Beatty, Nevada
Encyclopedia
Beatty is a census-designated place
(CDP) along the Amargosa River
in Nye County
in the U.S. state
of Nevada
. U.S. Route 95
runs through the CDP, which lies between Tonopah
, about 90 miles (144.8 km) to the north, and Las Vegas
, about 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast. State Route 374
connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park
, about 8 miles (12.9 km) to the west. The population was 1,154 at the 2000 census. The population was 1,010 at the 2010 census.
Before the arrival of non-indigenous people
in the 19th century, the region was home to groups of Western Shoshone
. Established in 1905, the community was named after Montillus (Montillion) Murray "Old Man" Beatty, who settled on a ranch in the Oasis Valley in 1896 and became Beatty's first postmaster. With the arrival of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad
in 1905, the CDP became a railway center for the Bullfrog Mining District, including mining towns such as nearby Rhyolite
. Starting in the 1940s, Nellis Air Force Base
and other federal installations contributed to the town's economy as did tourism related to Death Valley National Park and the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment center.
Beatty is home to the Beatty Museum and Historical Society and to businesses catering to tourist travel. The ghost town
of Rhyolite and the Goldwell Open Air Museum
(a sculpture park), are both about 4 miles (6 km) to the west, and Yucca Mountain
and the Nevada Test Site
are about 18 miles (29 km) to the east.
population, and incursions by newcomers had disrupted the native traditions. In about 1875, the Shoshone had six camps, with a total population of 29, along the Amargosa River near Beatty. Some of the survivors and their descendants continued to live in or near Beatty, while others moved to reservations
at Walker Lake
, Reese River
, Duckwater
, or elsewhere.
Beatty is named after "Old Man" Montillus (Montillion) Murray Beatty, a Civil War veteran and miner who bought a ranch along the Amargosa River
just north of the future community and became its first postmaster in 1905. The community was laid out in 1904 or 1905 after Ernest Alexander "Bob" Montgomery, owner of the Montgomery Shoshone Mine near Rhyolite, decided to build the Montgomery Hotel in Beatty. Montgomery was drawn to the area, known as the Bullfrog Mining District, because of a gold rush
that began in 1904 in the Bullfrog Hills
west of Beatty.
During Beatty's first year, wagons pulled by teams of horses or mules hauled freight between the Bullfrog district (that included the towns of Rhyolite, Bullfrog
, Gold Center
, Transvaal, and Springdale) and the nearest railroad, in Las Vegas, and by the middle of 1905, about 1,500 horses were engaged in this business. In October 1906, the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad
(LV&T) began regular service to Beatty; in April 1907, the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad (BG) reached the community, and the Tonopah and Tidewater
(T&T) line added a third railroad in October 1907. The LV&T ceased operations in 1918, the BG in 1928, and the T&T in 1940. Until the railroads abandoned their lines, Beatty served as the railhead for many mines in the area, including a fluorspar
mine on Bare Mountain, to the east.
Beatty's first newspaper was the Beatty Bullfrog Miner, which began publishing in 1905 and went out of business in 1909. The Rhyolite Herald was the region's most important paper, starting in 1905 and reaching a circulation of 10,000 by 1909. It ceased publication in 1912, and the Beatty area had no newspaper from then until 1947. The Beatty Bulletin, a supplement to the Goldfield News, was published from then through 1956.
Beatty's population grew slowly in the first half of the 20th century, rising from 169 in 1929 to 485 in 1950. The first reliable electric company in the community, Amargosa Power Company, began supplying electricity in about 1940. Phone service arrived during World War II
, and the CDP installed a community-wide sewer system in the 1970s. When a new mine opened west of Beatty in 1988, the population briefly surged from about 1,000 to between 1,500 and 2,000 by the end of 1990. Since the mine's closing in 1998, the population has fallen again to near its former level.
between Tonopah
, about 90 miles (144.8 km) to the north, and Las Vegas
, about 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast. State Route 374
connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park
, about 8 miles (12.9 km) to the west. Yucca Mountain
and the Nevada Test Site
are about 18 miles (29 km) to the east. The most densely populated part of the CDP is located at 36°54′34"N 116°45′16"W (36.909337, -116.754531), although the CDP extends well beyond this urban center. According to the United States Census Bureau
, the CDP has a total area of 175.6 square miles (454.8 km²), all land. The most populated area lies at 3307 feet (1,008 m) above sea level
between Beatty Mountain and Bare Mountain
to the east and the Bullfrog Hills
to the west. The Amargosa River, an intermittent river that ends in Death Valley, flows on the surface through part of the CDP but has not been counted as water in the Census Bureau statistics.
