amargosa Valley, who have avoided large-scale development near their homes for decades. For better or worse, the town’s rural nature had siloed residents from the bureaucratic machinations of the larger world. That changed in the summer of 2023, when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the first iteration of Rover Critical Minerals’ exploratory mineral drilling operation. The proposal included plans to drill within 2,000 feet of Fairbanks Spring, a critical habitat for the endangered Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish and the Ash Meadows speckled dace.

“They have found lithium everywhere. There are a thousand other places you can mine it,” says Mike Cottingim, the Amargosa Town Clerk and a member of the Amargosa Town Board. “Why do you have to put the watershed and all those endangered species at risk when there’s all these other places?”

For Johnson, Cottingim, and other valley residents gathered in the community center, the overarching question is: What can they do to make Rover Critical Minerals leave for good?

The disappointing answer from Voehl is, not much. Unlike other extractive industries,

hard rock mining on public land is governed by a congressional law passed more than a century ago — before neighboring Arizona, Utah, and Idaho were even states: the General Mining Law of 1872.

Under this law, any party that finds valuable minerals on public land that can be extracted for profit has the right to stake its claim. Once located, marked, and recorded with the state, a valid claim essentially establishes property rights to the resource in question, meaning a claim can’t be revoked by anyone, not even the federal government.

In July, the Amargosa Conservancy and Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit, pressuring the BLM to pull its initial approval of Rover Critical Minerals’ exploration project. An agency review determined that exploratory boreholes just north of the refuge would likely cause damage to the groundwater that feeds the meadows and could potentially harm threatened and endangered species that rely on the refuge for survival.

That decision, however, did not invalidate Rover Critical Minerals’ mining claim on the land. Half a year later, in December, and with a few tweaks to the original plan, the company submitted a new proposal. Dubbed “Let’s Go Lithium Project,” it would span more than 5,853 acres south of Amargosa Valley, on a former lakebed between the town’s community center and the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, according to the company’s operation plan. The actual exploration activity for the project — trenches, drilling, borehole excavation, orange construction fencing, scrub clearing — would be limited to less than five acres. The new proposal also includes drilling within a few thousand feet of Fairbanks Spring, home to two federally listed endangered fishes.

According to a statement the BLM issued

COTTINGIM: SCOTT LIEN; PUP FISH: ASH MEADOWS WILDLIFE REFUGE FAIRBANKS SPRING: DOMINIC GENTILCORE/SHUTTERSTOCK

after rescinding approval of Rover’s original plan, if the company wants to go ahead with exploratory drilling, then its plan of operations will need to withstand the rigorous National Environmental Policy Act impact assessment process, and include consultation with federal wildlife managers, as stipulated in the Endangered Species Act.

It’s a tall order, but not impossible.

“Rover metals has not gone away,” Voehl told Amargosa Valley residents at their February town meeting. “We kind of hoped after the summer that the project was so unpopular, they might think twice and invest their capital somewhere else.”

Instead, he continued, “They are doubling down on this project in the Amargosa Valley. So, they’re very serious about this. They’re not just gonna go away.”

Despite the smaller footprint of Rover Critical Minerals’ new operation plan — or the fact that the federal government has yet to approve it — residents’ original concern remains the same; namely, risk to their water.

Declining groundwater levels and reduced

natural discharge have gradually depleted springs and seeps in Middle Amargosa near Shoshone and Tecopa. Data shows that groundwater usage within the Amargosa River watershed has steadily increased over the past 25 years, due to concurrent residential development in Pahrump and thirsty agricultural operations.

Amargosa Valley resident Johnson says you don’t need to look further than her neighbor, Ponderosa Dairies, and its sprawling acres of grass, alfalfa, and dairy cows to see where the water’s going. Water wouldn’t be withdrawn from the project’s boreholes, but according to Rover Critical Minerals operation plan, any water they do need for drilling would be sourced from the manager of the dairy, Ed Goedhart, former Nevada assemblyman.

“My well went dry, I mean I’m sucking sand and air. It’s very important for us to be aware of where our water is going, and

how that’s going to impact us individually,” Johnson told her neighbors, who were listening attentively in the community center. “When sand comes out of your pipes, you know there’s something wrong. When it starts spitting air, there’s something wrong. All of us are heavily impacted by what’s going on.”

