[NLVgal]

Hi everyone,

I've lived in the valley for many, many years, and I was wondering if anyone who had been here even longer could answer a couple of questions for me.

1. Why was NLV ever incorporated? It doesn't make sense for a historically economically blighted area to want to take on its own services.

2. Why does Rancho dissect the valley like that? It's ridiculous the way streets break off at the Rancho intersection because of that ridiculous angle and then pick up again. I understand some streets are like that because of the BLM's ridiculous land-selling patterns, but why must Rancho change the angles of the generally orderly roadways?

Thanks in advance for your insight.

[lvmensch]

NLV was a libertarian and racist response to the City of Las Vegas. see...

The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada

It was the center of the moonshiners during prohibition and beat off attempts by Las Vegas to annex it. It finally incorporated to prevent that from happening. The deterioration of older NLV actually occurred after incorporation and after the end of WWII.

Rancho is the old Tonopah highway and simply was directed toward Tonopah or rather the valley exit in that direction. Other Such roads included the Salt Lake City Highway going to the NE and something called the Arizona Trails Zion Park Highway going south.

So in fact Rancho was there first..

[NLVgal]

Thanks, LVmensch. Sometimes things that seem to make no logical sense are put into perspective by history. I come from a long line of moonshiners, so I guess I belong here. I am not, however, a racist.

I still hate Rancho and the angle it dissects the valley with. I've seen so many accidents at Rancho and Lone Mtn. that it's ridiculous. I guess it's a good thing Fire station 9 is right there.

I finished reading the article, and I just wanted to mention that I attended Tom Williams elementary school many years ago. Thank you so much for the link!

[dynimagelv]

MOST main street in the valley had their beginnings as dirt roads that were the shortest distance between two points.... Paradise Road is a great example.... It broke off from the LA Highway, passed behind the airport and headed out to the ranches out in Paradise Valley.
Rancho Road was the road to Reno.... Boulder Hwy was the shortest road to the pass towards the dam...and passed by Henderson....

[lvmensch]

Rancho is older however. Goes back to well before 1916. So that Boulder highway would have had to come much later. And I think at the time it was more the route to Tonopah than to Reno. Remember that was in the days of the mining in that area.

Nowadays of course no one goes to Tonopah.

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

Rancho is older however. Goes back to well before 1916. So that Boulder highway would have had to come much later. And I think at the time it was more the route to Tonopah than to Reno. Remember that was in the days of the mining in that area.

Nowadays of course no one goes to Tonopah.

yeh I just said Reno cause half the noobs never heard of Tonopah.

Boulder Hwy came in the 1930's when the damn was built....and then Hooterville became the Munitions capital of the desert for a time during WWII so they paved it....and then the drove thru the desert to get onto LA HWY and that became the Hooterville Cutoff.

Tropicana turned to dirt at Paradise and Sahara turned to dirt at Decatur.....ahh the goodole days

[Buzz123]

Good questions, and I don't know for sure, but suspect Rancho Road has to do with the terrain out away from town, and possibly the route of the LTR (Las Vegas-Tonopah-Reno) Stage Line, and later the railroad (and still later a bus service called the LTR Stage Lines) Remember, there was nothing else out that way for decades. Another similar question is why do Las Vegas Boulevard and Main Street curve to the northeast?

Before the U.S. 95 Expressway was built, starting in the late 70s' and still going on today, Rancho Road was also called The Tonopah Highway. You generally took Charleston to Rancho to get to the Nevada Test Site at Mercury, NV, and on north to Tonopah and Reno. If you look at U.S. 95 without looking at the Expressway, you'll see how it runs in almost a straight line from Boulder City through Las Vegas to all points north. The Expressway was a political football in the mid 70s. It was only planned for a quick way to get from downtown to the Meadows Mall area. It was later extended as a four lane road in bits and pieces as builders started putting up homes to the west of Rainbow. As too many people were killed trying to get across the intersections of it that didn't have traffic lights, it was eventually turned into a true Expressway, with sections added as needed. At some point it eventually looped around back to where Rancho hits it at The Santa Fe Station where it traditionally became U.S. 95/Tonopah Highway anyway.

Except for the way Fremont Street took a little side trip into downtown at Five Points (Eastern-Fremont-Charleston-25th St-Boulder Highway intersection), Rancho and the Boulder Highway connect as U.S. 95, running northwest/southeast. So my guess is they followed the terrain and took the easiest way to get from the Colorado River and the gold fields of El Dorado Canyon (Nelson, & later Boulder Dam) to the gold mines at Tonopah/Gold Field. Long before the dam, the Colorado River was once a main transportation link by boat to Nelson's Landing, and soldiers came here to the "The Meadows", from downriver to buy fresh food from the Mormon Ranch (later Stewart Ranch which became Las Vegas).

MapQuest Maps - Driving Directions - Map

[lvmensch]

Actually Las Vegas was lined up with the rail line...not the section lines. One I did not know is that the strip was los angeles blvd at one point...and paralleled the RR line.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

Actually Las Vegas was lined up with the rail line...not the section lines. One I did not know is that the strip was Los Angeles blvd at one point...and paralleled the RR line.

I have never heard it called Los Angeles Blvd. I do know it was called the LA Highway before, and it still runs almost to somewhere between Jean and Primm. But then, what is now St. Rose Parkway, or SR 146, was once called the Old LA Highway too until it meets LV Blvd. South.

I don't see what the angle of Rancho Rd has to do with the dangerous intersection of Lone Mountain. I think it has more to do with the way Lone Mountain is lower than Rancho obscuring visibility, and is two narrow lanes joining a six lane highway with kind of poor traffic signals. Plus the businesses on three of the corners do not have decent controlled access into, and out of, their parking lots. At least it was that way when lived in the area. I can't remember if they've corrected that or not.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

yeh I just said Reno cause half the noobs never heard of Tonopah.

Boulder Hwy came in the 1930's when the damn was built....and then Hooterville became the Munitions capital of the desert for a time during WWII so they paved it....and then the drove thru the desert to get onto LA HWY and that became the Hooterville Cutoff.

Tropicana turned to dirt at Paradise and Sahara turned to dirt at Decatur.....ahh the goodole days

Let alone Gold Field, or as I prefer to call it, the Gold Field/Tonopah Metroplex. ( ya see noobs, they are both lively ghost towns now but used to be pretty large mining camps)