Dennis McBride grew up in Boulder City, Nevada, and received both his BA and MA from UNLV. He is well-known as an expert in the history of Hoover Dam and has done several histories of Boulder City. He has chronicled and collected the history of the LGBTQ community in Las Vegas since the late 1970s, and his work culminated in the manuscript "Life in the Neon Closet: A History of Gay Las Vegas" published in 2017.
Oral history interview with Roy D. Baker conducted by Dennis McBride February 08, 2004 for the Las Vegas Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Archives Oral History Project. In this interview, Baker discusses Fred Schoonmaker, a Reno, Nevada gay activist and his husband, Alfred Parkinson. Baker details their efforts to create Stonewall Park, a town for LGBTQ members in Nevada that was never realized. Schoonmaker attempted to establish Stonewall Park three times in three different locations: Silver Springs, Nevada; Rhyolite, Nevada; and Thunder Mountain, Nevada. Baker talks about his personal relationship with Schoonmaker, his opinion on Stonewall Park, and legal issues that Schoonmaker faced during the development of the town. Baker describes opposition from local residents against Stonewall Park and Schoonmaker's health after being diagnosed with HIV.