For most of its 185-mile course, the Amargosa River travels underground, but in the stretches that reach the surface, the river supports endemic species that depend entirely on springs fed by fragile groundwater aquifers. The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is one of those stretches offering sanctuary to life along the river’s watershed. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge has the highest concentration of endemic species in the U.S, a dozen of which are listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened or endangered.

In 1972, overpumping by developers in the central Amargosa Desert caused water levels to decline in Devils Hole, which temporarily reduced habitat for the endangered Devils Hole pupfish by 85 percent, according to a

Why here? Mike Cottingim (opposite page, left) stands near a mining claim marker. The proposed mine would be 1,000 feet from Fairbanks Spring (above), home to a rare pup fish.

U.S. Geological Survey report. That same report found that if pumping in the central Amargosa Desert continued at current rates, it had the potential to dry up Ash Meadows over the long term. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service listed groundwater “reduction and manipulation” within central Amargosa Desert as a major threat to the endangered Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish, because of the system’s inherent complexity and fragility. The Tecopa pupfish is one of many casualties of groundwater disturbance in the valley. The small Nevada fish was completely wiped out from its one and only habitat, Tecopa Hot Springs, after a developer made extensive alterations to the springs while building bathhouses around them.

Andrew Zdon, a geologist hired by the Amargosa Conservancy, is principal investigator for an ongoing, long-term study on the Amargosa Basin’s hydrology. He argues some of Rover Critical Minerals’ boreholes will almost certainly reach the water table and cause “irreparable harm to groundwater-fed springs and groundwater dependent surface-water features, including the refuge springs.”

All life in the Amargosa Desert depends on the large underground aquifers that contain and transport water protected from the oppressive desert sun. Some of

“They always say that they’re not going to use that much water. But why did they buy all the water rights up from everywhere? Where are they going to get the water? Obviously, it’s going to be from the aquifer.” —Mandi Campbell

“The plan was developed to ensure that there will be no impact to the critical water tables and sensitive biological resources in the Amargosa basin,” Rover Critical Minerals CEO Judson Culter said in December, after going public with the company’s new plan.

The company’s management and environmental permitting partner, Universal Engineering Sciences, “feel confident that sustainable lithium mining can be supported in the Amargosa Valley,” Culter added.

Exploration is typically the least environmentally damaging stage of mining, but even shallow drilling in the Amargosa Basin groundwater system can have severe, unpredictable, and far-reaching impacts.

Borehole Spring in Inyo County, California, near Tecopa Hot Springs started as an exploratory drill hole dug by the Stauffer Chemical Company for sodium prospecting in 1967, according to an abandoned well report by the U.S. Geological Survey. After a driller punctured the aquifer at a depth of 350 feet, the Stauffer Chemical Company attempted to plug the leaking borehole, but steady water pressure kept eroding each successive well seal. A year later the cavity was filled with over 10,000 cubic yards of gravel, but the flow was never completely contained.

In the years that followed, the accidental manmade spring lowered groundwater levels and reduced discharge in Thom Spring, two miles south of the borehole in Tecopa Hills. Recently, Thom Spring’s flow has decreased to the point where surface water has been nonexistent for more than a year, Zdon said.

those aquifers are close to the surface of the ground. Groundwater in those aquifers can be under great pressure from the rock and clay above, meaning below-ground drilling or construction can potentially puncture that protective layer, leading water to burst up through the ground. Uncontrolled flows can damage property, infrastructure, the ground surface, the surrounding environment, or the aquifer itself. And once a flow has gotten out of control, it can be difficult or even impossible to stop.

But Rover Critical Minerals has repeatedly rejected the claim that their exploratory drilling would damage any aquifers in the area.

In February, the first atmospheric river of the season delivered rain to Amargosa Valley for several days. Clouds heavy with precipitation sat on top of the surrounding mountains like a fog. Farther south, the Spring Mountains outside Las Vegas received a deluge of rain and snow, leaving behind above-average snowpack. It’s good news for Ash Meadows’ springs, which get 60 percent of their recharge from the Spring Mountains.

“We need that rain. We need that water. And that’s what a lot of this is about,” Nye County Commissioner Bruce Jabbour says.

Wearing a letterman jacket emblazoned with the MGM film studio logo — the one with Leo the lion roaring through a golden halo — Jabbour says residents in the Am-

Dry land . A view of Amargosa Valley from a point near the proposed lithium mine site

AMARGOSA TOWN: SCOTT LIEN; GRAPHIC RYAN VELLINGA, SOURCE: ROVER CRITICAL MINERALS, NATURE

argosa Valley cannot afford to let Rover Critical Minerals make the same mistake Stauffer Chemical Company did decades ago.

