Ruth E. Hazard interview, March 10, 1981: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 1 An Interview with Ruth E. Hazard An Oral History Conducted by Jerry Erb Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 3 The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 4 Abstract On March 10, 1981, Joseph L. Erb interviewed Ruth E. Hazard (born June 25th, 1907 in Marshall, Michigan) in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the time of the interview, Ruth had lived in Nevada for over forty years. Ruth discusses living and working in Las Vegas and Carson City, Nevada. She also covers various subjects including: the atomic tests and the growth of the hotel industry. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 5 Okay. First (unintelligible) doing this. The narrator is Ruth Hazard. The date is March 10th, 1981. The time is 2:30. The place is 515 East Stewart, Las Vegas, Nevada. The (unintelligible) is Jerry Erb, 5050 Tamarus Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada. Okay, Ruth would you just start off by giving us your name and your present address? Alright. I’m Ruth E. Hazard and I live at 900 Baker Avenue in Las Vegas. And just go ahead with your place and date of birth and— Alright. I-I was born in Marshall, Michigan on June the 25th, 1907. And I’ve lived in Nevada for practically fifty years. It’ll be fifty years this coming November. Okay. What was it first like when you first moved here? Well, when we first moved here, it was in around the 1st November, of 1931. And it was— seemed to me to be very, very hot. Because I’d come from a cold country. And these old black mountains around here, there was nothing. It didn’t seem to be any growth or anything. And I wore my summer clothes here all winter. And it was during the— it was shortly after the stock crash of ’29 and the Depression was all over the country. However, there wasn’t too bad a Depression here. Housing was very short. It was a lot—there were a lot of people here work—looking for work on the dam, and it was hard to find a place to live. The first, yes, the first thing we did was try to find work. My husband got a job with the Las Vegas Review Journal selling subscriptions from door to door. Got seventy-five cents a piece for each subscription. Some weeks he sold ten or twelve. And I got a part-time job with a wholesale plumbing company who was supplying—was making bids on equipment for the dam. Then I worked just half-time. Then the job got a little bigger and I had to work full-time, so I got ten dollars a week. And we finally found a house to live in and we— UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 6 it cost twenty-five dollars a month rent. It was a new house. It hadn’t—didn’t even have cupboard doors on it. It had nothing on the floor, had outside toilet facilities. And there’s no—the stove, the range we had to cook on was an old kerosene range. And there just people that had any—had garages, were closing their garages and (unintelligible). And it was a long time before the housing situation ever really eased and I—to my knowledge, it was never eased up very much. There’s never been too much housing here. Okay. You stated your salary was ten dollars a week and rent twenty-five dollars a month. What were some more comparative prices? Well, bread was ten cents a loaf and ground beef was ten cents a pound. And we used to buy cans of, large cans of sardines, and oh, were they good. They were about fifteen cents a can. And things were very, very cheap. And, but rent, twenty-five dollars a month rent, was—was—seemed to be a little bit high ‘cause people were beginning to—they could—they found out they could rent lots of places and so the rents started going up. Okay. Was there any scarcity on any of your commodities? No. No, there wasn’t. Mm-mm. Okay. Another question is, you got here in November of ’31. Do you remember anything about the trouble the people in Boulder City were having with—? No. there-there—people were not living in Boulder City yet. The people who were working on the dam had to commute. And the highway from here to Boulder City was just like a—well it was almost a dirt road. You know, dusty and it wasn’t paved or anything. Mm-hmm. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 7 And they had to drive back and forth and it was a little while before there was any construction out there. The Bureau of Reclamation were the first ones to build anything, and that was for their employees, for their personnel. Okay. What court had jurisdiction over in Boulder City? Was it Las Vegas? It was the government. No— Okay. It was the government. It was the United States government. And it’s only been a few years ago that it has had—that the city of Boulder City, was—became a regular city and had a—was self-governed, you know. Okay. I don’t remember the year, it’s—but, the government controlled it all, everything. And the people who lived there then eventually, when they did build houses there, the people could, they had to just lease the land. They didn’t own the land. In the past several years, then, I don’t remember when it was, the people were able to buy their land, so that they owned the land where their homes were. Okay. So up till just recently there was no property tax? No, it hasn’t been—it hasn’t been too long, that they—they paid some kind of taxes. You see, the houses that they had, they paid real property tax on those. Mm-hmm. Or their improvement is what the—they called the houses, or improvements on their property, and their land. Okay. But I don’t remember the year, I’d have to go back (Laughs) and look at that. