My wife Kathy and I purchased our new home in Pahrump, Nevada back in February of 2008.
It took us until September 2008 to move here permanently from our former residence in Barstow, California.
Why did we choose Pahrump?
When we first decided to leave southern California, we had our sights set on living in Las Vegas. But we quickly discovered that Vegas was not for us. No elbow room between neighbors. Too much congestion. Too much crime.
This led us to look elsewhere in southern NV.
When we finally heard about Pahrump, we were excited to discover a city remote enough to satisfy our privacy needs and close enough to a major city (Las Vegas) to satisfy our business needs and occassional urges to enjoy good entertainment.
However, we couldn’t find any good, solid information on the city. Except for a brief piece in Wikipedia, we could find nothing online but random gossip (apparently, some jealous Pahrump residents thought the then-reigning Miss Pahrump had won the crown because she was from a well-connected local family) and political sniping (Pahrump appears to have a small but volatile segment of the population who attend Town Hall meetings are are basically against everything).
But there was virtually NO significant information on Pahrump living for people wanting to relocate to the city. Nor was there any good, online information for Pahrumpians wanting to know more about their own city.
So we shopped for properties on the internet. And when we found a few that looked interesting, and seemed to be decent bargains, we drove up and looked at them. We stayed at local motels while house-hunting, and we made it a point to talk to everyone we came across, from the waitresses in the casino restaurants to the gas station attendants to the hotel clerks to the owners of homes we were looking at.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, in that limited experience we found Pahrumpians to be rather insular. Most of those we spoke with didn’t even know their own neighbors, and couldn’t tell us much about the city except that it has a Fall Festival every October, which the whole town turns out to.
Kathy and I are not unfriendly people. But we are in many ways loners. In southern California we lived on two and a half acres several miles outside of town, and loved the relative privacy of country living. So the insular nature of the people of Pahrump didn’t really bother us.
Culture Shock?
Nevertheless, since moving here, we have experienced a certain level of culture shock.
When we first moved here we gave ourselves one year to get used to the place, agreeing that if we didn’t like it, we’d pack up and move somewhere else.
Somehow, one year later we find ourselves feeling a little bit like rabbits caught in the headlights, not knowing whether to go left or right, or stand still and take our chances.
Why?
Well…Pahrump is different.
Twilight Zone different.
I mean, just about everything is different here. And that makes it almost impossible to pinpoint any one thing that’s unnerving enough to cause this state of generalized, underlying anxiety Kathy and I are still experiencing a full year since we moved here.
…It’s not because the population of Pahrump is 90% white, whereas the area we came from had a much higher minority population. In that sense, Pahrump is a delightful throwback to a bygone era. Instead of gang-bangers and street beggers and the like, Pahrump has genuine cowboys and big burly bikers and regular folks, too. And quite frankly, we like that.
…It’s not because of all of the cat houses and gambling halls, either. We’re not prudes. I was born in Las Vegas, and Kathy was born in Hollywood. So a little bit of the “offbeat” is definitely in our blood.
…It’s not because Pahrump is an “open carry” city in an “open carry” state, and people tend to walk around town with loaded guns on their hips. Frankly, it gives me a distinct sense of comfort to step into the local Wal-Mart, or eat at a local restaurant, and see some tall, square-jawed straight-shooter with an American flag on his shirt sleeve and a “Don’t Tread on Me” patch on his shirt pocket come waking in with a loaded Colt .45 tucked tightly to his hip.
…It’s not because Pahrump’s greatest claim to cultural fame is the independent film Dorks on the Moon, which stars a crazy cast of local residents, and which, I am told, has been turned down by every independent film festival it’s been submitted to. No, that doesn’t bother us at all. We think modern culture is just a tad overrated, anyway. And if you get too much of it, you risk becoming elitist.
…It’s not even because Pahrump is home to Heidi Fleiss, the so-called “Hollywood Madam,” who, appropriately 
enough, now runs a laundromat here called the “Dirty Laundry,” and who at one time tried to establish a brothel of male prostitutes in the nearby city of Crystal, where she hoped to attract a clientele of what one could only assume would be lonely women with more money than brains.
I suppose every town needs an iconclastic figure they can wag their fingers at and solemnly shake their heads over. And besides, Heidi gives the local paper something to write about every time she gets into trouble with the local authorities, or another Hollywood production company wants to do another movie or documentary about her adventures on the wrong side of the law.
…Finally, it’s not because of Ray Mielzynski, known as the “Flagman of Pahrump,” a purveyor of Libertarian principles and perennial candidate for local sheriff who frequently stands on the side of Highway 372 with a large American flagpole in one hand, a copy of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution in his other hand, and a loaded gun on his hip.
Ray likes to pass out copies of the Bill of Rights to passers-by brave (or curious) enough to stop and talk with him. You’ll find him to be an extremely interesting and colorful character who is passionate and knowledgeable about the U.S. Constitution, and who has made it his life’s mision to instill that same kind of passion and knowledge into others.
No. The culture shock we’re experiencing here is something else altogether. Something…
…Middle Earthly
As our real estate agent told us when we first moved here, “The only thing you really have to know about Pahrump is
that except for new arrivals like yourselves and some transplants from Las Vegas, most of the locals in this town are basically from middle earth.”
So far…she’s turned out to be right. There are a lot of strange Hobbits running around in this town. And there are a few scary little Gollums, too.
