From the Chester R. Longwell Photograph Collection (PH-00311). Old playa beds projecting through fan waste.

Jacob David "Jay" Bingham carries the Lincoln County town of Alamo, Nevada, in his heart. The former North Las Vegas City Councilman (1981-84) and Clark County Commissioner (1984-96) presided over fifteen years of Southern Nevada’s explosive urban growth, but he learned about small-town values when he got out of line at Rancho High School with some friends and was sent to live with an uncle in Alamo for his sophomore year. What began as a short-term placement blossomed into a life-long attachment to a rural Nevada place where no gap separated generations; where people looked out for one another; where small classes allowed teachers to accommodate his Attention Deficit Disorder and let him learn at his own pace; where he acquired rodeo skills and became a cowboy, and where he met his wife. But it was in urban Clark County where Bingham spiritually reconnected with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and crafted successful careers in politics and construction that significantly and mutually contributed to the way Southern Nevada looks and the way it works. In this interview, he discusses Alamo, his faith, his learning disability, Southern Nevada’s political landscape, his learning curves at the North Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commission, comprehensive planning, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and his construction and development business. He recalls heated competition between political kingmakers Kent Oram and Big Jim Joyce; telling Pat Mulroy she was not "tough enough," and the corruption that seemed to define Southern Nevada politics before, during, and after his terms in office.