MESQUITE, Nev. -- The most recent facelift on the changing face of rural Nevada has been performed on Mesquite, a small community near the Arizona-Utah line on the broad flats of the Virgin River.
The sound of slot machines and live entertainment and the bustle of gamblers, tourists and truckers have arrived in the rich, quiet agricultural valley which pioneers carved out of a painted high desert 100 years ago.
The fewer than 2,000 residents of Mesquite and nearby Bunkerville are doing their best to take the changes in stride.
'The community leaders were hesitant at first, but they have come around,' said Rene Howe, director of Southern Operations for Peppermill Corp., developers of a casino, restaurant, motel and accomodation for recreational vehicles. 'We don't want to run anybody out of business, we just want to increase business in the area. We are offering a new innovation a new diminsion.'
Before Peppermill came to Mesquite, most social activity originated with the local Mormon Church, school athletics and the magnificant outdoors where rugged red mountains slope toward cactus-covered plains.
Las Vegas is 75 miles away. The closest grocery store of any size is 45 miles away. Travelers occasionally stayed overnight at one of a half dozen small motels in Mesquite, ate in tiny diners and truckers stopped to buy gas.
Two Reno businessmen changed all that. Bill Paganetti and Nat Carasali, former northern Nevada contractors, had been eyeing Mesquite as a site for one of their corporation's 14 restaurant-oriented resorts in California, Nevada and Colorado.
They cut the ribbon at the multimillion dollar Peppermill's Western Village the day after St. Patrick's Day.
'Mesquite will never be the same, I am so excited,' said a 72-year-old native named Lola who arrived for the expanded casino opening in a fur coat and a purse full of change.
More than 2,700 people passed through the 24-hour buffet line on opening night.
All the casino tables remained open until 6 a.m. the following day. The 'drop' on the lone craps table alone was more than $5,000 during the opening night shift.
It was raining. But it was a big night for the community: Mesquite's first major casino, a 9,700-square-foot addition to the first phase of the Peppermill truck center complex which opened 15 months ago.
The entire operation will employ 250 people -- more than one-tenth of the surrounding quiet valley's population.
'I've been waiting for this for six months,' said a man in a leather jacket as he pushed toward the craps table for the coming-out roll of the dice. Twelve hours later he had moved to one of six nearby blackjack tables.