“We don’t want to take that risk,” Jabbour says. “Without the water, you know what will happen? People move away and it becomes a ghost town. I don’t want any more ghost towns in my county.”

The opaque nature of the mining process frustrates Jabbour. The first time he heard about Rover’s plan to drill dozens of exploratory boreholes in his district was in June, when the Amargosa Conservancy told him about the project’s initial approval. He wasn’t the only one hearing about Rover Critical Minerals for the first time. For exploratory projects on fewer than five acres of public land, federal law doesn’t require developers to submit plans of operation, complete environmental analysis, or solicit public comment.

By the time Jabbour and others were aware of it, Rover’s work on the exploratory project was set to begin within weeks or even days, according to a schedule Culter outlined while announcing financing for the project.

Attorneys for the Amargosa Conservancy and the Center for Biological Diversity quickly filed their lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior and BLM to halt the project. In response, federal land managers agreed to provide the conservation groups public notice for all new exploration or mining projects near the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge for the next 12 months, regardless of size.

After Rover Critical Minerals submitted a new plan in December 2023, the Nye County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution in January opposing mining activities near the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

“We have another 18,000 square miles of land that they can go and drill and find whatever resources they’re looking for, but not here,” Jabbour says.

Currently, there are several dozen mining claims surrounding Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Rover Critical Minerals is the first company to attempt to develop its claims in the Amargosa Desert, but conservationists warn it won’t be the last.

Not every mining claim gets developed. In fact, geologists estimate that fewer than one in every 100 sites surveyed for mining

ever becomes an actual mine. But Rover, which has discovered high-grade lithium surface samples at its 6,000-acre project site, will continue to push ahead.

Remnants of a long mining history are visible almost everywhere in Nevada: weathered piles of crushed rock, rusting mine shafts, dilapidated buildings marking once-thriving camps. Towns built almost overnight, only to be abandoned just as quickly once resources are exhausted. Generations of Nevadans have witnessed the boom and bust of mining. Residents of Amargosa Valley don’t want to see the same pattern repeated in their aquifer, says Mandi Campbell, the historic preservation officer for the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe.

Campbell lives in the Timbisha Indian Village near Furnace Creek of Death Valley National Park.  Several tribal citizens in the village live in highly altered adobe homes that are nearly a century old. Elders care for a native mesquite grove growing near the village. Further out, willows, shrubs, and rabbitbrush dot their Death Valley homelands. The tribe is one of a handful of tribes to retain territory within the National Park system. Campbell and other tribal

citizens have sustained their way of life in the village, despite its extreme location, because of the underground aquifers that feed the Amargosa River.

“That is the water supply for us here in this valley. The aquifer comes here. There’s no room for a mistake with this lithium mine going in,” Campbell says.

When the General Mining Law passed in 1872, Native Americans were not recognized as U.S. citizens yet. That would happen more than 50 years later — one of the many reasons tribes had no say in how land and minerals were parceled out under the law.  While federal laws have been established since then to preserve historic and archaeological sites in the U.S., none of them can prevent or overwrite a valid claim on public land. A tribe telling the federal government that a mine would destroy a spiritually and culturally significant site carries little weight under federal law, says Will Falk, a Nevada attorney who’s represented several tribes in lawsuits across the state.

Before Nevada became another outpost of U.S. expansion, the Timbisha Shoshone planned their lives around the bubbling springs in what’s now a national wildlife

refuge. In the spring, the oasis was a place of ceremony, healing, and marriage for migrating Shoshone and Paiute people in the valley. In the summer, the Timbisha Shoshone migrated to the mountainous elevations to find cooler weather, piñon nuts, mesquite beans, roots, and berries. The aquifer and its springs sustain the tribe, in the past and now.

“The way it sounds, Rover Minerals really doesn’t care,” Campbell says. “They have to have respect for all of us and understand why we’re fighting this.”

In February, Timbisha Shoshone drafted a letter calling on federal land managers to ban all new mining claims on thousands of acres of land surrounding the wildlife refuge by establishing a mineral withdrawal.

Under federal law, the Department of the Interior has the authority to withdraw lands from mineral extraction for up to 20 years by approving an application for mineral withdrawal submitted by the managing agency. Mineral withdrawals can also be permanently secured through

legislation passed by Congress and signed by the president. Such a maneuver in the Amargosa Valley would not dissolve previous claims, including Rover Critical Minerals’, but it would greatly reduce mining companies’ interest in developing the area, Campbell says.

