Pahrump is a small city sixty miles west of the Fabulous Las Vegas and sixty miles east of Death Valley. It is currently the 12th-largest city in Nevada with a population of 42,471 however it was not always this way. Ten years ago it only had a population of 35,821 in 2012. As for who named the town, the southern Paiute Indians were the original inhabitants of the area now known as Pahrump. The town is named after the original name the Paiute Indians had for the area which was Pah-Rimpi or “Water Rock”.

Pahrump was home to many ranches that grew cotton, alfalfa, and more. Farming is what contributed to the area getting a post office, electricity, and a phone which are important steps in moving forward as it led to the town growing much more and finding its footing in the state of Nevada. This eventually led to the Casino oner Ted Binion who was associated with the mobster Herbie Blitzstein. He was found dead in his home on Palomino Lane on September 17, 1998. Due to his body not showing signs of a typical drug overdose. This later led to suspicion that his girlfriend was involved due to Binion believing that she was cheating on him.

She was with a man named Rick Tabish. This puts both her and Rick as suspects in the murder of Binion. This later got them charged with first-degree murder, grand theft, and burglary in the year 2000 for stealing $7 million worth of silver coins from Binion’s vault which was buried in the Pahrump area. A small place like Pahrump having connections to stories like this is amazing.

Though it may not have as much connection to Pahrump as say Tim Hafen and Art Bell which is what we will be talking about next. Hafen moved to Pahrump from Mesquite on 2 July 1951. During his first year in Pahrump, he planted 40 acres of alfalfa. the year after he planted 100 acres of cotton. In 1963 he added 650 acres which he used to grow more cotton which was very important in helping Pahrump grow. Hafen would later get more involved in realty and utilities in the Pahrump area.

Then there is  Art Bell who was born on the 17th of June 1945. Bell had originally started his career in broadcasting as a disc jockey and later found himself moving into talk radio where he would work at West Coast AM which operated on KDWN. In 1988 the show was renamed Coast to Coast AM and the location was changed as Bell had the station moved from Las Vegas to Pahrump. He had also abandoned the conventional topics he was discussing at first in favor of topics like conspiracy theories that led to him and his radio being put in the spotlight though the show had to shift its topics once more to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 as no station wanted to be blamed for anti-government actions. As such he quickly shifted towards things like the paranormal, UFOs, etc. However, this did not negatively affect his broadcast his popularity kept increasing it seems at one point or another Bell was the highest-rated late-night talk show host. and since his broadcasting was coming from Pahrump which is in the Nye County area this led to the voice-over catchphrase “from the Kingdom of Nye”.

This is only a small portion of the people and stories connected to this small dry place. That is why I would encourage you to visit the local museum and do some research of your own.