Posted on 01/17/2010 9:54:21 AM PST by Saije
Beatty is, evidently, less of a town than a state of mind.
When locals tried in recent years to find the original borders of this 1,000-person desert dot, they discovered an unsettling fact: Beatty was apparently never officially formed with official boundaries and therefore might not really exist -- officially, at least.
Ever since, Nye County leaders have been flummoxed over what to do with the maybe-town about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas: Adopt the borders of one of Beatty's tax districts? Draw town limits from scratch?
"When we went to the county," said Harold "Bert" Bertram, the town advisory board member who started the historical scavenger hunt, "it was like, 'Help us! We don't exist!' They didn't know what we were talking about. We didn't really know what we were talking about."
Now, Nye County Manager Rick Osborne thinks county commissioners will have to put any new boundaries on the ballot. Maybe. Researching the proper course of action could take many months. "We want to fix this once and for all," he said.
Amid all the head-scratching, though, one thing became clear: Beatty's borders might be in dispute, but there's little question as to its identity. Besides being the Gateway to Death Valley -- though Pahrump, Nev., and Baker, Calif., might have something to say about that -- the pit stop settled in 1904 is one scrappy desert rat.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
But I’ll bet you a donut that every VOTE (or two or three or four...) they cast for 0bama counted!
1000 person desert dot?
LOL my little town is barely a 10th of that size.
—Nye County went for McCain—
It. Was. A. Joke. :)
Just a few miles from Beatty is the ghost town of Rhyolite. If you ever get a chance, it’s a neat thing to see. There is a house there made of bottles.
This is all about taxes. The county has the taxes and power and the locals want some.
Be sure to see the real live dead two headed baby on display in the bottle house.
“The last thing we want is a town! It starts bringing laws,” said Fred Siedentopf”
The man has a good point. I have been in that area and it is interesting if you like mining, old railroads and the history that goes with it.
What happens in Beatty didn’t happen in Beatty...
Beatty hasn’t been incorporated? They should appeal to the Vatican. (That way the town could be Beattified.)
The truth is out there!
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