“Can you imagine a mine?” she asks. “They always say that they’re not going to use that much water. But why did they buy all the water rights up from everywhere? Where are they going to get the water? Obviously, it’s going to be from the aquifer. Where else are they going to get it?”

In February 2023, about 120 people packed into a midsized ballroom at Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa in Las Vegas. There were more people than available chairs, leaving many to lean against the cream-colored walls. One attendee standing in a corner wore a detailed lizard mask and held a sign making it clear he disapproved of the BLM’s plan to open thousands of acres of Nevada’s public

land to solar development, mostly in rural Esmeralda, Mineral, and Nye Counties.

Carolyn Allen, chair of the Amargosa Valley Town Board, drove more than an hour to attend the open house. She noted that not a single Nye County commissioner was present. Large colorful maps displayed in the back highlighted the demand for solar development on the land surrounding Allen’s home.

“Do they know anybody who lives here?” she asked. “When you give me a map of my town with 15 solar projects overlapping each other, do you know that’s the bank? Do you know that’s the post office? That this is the school, and this is the park that you’re going to wrap with solar panels and battery storage?”

Before learning about Rover Critical Minerals’ exploration project last summer, Allen had no idea Canada-based Century Lithium had been operating an extraction facility in the Amargosa Valley for the past year. The company is developing its Clayton Valley Lithium Project in west-central

Nevada, hoping to produce lithium domestically for the growing electric vehicle and battery storage market.

“We started sleuthing. You know, thank God for the internet. If this had been 30 years ago, we would have never found anything,” Allen said. “It’s being processed in our backyard, and we didn’t even know about it.”

These days, Allen is an ardent student of the General Mining Law, and she was shocked to find it hasn’t been updated in more than a century. She understands that under the century-old mining law, the BLM is obligated to let companies develop their claims, but it doesn’t soften the blow. While describing lithium and solar developers’ growing interest in Amargosa Valley, Allen uses the language of war. The area is “under siege from all sides,” she says. It’s “ground zero.”

“We know it’s coming, there’s no way to stop it,” she continues. “It just sometimes feels like they’re trying to destroy what’s left of the towns with no regard to us.”

Her fear isn’t without reason. The BLM auctioned off thousands of acres in Nevada’s Amargosa Desert for solar development in July, resulting in the highest-yielding onshore renewable energy auction in the agency’s history. Federal land managers identified the Amargosa Desert as one of 17 nationwide solar energy zones, wherein solar energy projects are encouraged.

But solar needs battery storage — which requires lithium. The Biden administration has also pledged to make half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. electric by 2030. The decarbonized, electrified future envisioned by the Biden administration, state governments, automakers, utility companies, and corporate sustainability managers depends to a huge degree on minerals and metals. And they need these materials fast. The problem

is, not enough of them are mined in the U.S. or other friendly countries to meet the projected demands of a decarbonizing nation. According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Minerals Information Center, the U.S. imports nearly 80 percent of its critical minerals demand from foreign suppliers.

A flurry of new federal legislation — including 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — has poured $6 billion into companies working on mining and processing critical minerals on U.S. soil, most on public land. The federal government controls and manages almost 98 percent of the land in Nye County, making it an attractive prospect for developers hoping to cash in on the clean energy transition.

Starting in the summer of 2023, Allen and Amargosa Town Clerk Cottingim knocked on doors, organized meetings, mailed fliers and did countless hours of research looking for solutions to halt Rover’s exploratory lithium project near Ash Meadows National Refuge. Amargosa Valley residents, tribes, Nye County governing boards, and the Amargosa Conservancy settled on one solution: a 20-year federal mineral withdrawal. The same process was used to withdraw nearly 23,000 acres in Nye County’s Railroad Valley last year, when NASA asked the BLM to step in and protect the area from lithium exploration and mining. It’s an imperfect solution — incomplete and temporary — Allen says, but it’s their best bet.

“It gives us, God willing if we can win this fight, 20 years to change the laws,” Allen says.

“We’ve been left alone for so long, and now they’re coming after us because we didn’t speak up, we didn’t fight, we had

no opinion. Now, they can’t shut us up,” Allen says, her hand resting on a pile of information fliers she’s mailed to nearly every resident in the valley.