Nevada's main climatic features are bright sunshine, low annual precipitation, heavy snowfall in the higher mountains, clean, dry air, and large daily temperature ranges. Strong surface heating occurs by day and rapid cooling by night, and usually even the hottest days have cool nights. The average percentage of possible sunshine in southern Nevada is more than 80 percent. Sunshine and low humidity in this region account for an average evaporation, as measured in evaporation pan
s, of more than 100 inches (2,540 mm) of water a year.
Beatty receives only about 6 inches (152 mm) of precipitation a year. Precipitation of at least 0.01 inch (0.254 mm) falls on an average of 21 days annually. The wettest year was 1941 with 11.89 inches (302 mm) and driest year was 1953 with 0.69 inches (17.5 mm). July is the warmest month, when the average high temperature is 97 °F (36 °C) and the average low is 61 °F (16 °C). January and December are the coolest months with an average high of 54 °F (12 °C) and an average low of 28 °F (-2 °C) in January and 27 °F (-3 °C) in December. The highest recorded temperature was 115 °F (46.1 °C) on June 11, 1961, and the lowest was 1 °F (-17.2 °C) on February 2, 1933.
of 2000, there were 1,154 people, 535 households, and 270 families residing in the CDP. The population density
was 6.6 people per square mile (2.5/km2). There were 740 housing units at an average density of 4.2 per square mile (1.6/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 90.90% White, 0.09% African American, 1.47% Native American, 1.21% Asian, 3.12% from other races
, and 3.21% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.93% of the population. There were 535 households out of which 26.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples
living together, 6.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.5% were non-families. 43.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.16 and the average family size was 3.04. In the CDP the population was spread out with 26.1% under the age of 18, 5.6% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 29.5% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 119.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 121.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $41,250, and the median income for a family was $52,639. Males had a median income of $44,438 versus $25,962 for females. The per capita income
for the CDP was $16,971. About 10.4% of families and 13.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 19.6% of those age 65 or over.
Commission assisted by a local board acting as a liaison between the citizens of Beatty and the commissioners. The Beatty Town Advisory Board consists of five elected members who meet twice a month at the Beatty Community Center. In 2010, they are LaRene Younghans, Teresa Sullivan, Bert Bertram, Kay Handy, and Erika Gerling. The Beatty General Improvement District manages the community's parks, swimming pool, putting course, and other recreational grounds.
Andrew Borasky, Lorinda Wichman, Joni Eastley, Charles Hollis, and Fely Quitevis are the county commissioners in 2010. The administration department, led by Richard Osborne, the county manager, and Lorina Dellinger, the administrative manager, carry out the policies adopted by the commission. Among the many county departments are works and roads, building and code compliance, sheriff
, animal control, planning, property assessment, the Fifth Judicial District Court
, health and human services, senior centers including the Beatty Senior Center, and lower courts including the Beatty Justice Court. The Nye County Sheriff's Office has a substation in Beatty. Among other things, the office handles dispatch
for the Beatty Volunteer Fire Department, which provides firefighting and ambulance services.
Edwin (Ed) Goedhart, a Republican
, represents Beatty and the rest of District 36 in the Nevada Assembly
; his term runs through November 2010. In the Nevada Senate
, Beatty, as part of the Central Nevada Senatorial District, is represented by Mike McGinness, a Republican, through November 2012.
Dean Heller
, a Republican, represents Beatty and the rest of Nevada's Second Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives
. His term runs through November 2010. Harry Reid
, a Democrat
, and John Ensign
, a Republican, represent Nevada in the United States Senate
. Reid's term runs through November 2010 and Ensign's through November 2012.
, and the production and sale of illegal alcohol during Prohibition
.
Nevada's legalization of gambling
in 1931, the establishment of Death Valley National Monument
in 1933, and the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment center, brought visitors to Beatty, which became increasingly tourist-oriented. As underground mining declined in the region, federal defense spending, starting with the Nellis Air Force Range in 1940 and the Nevada Test Site
in 1950, also contributed to the local economy.
In 1988, an open-pit mine
and mill began operations about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Beatty along State Route 374. Barrick Gold
acquired the mine in 1994 and continued to extract and process ore at what became known as the Barrick Bullfrog Mine. At its peak, the mine employed 540 workers, many of whom lived in Beatty. The mine closed in 1998.
