You'd have to be a little older than Bill Clinton to remember Whiskey Pete.

I mean the real, honest to goodness, living, Whiskey Pete. The same good old Pete who one day decided to open up a small whiskey cafe (too small to be called a bar) smack dab on the California/Nevada border just off and to the right of I-15.

Dang! I don't even know if that road to Las Vegas was known as I-15 back in the days of Whiskey Pete. It could have just been the Road to Whiskey Pete's Place as far as I know!

But that's what he did! Right in the middle of that forsaken stretch of barren desert he decides to build a stop for thirsty travelers!

I doubt that there was even a pipe carrying water to that place when he first opened. He probably carried it in by the bucketfulls all the way from the little town of Las Vegas 45 miles to the north..

I do know that he had electricity because
he hung about fifty indoor light bulbs from a rope hanging from a pole high above his front entrance and you could see those lights blinking on and off as soon as you got to the top of that hill that leads down that ten-mile stretch into Nevada.

It was the only manmade thing you could see and you could see forever from the top of that hill.

"There it is! Only ten more miles to Whiskey Pete's!"

I bet those words were spoken by road weary travels more than a few times throughout the years. And their kids grew up to say the same!

Whiskey Pete was all alone out there. He was the only one insane enough to do it.

But maybe he was smarter than I thought he was.

I recently visited Primm but I still call it Whiskey Pete's and one of the three casinos is named in his honor, but I don't know if he ever owned it.

I asked about good old Pete during my most recent visit and only one old time Pit Boss appeared to know who I was talking about, but he didn't know much. At least not enugh to satisfy my curiosity.

There should be a web site dedicated to Whiskey Pete. I'd like to do it in his honor
but I honeslty don't know any more than I've stated above.

Anyone have the facts? If the facts are available in Primm, they appear to be well concealed.

Maybe, just maybe, it's better that way!


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will800


[This message has been edited by will800 (edited August 22, 1999).]