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 8 Right. And there’s been a series of articles been running in the paper for quite a while now about the history of Boulder City, and it’s—is very interesting. And it’s brought back some of the things that I remember—that did not remember about, when it happened. Mm. But to try to give you the dates or the number of years that—you know, when you think back over fifty years— (Laughs) (Laughs) It’s kinda hard to— Yes. I had trouble with five or six years. Yes. Okay. Well, do you remember the first Helldorado that was held in 1935? Yes. It was—everybody dressed up in—in old fashioned clothes, like, oh, long dresses and gingham dresses, and cotton clothes, and sunbonnets. And we all dressed up like old-timers. That was the first Helldorado. Okay. Who were the main attractions to that? Well, the—one of the things in at Hell—they always had during Helldorado, was that—that play, The Drunkard. And of course local people all participated in it. And it was really just a— and Helldorado was just a lot of fun. And they had a lot of—they had a big parade, and old-timers parade and everything. It was just really a lot of fun. Was it a day event then or a week long? UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 9 No. It lasted for— I don’t believe it was for a whole week. I just can’t remember now but it was for a few days. Okay. Did the building of the magnesium plant that was proposed in 1941 in Henderson, did it help or hinder Las Vegas? Oh, I think it helped Las Vegas because there were—they paid very good salaries to people out there. And there were—it was, for the war effort and people—it created a lot of jobs. So there were a lot of people here to—and so the town grew at that time ‘cause there were—there’s one development here in town called Huntridge. And the—that was when that development was built. It was built for employees of Basic Magnesium, principally. And as a matter of fact, my husband got it—after we moved back here from Carson City in ’43, he got a job out there on the—at BMI, Basic Magnesium, and they wanted us to buy a house, in order to keep the job. And it, it’s—so nearly everyone who lived there in Huntridge were working at BMI. Okay. How long did the plant stay open? Well, it—it closed. It was open during the war, and then after the war was over, it was sold to the—the state bought it. The state. But I don’t remember what year it was. Mm-hmm. Then the state bought the prop—bought it and then they—they have turned it over, or sold it to Stafford Chemical, and the people that are operating the plant out there now. But you read about, the trouble they have with the cloud over Henderson and things like that. And so it’s in private—it’s privately owned now. Okay. And during World War II, what affect did the rationing have on this part of the country? UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 10 Well, gasoline was rationed and—and all—and our food and everything. But, I don’t think that it affected us any different than it did anyplace else. And it was—we didn’t, we didn’t have a car, at that time. Okay. And so, I was—I had a job with the Clark County Housing Authority of Henderson and I drove a car that belonged to the Housing Authority. And my husband, at that time—my husband had left BMI and he was working—had a job with the state, with the—with the State Tax Commission. And, it isn’t—well, it wasn’t the tax commission, but it was, yes, it was too. It was too. It was too. I always get the Highway Patrol and the Tax Commission and so many of those commissions all mixed up. (Laughs) (Laughs) But anyway, he was—he was with the tax commission. And he—what he was doing was, he had a state car, and he collected taxes out on the—as the, on the trucks, the truck taxes. As the trucks would come into Nevada, they had to pay a tax to the state of Nevada, if they travelled in the state. They had to have a—they had to have a state license and a state tax, and— and so he worked on—that’s what he worked on. What was the spirit of the people here in Las Vegas towards the war? Well, they were very patriotic. We always have been a very—been a very patriotic and civic minded community. And I’m a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, and have been since 1933. And I’m a member of the BFW Auxiliary and have been since about 1940, I guess. Or, no, before that, it was. And then I belong to other organizations that are—it’s a very patriotic, civic minded community. It really is. Mm-hmm. And President F. D. Roosevelt visited here? UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 11 Yes. He dedicated the dam. Yes. And, he was very popular. And of course, when he died, why, everyone was, we were terribly shocked. And I remember, I remember very well the day he died. Okay. Now how was the dam dedicated? Well, we weren’t out there then. But the