A 20-year mineral withdrawal is a hard sell to Nye County, historically a hotbed of opposition to government land management. Mining is also one of the county’s biggest employers. Throughout history, the state’s economy has largely depended on its mines — first exploiting veins of gold and silver, and, more recently, extracting deposits of molybdenum and barite for modern industry. The Comstock Lode in Virginia City bankrolled Abraham Lincoln’s Union Army during the Civil War and fueled the growth of Nevada and San Francisco.

“Nevada is mining. We want mining. We don’t want them to go away,” Allen says. “But not at the cost of the destruction of Ash Meadows and our water.”

Rover Critical Minerals was a wake-up call for residents who treasure the unique wetlands of the refuge. Allen remembers watching Westerns as a kid and thinking that the warm, expansive golden brown backdrops and layers of red sandstone were just movie sets designed to mystify the West. It pulled her to move to the Amargosa Valley more than a decade ago. “The desert will grab you,” Allen says.

“I’m upset, because we’ve always just looked at the Amargosa River,” she adds, “and we never looked 30,000 feet outward, at what’s around it. If we paid more attention, we could have done something before now.”✦

Editor’s note: This story was reported and published as part of a collaboration between the Nevada Current and Nevada Public Radio. You can hear the audio version at knpr.org/ podcast/desert-air.

A community united . Amargosa Valley Town Board Chair Carolyn Allen (above left) doesn’t oppose mining, but wants it to be done without destroying residents’ way of life.

‘Outdoor Nevada’

SPIRIT OF CONSERVATION

This drive through Avi Kwa Ame gives a taste of its value

BY Heidi Kyser

“It’s inherent to our identity,” says Ashley Hemmers, of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, speaking to “Outdoor Nevada” host Connor Fields about Avi Kwa Ame, or Spirit Mountain, as it’s known in English. “It’s a part of our history, but it’s also part of who we are right now. So, it’s a living history.”

The 505,000 acres that President Joe Biden designated as Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in March 2023 are just an hour from Las Vegas, yet they offer a unique chance to experience solitude and connect with nature. The Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness, in the western part of the monument, is a biodiversity hot spot, where species of the Mojave, Sonoran, and Great Basin Deserts grow together unlike anywhere else.

A great way for Southern Nevadans to visit the monument and appreciate its beauty up close is by taking a drive on Christmas Tree Pass Road. Two optional stops, at the Grapevine Canyon and Spirit Mountain trailheads, offer the chance to get out and take a short walk to better enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells. But remember what Hemmers told Fields: “If we’re going to have something this nice for all of us to enjoy, then we have to have this commitment to each other to respect it.” ✦

TRAIL NAME: Christmas Tree Pass Road

Getting There:

From Las Vegas, go south on U.S. 93/95 toward Boulder City. About a mile after Railroad Pass, turn south (right) on U.S. 95 and continue about 55 miles to Palm Gardens. Just past Palm Gardens, turn east (left) on State Route 163. Go 13 miles and then turn north (left) onto Christmas Tree Pass Road. The Grapevine Canyon trail will be about two miles up on the left. To continue the drive, get back on Christmas Tree Pass Road, which, after another three miles or so, will bend west toward Avi Kwa Ame. Ahead on

your right, the sawtooth peaks of “Spirit Mountain” come into view. Approximately three and a half miles farther, the Spirit Mountain trailhead will be on your right.

(Lest you be tempted to hike this trail, know that it is very hard — 2,200 feet of elevation gain in fewer than 2 miles of at-times unclear path — and not advisable to do without an experienced guide.) The drive continues between seven and eight miles through Christmas Tree Pass back to U.S. 95. There, you’ll turn right to head back to Las Vegas.

Distance: 35 miles (from and back to U.S. 95)

Equipment Needed: A high-clearance vehicle is preferable, but not required. Just take rutted sections slowly. When traveling in the desert, make sure you have plenty of water and an emergency communication device, and tell someone where you’re going before you leave.

Pro Tip: Make a leisurely day of it by packing a picnic and tailgating at one of the two trailhead parking areas.

SEE THIS episode of “Outdoor Nevada,” by Vegas PBS.

ADVENTURE CALLS.

BIG AND SMALL. EXPLORE IT ALL.

Nevada is home to stunning state parks, crystal-clear lakes, haunted ghost towns, Sagebrush Saloons, star-studded night skies, and so much more. From quick day trips to uncommon overnighters, the Silver State is yours to explore. Go on, get a little out there. Explore your state at TravelNevada.com