Beatty, Nevada

One of the very small Nevada towns where nothing much happens and where I often lay over is Beatty (BAIT ee). I usually forget and say BEE tee because that’s how it's spelled, but the locals don’t see it that way. 

   Beatty sits on a lonely stretch of Nevada State Highway 95 at a 90^o turn 115 miles north of Las Vegas.  It's a convenient spot for travelers to gas up and grab a bite to eat.  I like it because it’s near photogenic Rhyolite, close to Death Valley and it has a great candy store.  The Death Valley Nut and Candy Company is part of what they shamelessly call “the most beautiful gas station in the world!”  Well, not quite, but I’m not going to argue with them.

    Near the end of the 19^th century, Montillus Murray “Old Man” Beatty settled on a ranch in the area.  He had a Pauite wife and not much else.  Beatty was crazy about heat and liked to camp in Death Valley in the middle of the summer, therefore underline the word crazy.  The ranch he owned had plenty of water and it expanded into an oasis where travelers stopped to rest as they made their way from Las Vegas to Goldfield.  The town simply grew up around the oasis.  Montillus became the first postmaster and the town was named in his honor.  In 1905, the Bullfrog Mining District was in full swing and Beatty became a central supply hub, with three railroads serving the mining district during the boom years.  The townspeople considered themselves the “Chicago of the West.”  As has happened frequently in mineral rich Nevada, the boom didn’t last forever.  Consequently, Beatty stopped comparing itself to Chicago.  So much for hubris 

    There are three things about Beatty I don’t like: it’s sweltering in the summer with temperatures reaching well over 110^o, probably the “hottest” town in Nevada; it’s very close to the Air Force’s Tonopah Test Range and you never know what might stray from the target; and then there’s that big hole in the earth they’ve dug in Yucca Mountain, a site they’re still arguing about, which might possibly store atomic waste.  Well, the mountain's practically next door.  So, I doubt I’ll be moving to Beatty any time soon, but I do like to stop and buy a bag of penny candy from time to time.