president was out there, and Mrs. Roosevelt. And, he went across the dam. And then Key Pittman, who was our senator at the time, he was here. He came here with the president and his party and at that time the—we had a parade downtown. Mm-hmm. And they were scurrying around trying to find the car that, one of those convertible cars. Mm-hmm. Or car with a top—that you could put the top down, you know (Laughs). Yes. Convertible. And then, they had a big parade downtown and everybody went that could, of course. And it was very, it was very, good and nice, it was. And everybody was real happy, they—over the president coming and everything. And then that—while he was here that day, why, they, Key Pittman was very much interested in some of the facilities around here, particularly some of the mining and various things. So they had just recently developed a project up in the, near Mount Charleston. Okay. And, so he, Lee’s Canyon. So he saw to it that President Roosevelt went up there and saw that project. And much to the disgust of a lot of local people (Laughs). However, Senator Pittman had a very, very great, I wouldn’t say influence, but he had a great friendship between him and President Roosevelt. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 12 Okay. How disturbed or how upset was the surprise, the sudden death of President Roosevelt? Well, we were all very shocked. And the—this community is—is principally so democratic, and of course President Roosevelt had, had so many welfare programs and everything. And there were so many people who were—we didn’t have a lot of people on welfare of course, but people were sympathetic to his programs. Okay. And, last winter there was a snowstorm here in Nevada, about February 1949, and it was supposed to be pretty severe. Yes. The—they had to drop loads of hay to the stock that was on ranches up in the north eastern part of the state. And, the snowstorm here, it was, of course, snow is something that we very seldom get around here. Yes. So, no one is prepared for it. And the, you’re not prepared. You don’t have the clothing. You don’t have boots to wear and there are things like that. And it’s, when it first comes, everyone is just, well, we just sort of panic, I guess. And then we decide it’s kinda fun and it didn’t last too, it never lasts too long. We usually, we do have a little snow in the winter. But, once in a while, we’ll have, maybe a little snow like tonight and then in the morning it’s all gone. But that was a big snowstorm. ‘Kay. Do you remember about how much snow was actually on the ground? Hmm. No I don’t. I have some pictures that were taken at Downtown here, and there’s probably oh, six or seven inches maybe, maybe more than that. I just don’t remember now. Okay. And another big event that really affected Las Vegas was the atomic tests out at the Yucca Flats. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 13 Yes, uh-huh. When—that people were very disturbed when that—when they first started that testing, because the shock wave would be a few minutes after the actual blast, when the shockwave would hit Las Vegas. And everybody would feel it, and you feel like it was an earthquake or something. And—and it would shatter the windows and the wood—the wood plaster, and like that and things in your cupboards, and people were a little disturbed about it. And—but it was something that, when you knew there was gonna be one, you got up at three, four o’clock in the morning maybe, and we’d—I did it several times, drive out to Tonopah Highway out toward Tonopah. Yes. That’s toward the flats. I know. And sit in the car and wait for it to go and you’d see that—and that flash. It was something that, it, well, it’s indescribable. You can’t—you just can’t describe what it was like, ‘cause it just lit up everything. It was so, so great. And then the big cloud would go up, and we used to watch when there was gonna be a test. We would see that cloud, and then we would watch it. And sometimes though, we’ve seen that cloud for several hours after the test. And of course, now, you know, you’ve seen all the publicity about what, that they—at that time, of course, they said it was harmless and all that. But there’s been so many suits and so many claims now that it was, it was very harmful. So it’s something that the scientists have to determine. Okay. Were you ever afraid of the radiation fallout coming to Las Vegas? No, because I was never afraid of it. It never—because, I understood that it was—it was something that, they—they only tested on days when they—when the cloud—when the weather was so—was just so—the wind was just so. And the cloud was gonna go way up and over, way, UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 14 way up in the sky and—and it was not going to bother anybody. And from all the scientific information that was in the newspapers and everything, it, I was never—I—it never occurred to me that there was, there was any danger at all. And the men who were out there that were working on it, they were supposedly well protected. And so, and I don’t think there were a lot of people here who were really concerned. I mean, we didn’t, it was just something that, we just took it for granted, and it was for the—for defense efforts