In 2004, the federal Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) named the closed Barrick Bullfrog mine site as one of six slated for pilot reclamation projects under the national Brownfields Mine-Scarred Land Initiative. A local group, the Beatty Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), in discussions with the EPA, suggested solar-power generation as a potential use for the site. Barrick Gold later transferred 81 acres (32.8 ha) of its land to Beatty. In February 2009, the New York Times published a Greenwire
article suggesting that part of the economic stimulus money from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act might finance the Beatty project. "Studies show that the Beatty area has some of the best solar energy potential in the United States, as well as a high potential for wind-power generation," the Greenwire story said.
Tourism remains important to the town's economy. The Beatty Chamber of Commerce web site describes the community as the Gateway to Death Valley, a small rural locality that has "everything the desert visitor needs" including motels and recreational vehicle
(RV) sites. Aside from tourism, businesses contributing to the local economy include mining, retail trade, public administration, and gambling, and a licensed brothel, Angel's Ladies
.
of Rhyolite and the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a sculpture park, are about 4 miles (6 km) to the west. Bailey's Hot Springs and bathhouses are about 5 miles (8 km) north of Beatty in the Oasis Valley. In addition to highways, Beatty has a general aviation airfield, Beatty Airport
, about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of downtown. Beatty Medical Center, which opened in 1977, provides family medicine and other services. The Beatty Library, a member of the Cooperative Libraries Automated Network, has a searchable online catalog. Beatty's combined elementary and middle school
s, serving kindergarten
through eighth grade, and Beatty High School, grades 9–12, are part of the Nye County School District. The Beatty Water and Sanitation District supplies drinking water from three wells to the CDP residents and treats the community's wastewater.
Census-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
(CDP) along the Amargosa River
Amargosa River
The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into...
in Nye County
Nye County, Nevada
-National protected areas:* Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge* Death Valley National Park * Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest * Spring Mountains National Recreation Area -Demographics:...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
. U.S. Route 95
U.S. Route 95
U.S. Route 95 is a north–south U.S. highway in the western United States. Unlike many other US highways, it has not seen deletion or replacement on most of its length by an encroaching Interstate highway corridor, due to its mostly rural course...
runs through the CDP, which lies between Tonopah
Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah is a census-designated place located in and the county seat of Nye County, Nevada. It is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95 approximately mid-way between Las Vegas and Reno....
, about 90 miles (144.8 km) to the north, and Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, about 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast. State Route 374
Nevada State Route 374
State Route 374 is a state highway in Nye County, Nevada, United States. It serves as Nevada's gateway to Death Valley National Park, connecting the park to Beatty...
connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada in the arid Great Basin of the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes,...
, about 8 miles (12.9 km) to the west. The population was 1,154 at the 2000 census. The population was 1,010 at the 2010 census.
Before the arrival of non-indigenous people
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
in the 19th century, the region was home to groups of Western Shoshone
Western Shoshone
Western Shoshone comprises several Shoshone tribes that are indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. The tribes are very closely related culturally to the Paiute, Goshute, Bannock, Ute, and...
. Established in 1905, the community was named after Montillus (Montillion) Murray "Old Man" Beatty, who settled on a ranch in the Oasis Valley in 1896 and became Beatty's first postmaster. With the arrival of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad
Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad
The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was a 197.9 mile railroad built by William A. Clark that ran northwest from a connection with the mainline of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad at Las Vegas, Nevada to the gold mines at Goldfield...
in 1905, the CDP became a railway center for the Bullfrog Mining District, including mining towns such as nearby Rhyolite
Rhyolite, Nevada
Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is located in the Bullfrog Hills, about northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern edge of Death Valley. The town began in early 1905 as one of several mining camps that sprang up after a prospecting discovery in the surrounding...
. Starting in the 1940s, Nellis Air Force Base
Nellis Air Force Base
Nellis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is under the jurisdiction of Air Combat Command .-Overview:...
and other federal installations contributed to the town's economy as did tourism related to Death Valley National Park and the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment center.
Beatty is home to the Beatty Museum and Historical Society and to businesses catering to tourist travel. The ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Rhyolite and the Goldwell Open Air Museum
Goldwell Open Air Museum
The Goldwell Open Air Museum is an outdoor sculpture park near the ghost town of Rhyolite in the U.S. state of Nevada. The site is located at the northern end of the Amargosa Valley, about northwest of Las Vegas, and about west of Beatty off State Route 374. About further west is Death Valley...