To understand what I’m talking about, all you have to do is go check out the people wandering around in the local Pahrump 24-hour Wal-Mart SuperCenter after 9 o’clock at night.
Or if you’re really brave of heart, check out the folks sitting out on their truck tailgates after midnight on hot summer nights in the Wal-Mart parking lot, drinking coffee from thermos bottles while staring blankly at the other townsfolk as they wander in and out of Wal-Mart.
A Hobbit Sign?
Perhaps one of the most unnerving things here is the local tatoo and body piercing shop called “Precious Slut,” whose huge billboard assaults the eyes on the way into Pahrump coming in from Las Vegas on Highway 160.
The company name is prominently displayed in massive four-foot high letters. And what appear to be employees of the company can frequently be seen in town wearing t-shirts that say, ”Because sluts are people, too.“
I’m sure they are. But somehow, and quite unfortunately I might add, that sign and those t-shirts says more about Pahrump than I think the town fathers or the town’s more conservative, family-oriented residents would ever want said. But…that’s the way it is in Pahrump, folks. Live and let live. Yes, even where the maturity level is on par with pre-pubescent adolescents who are just becoming fixated on their private parts.
We didn’t have that kind of in-your-face strangeness in Barstow. Sure, we had the usual assortment of street beggars and gang-bangers and pot heads and meth addicts, along with all of the regular folks, just like in most cities.
And sure, where we came from, it was getting just a little bit scary with all of the gang-bangers and freaks with metal rings and spikes and straight pins poked through their skin in just about every orofice of their bodies hanging out like mindless trolls in the entryways of the local shopping centers. At least Pahrump doesn’t seem to have too much of that, thanks largely to the local sheriff, who, I’m happy to report, appears to take his job seriously.
Nevertheless, Pahrumpians are…well…to put it succinctly, surreal. They’re like quirky little characters out of a quirky little movie about quirky little people doing extremely quirky little things with, or to, other quirky little people.
When Kathy and I first moved from Barstow to Pahrump, we asked ourselves “How different could life in Pahrump be?” After all, we had just moved from one small southern California desert community, to a small southern Nevada desert community. Could there be that much difference between the two places?
In part, this blog will attempt to answer that question.
More Hobbit Signs
For now, here’s a sneak preview of what I’m talking about:
When we first visited here, looking for a home, we saw a large sign near the Terrible’s Casino on Highway 160. It read: ”Multi-Screen Movie Theater Coming Soon.”
Oh boy, I thought to myself. At least Pahrump is making headway as a city. Soon, there will be a real movie theater here, and we won’t have to make an hour-long trek into Las Vegas just to see a decent movie.”
But when I told my real estate agent how excited I was to know that Pahrump would soon have a multi-screen movie theater, she winked slyly, then leaned forward and in a barely audible whisper told me a secret: “Here in middle earth,” she said, “we’re really good at putting up signs.”
A few weeks later, the sign was gone. And virtually overnight the idea of a multi-screen movie theater in Pahrump disappeared down Orwell’s memory hole. (There are now rumors that the Nugget Casino is going to build a multi-screen theater. But from what I’ve seen so far, Pahrumpians are pretty darned good at starting and spreading rumors, too.)
This past week, I spotted another big sign just east of Pahrump, sitting all by itself out in the middle of the desert just off Highway 160. It says, “Coming soon! The future home of the Nye County Fairgrounds.”
From the looks of it, I’d say the sign looks to be about 5 years old. Maybe older. 
I can’t help but wonder if some mischievous little Hobbit didn’t put it up as an inside joke for all of the other local Hobbits to snicker about as they drive by on their way from Pahrump to the Red Rock Casino in Vegas.
“Ha! That’ll fool ‘em!” they probably say to themselves, giggling madly at the thought that some naive newcomer like myself would actually believe a sign in Pahrump.
Joshing Around
Okay. Enough of this nonesense. I’m just joshing around (well, mostly) about the people here, and poking a little fun at the expense of my new home town. And I hope my fellow Pahrumpians don’t take too much offense. Over time, you’ll find that I poke as much fun at myself, as I do others. After all, life’s just too darned short to take anything but God and country too seriously.
For the most part, we’ve found Pahrumpians to be decent, hard-working folks who love the city’s small-town atmosphere, and who take pride in the fact that here, you can make good friends and be part of a thriving community atmosphere, yet still keep some welcome elbow room between yourself and your neighbors if that’s what you like.
The people of Pahrump seem to be an eclectic mix of rugged individualists, offbeat and thoroughly colorful personalities, traditional retirees looking for maximum value for their money, families seeking to escape from the growing rigors and risks of the Big City, community-oriented people looking to be part of a growing town that still maintains old-fashioned values, business men and women looking for a more inviting small-town business atmosphere, and folks just seeking a place where they can still enjoy a little bit of privacy, peace and perhaps even solitude.
For all of these reasons, and more, we chose to make Pahrump our home. And it’s for all of these reasons and more we hope you’ll consider living here too, if you’re looking to relocate to southern Nevada!
You Be the Judge
Here then is my personal chronicle of Pahrump living, including the good, the bad and the occassionally ugly, in one of the hottest darned places (at least, in the summer) on the face of God’s otherwise great green earth.
In the pages of this blog, I’ll reflect back from time to time on events that have occured in our first year here. And I’ll chronicle new events as they take place.
My goal is to provide an insider’s look at Pahrump living that others who may be considering moving here might find useful, and that friends and locals might find to be at least remotely entertaining.
Will I succeed? You be the judge.