and, as I say, we’ve always been a very patriotic people. And so we just didn’t consider it was dangerous. Okay. Did it affect like, the tourism or anything in that sense? No. I don’t think so. I think a lot of people came here because they wanted to see it. A friend of mine who was a—she had been an eye specialist, eye doctor, and she had retired from the Navy, and she used to practice here many years ago, and she used to come here occasionally. She owned property here. And she would come here and when there was a blast, she just couldn’t wait to go out to see it (Laughs). Okay. How did the merchants (unintelligible)? Well, they didn’t—they didn’t seem to—I don’t recall any great fear or any anxiety or animosity about it. It was just something that the government was doing, and it was for defense purposes, and so, as far as I can recall, there wasn’t a lot of concern. And I don’t recall any—a lot of publicity in the papers or anything that there was any dissention about it. Okay. I got another question about the dam. Was it originally named Hoover Dam or Boulder Dam? Well, let’s see, it’s Hoover Dam now. They called it Boulder Dam. And they—there was quite a controversy over changing it. Mm-hmm. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 15 Because Hoover, President Hoover, was in office, you see. Right. And when the—when they appropriated the money for it or whatever, and because he was a Republican and because the—it was a Democratic administration at that time when they finished it and everything. Why, they thought—and they had started out calling it Boulder, but then they wanted to call it Hoover after him, then they wanted to call it Boulder. But they finally ended up, it hasn’t been too long ago, but they officially changed it to Hoover Dam. Okay. So that’s what it is now. Okay. Was there any great protest from the people in this area? Did they write to Washington D.C.—? I don’t think there was too much. You know, I don’t think there was too much controversy. It seems like we have—we’ve had, various times, we’ve had controversies over things, and they write letters to the editor, and maybe they write to the congressman and everything, and—but eventually it seems like if they settle down and things work out, you know (Laughs). Okay. And gonna break it up a little and so, I’d like to have you try to remember your most memorable moment before 1950. 1950 or before, that affected this area and yourself and your family. Well, one thing, the valuation, the value of property. My husband went into real estate business, and it was amazing, the speculation of, in land. It was the people that came here and from all over. And, I don’t know if it started—he went into the, first went into real estate business in 1947. And then in oh, it was probably the middle of ’47 because he had been in the state legislature and was Speaker of the Assembly in the forty-seventh session. And it was after that UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 16 that he went into the real estate business. And that was the beginning of our big boom in real estate, when the valuation of land—you could buy land around here for just a nominal sum, and people—so people from the east started coming here, and from California. And they—they’d buy up maybe 100 acre—I mean,120 acres, 160 acres, maybe twenty acres, forty acres, whatever, and just speculate. They’d just buy it, hold onto it for a little while and it wouldn’t be very long and they could sell it. And they were just—and, but a lot of people developed their land. They—my husband and his partner started the—a firm that—and they developed a lot of the land that’s out in Paradise Valley. They developed a lot of land that’s out in—off the Tonopah Highway. And they—what I mean by developing it, I mean they cut it up into five acre pieces, or acres, and put in the streets, and put in the utilities, some of the utilities. Mm-hmm. Whatever was required. You see, we’ve—things started—when things started out, we didn’t have very many rules and regulations. Mm-hmm. And all those things had to come as the place—as the town grew and it developed. We still have a lot of way—a long way to go, as far as a lot of our development is concerned and we learn every—all the time. What was the telephone service like? Well, there was one man who owned—he owned the telephone company, and he owned the power company, and that was it. And the—there weren’t a lot of—when we first came here of course, there weren’t a lot of telephones. But then, we finally got the dial system. And then, one session of the legislature following a grand jury meeting and all that session and everything here, I don’t even remember the year, that they decided that the power company and the telephone UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 17 company should not be together, so they had to separate. And, so then they separated into two different companies, and they had people that invested their money into it and it turned into a really great big thing now, which you know, well know is—is really big. Yes (Laughs). (Laughs) Definitely. And for a long time Nellis Air Force Base was called McCarran. Yes. Uh-huh. How did they solve the dilemma about which to call McCarran? Well, Nell—the Nellis Air Force Base is named after an old-timer here, who was this young man, was in the service. Mm-hmm. And his—his father and his mother were residents of Searchlight. And this young man was in the service and so they decided to call it Nellis Air Force Base. But I-I to tell you the truth, I can’t remember what year it was. Okay. And then McCarran, see, Senator McCarran, the airfield out there originally was called McCarran Airfield. Right. Well, then they had to move it and they moved it to south, just about where it is now. Only it, originally was west where the present McCarran Airfield is, Airbase. And it ‘cause they had to expand and they had to buy up a lot of land, and McCarran International Airbase is, I mean, Airport, was expanding all the time. Right. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 18 And it’s—but there was no problem. Of course they—Senator McCarran, he was, they call him the father of aviation. Right. And he was the one that really brought the Air Force, I mean he brought the airplanes in here (Laughs) almost. (Laughs). Now was there any controversy about actually making another airport in Las Vegas at that time? Well, no. No, because, see there’s—there’s never been more than one airport here. Well, with the Air Force and—? No, no. No, mm-mm. Okay. No, no, the, the Nellis out there, they trained those pilots out there, they came in there. The only controversy that there’s ever been about Nellis is the noise of the planes. And when they first started here, the air—they heard these jets flying around, and people were upset about it. But they, when they realized what it was all about, they didn’t—they don’t complain too much. Okay. (Laughs) Well, we’ll take a break here to— Alright. Get some backup tape. (Tape one ends) This is a continuation of the taped interview with Ruth Hazard. And Ruth, what was the first hotel like? UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 19 Well, the first hotel was built on the Strip, was the El Rancho, and that, it since has burned down. And that, when it, the time it was built, of course, it was a fabulous hotel. And it was a very Western type and one story. And they had, the hotel itself was not all in one building. It had little cottages around it. And they had floor shows out there and an orchestra, and it was a beautiful place, and very—everyone used to go out—liked to go out there. And the next hotel was the Last—I think the next one was the Last Frontier. And there, that was really very western. And it was, they had a motto and they had a big sign on the outside: “Come as You Are”. And they had floor shows and they had an orchestra, of course. And I remember the (Unintelligible) all-girl orchestra was there. And that was quite a novelty, for—to have an all-girl orchestra. Yes. And they had good shows. And the people who had those hotels at that time, they were—they came here and they built the hotel, and every—they were part of our community. And they were, well, we—everybody knew everybody else and we were all up for a real good, very friendly. And we knew who the people were that were in the hotels, and who owned them. And they were very civic minded and they took part in all of our charity drives and things like that. And then, the Flamingo Hotel was built. And that was the, people knew, you knew who was there. And, but, as time’s gone on, both hotels have been, every time they build a new hotel, it’s more fabulous than the last one. And it is—now, the first time that I went to the MGM Grand Hotel after it was built, I didn’t feel like I was in Las Vegas even. I went in there and I just felt like it was an entirely different community and different area. And the hotels of course are owned, the big corporations and like that, which is alright, but you don’t get to know the people like you used to. And I think it’s true every place that— UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 20 you hear so many old timers say, “Well, you don’t see anybody you know anymore hardly.” Because we’re a big city now. Yes. And, we don’t see our old friends like we used to. And of course there’s so many of our old friend’s who have passed on, but we—I don’t feel that, I wouldn’t want to go back to the days that, the way it was, now. I wouldn’t want to do that, because, you can’t stop progress and you can’t, you know, you just can’t stand still. Yes. And we need all this. And it’s—and Las Vegas and the state of Nevada has turned into a great tourist attraction. And we used to attract, years ago, we used to attract a lot of people here for, to get divorces and a lot of people when the dam was first completed. They wanted to get married on the top of the dam and then there’s so many things, that, in those days, that people were interested in, that wanted to come here for that. But now, it’s, well, they really have to figure out something to come up with, for some novelty, you know. And, it’s the, I don’t know, the, all the hotels in the past several years have expanded, every one of ‘em. And every once in a while, you read that some other hotel is gonna be built, and it’s is gonna be bigger than the last one. And—but, I’d like to tell you something about the Downtown area. Now, of course that—the Downtown area is—has not gone downhill and as much as in lots and lots of cities. As so many cities grow and they get so big, that they move all the shopping centers and hotels and things like that, and businesses. Like, we have here. We’ve got this new Fashion Show, we have the Boulevard Mall, we have the Meadows Mall, and a lot of these shopping centers, smaller shopping centers in the outlying areas. But, at the same time, the Downtown area has gone down some. But we have some big hotels Downtown and they are prosperous, and they are expanding UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 21 all the time, too. There’s a lot of building going on Downtown. And, it has not deteriorated to the point that it has in lots of cities. It’s just, there’s areas of course that’s gone downhill, and, but, the, we have a Downtown Merchants Association who are very interested in keeping the Downtown area up and upgrading it as much as they can. And so the—and the Downtown hotel owners and casinos, they have the confidence and the faith that it’s going to hold up. And, the Union Plaza Hotel, for instance, is at the very end of Fremont Street on Main Street, and that used to be the Union Pacific Depot. And the Union Pacific Railroad Company, they have a big investment in this area. Course, they were the ones that started Las Vegas in the first place—was the Union Pacific Railroad. Right. Okay. Well, what were the major developments? What happened in the major developments in the city when it first really started to grow? After the dam was completed, and? Well, after the dam was completed, everyone thought, well, that things would kinda slow down and everything. But it didn’t. The people, tourist, the tourist business is what made the town, and made the area, because they came to see the dam. And it’s, I don’t know the figures, but, if you, every once in a while you read in the paper where the—so many million person visited the dam, and there’s so many people that come in to see the Dam. And that is one of the main tourist attractions here, is the dam. Because, when you go out there, and having watched it when it was first—as it was being built, and I never, I wasn’t out there very many times, and for a long, long time ‘cause I wasn’t able to. But we didn’t have a car or anything. And the—but they’re out there, and they’d show, they used to show pictures in the newspaper all the time of the progress of the dam. And right now, people who go to visit in Boulder City, there’s a visitors bureau out there, and they show a film of the building of the dam. And it shows it from the time it started UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 22 until it was completed. Then when that dam was finished and everything, you could drive across it from Nevada into Arizona, and it’s a beautiful highway. And, it’s just, and it’s a kind of a narrow, crooked road to get down to the top of the dam and all that. But, it’s worth it. It’s a very scenic trip. And, so after the dam was finished, they thought the town, there wouldn’t be anything here. Well, there was. It, it just—the people started—the tourists started coming, and they were, they started building, they built these hotels, started building hotels, and there were a few hotels Downtown. And it just kept on going. And then, when the war came along and the Air Base was out here, the, everybody said when the war’s over, the town’s gonna fold out. There was—everybody’s gonna leave. Well, they didn’t (Laughs). No. Not (unintelligible) (Laughs) You know, they, there’s something, the tourists business, I feel, really feel, that the tourist business is what has kept, has—is keeping Las Vegas going. Let’s face it, there’s not a lot of industry here. There’s industry in Henderson (unintelligible) of course, but, the tourists is what is keeping it going and otherwise if the tourists weren’t coming, we wouldn’t need all the big hotels and everything, you know. And the people that stay out on the Strip, the big hotels out there, they come Downtown to, and see Downtown too, and so we have a lot of tourists that are down here. And another thing that is, that helps us so much, is the convention, our conventions that we have here. We’ve had some fabulous conventions here. That, and we’re still having—we’re still going to have, that we’ve got big conventions booked. It’s gonna keep on going and going, you know. Hm. So, I just don’t think there’s any stopping it. I think we’re just gonna keep on going for a good long time. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 23 Okay. Dude ranches started appearing, when did they really (Unintelligible)? Well, Hoot Gibson, who was a movie star, you might—you probably don’t remember him. But he was, at one time he had a dude ranch here. And then another ranch was run by Chet Locke, he was (Unintelligible). Yes. Which was an old time radio show, and he had a ranch out here. And then some people had a ranch that they, some movie stars that would come here maybe for a divorce or something would stay out there. And, but, we haven’t had, we haven’t had a lot of dude ranches here. Okay. A lot of the people, a lot of people who live here, have lived out in the outlying area, and they have kind of a ranch, you know, have horses and every