(a sculpture park), are both about 4 miles (6 km) to the west, and Yucca Mountain
Yucca Mountain
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository was to be a deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel and other high level radioactive waste, until the project was canceled in 2009. It was to be located on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County,...
and the Nevada Test Site
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...
are about 18 miles (29 km) to the east.
History
Before the arrival of non-indigenous explorers, prospectors, and settlers, Western Shoshone in the Beatty area hunted game and gathered wild plants in the region. It is estimated that the 19th-century population density of the Indians near Beatty was one person per 44 square miles (114 km²). By the middle of the century, European diseases had greatly reduced the IndianNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
population, and incursions by newcomers had disrupted the native traditions. In about 1875, the Shoshone had six camps, with a total population of 29, along the Amargosa River near Beatty. Some of the survivors and their descendants continued to live in or near Beatty, while others moved to reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
at Walker Lake
Walker Lake, Nevada
Walker Lake, Nevada is an unincorporated town in Mineral County, Nevada. As of 2006, the population of Walker Lake is 319....
, Reese River
Reese River
The Reese River is a tributary of the Humboldt River, located in central Nevada in the western United States. It rises in the southern section of the Toiyabe Range, on the flanks of Arc Dome...
, Duckwater
Duckwater, Nevada
Duckwater is located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Nevada, at about the same latitude as Sacramento, California. It is in Nye County, on the eastern edge of the Duckwater Indian Reservation, near the Red Mountain Wilderness. The city of Las Vegas is about 200 miles to the...
, or elsewhere.
Beatty is named after "Old Man" Montillus (Montillion) Murray Beatty, a Civil War veteran and miner who bought a ranch along the Amargosa River
Amargosa River
The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into...
just north of the future community and became its first postmaster in 1905. The community was laid out in 1904 or 1905 after Ernest Alexander "Bob" Montgomery, owner of the Montgomery Shoshone Mine near Rhyolite, decided to build the Montgomery Hotel in Beatty. Montgomery was drawn to the area, known as the Bullfrog Mining District, because of a gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
that began in 1904 in the Bullfrog Hills
Bullfrog Hills
The Bullfrog Hills are a small range of mountains in southern Nye County, Nevada. The historic Rhyolite, Nevada, mining district was in the Bullfrog Hills, and the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad crossed the hills to its Rhyolite station via the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad The Bullfrog, Nevada,...
west of Beatty.
During Beatty's first year, wagons pulled by teams of horses or mules hauled freight between the Bullfrog district (that included the towns of Rhyolite, Bullfrog
Bullfrog, Nevada
Bullfrog is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is located at the north end of the Amargosa Desert about west of Beatty. Less than north of Bullfrog are the Bullfrog Hills and the ghost town of Rhyolite...
, Gold Center
Gold Center, Nevada
Gold Center was a mining town in Nye County, Nevada.Located in the Bullfrog Mining District near Tonopah, Gold Center was established in December 1904 with a United States Post Office being authorized on January 21, 1905. The town began publishing its own newspaper in 1907. The location of the...
, Transvaal, and Springdale) and the nearest railroad, in Las Vegas, and by the middle of 1905, about 1,500 horses were engaged in this business. In October 1906, the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad
Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad
The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was a 197.9 mile railroad built by William A. Clark that ran northwest from a connection with the mainline of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad at Las Vegas, Nevada to the gold mines at Goldfield...
(LV&T) began regular service to Beatty; in April 1907, the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad (BG) reached the community, and the Tonopah and Tidewater
Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad
The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, the T&T, was a class II railroad extending through remote reaches of the Mojave Desert from the Santa Fe Railway railhead at Ludlow, California, through Death Valley and Amargosa Valley, terminating at the Mining towns of Tonopah and Goldfield in the Great Basin...
(T&T) line added a third railroad in October 1907. The LV&T ceased operations in 1918, the BG in 1928, and the T&T in 1940. Until the railroads abandoned their lines, Beatty served as the railhead for many mines in the area, including a fluorspar
Fluorite
Fluorite is a halide mineral composed of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It is an isometric mineral with a cubic habit, though octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon...
mine on Bare Mountain, to the east.
Beatty's first newspaper was the Beatty Bullfrog Miner, which began publishing in 1905 and went out of business in 1909. The Rhyolite Herald was the region's most important paper, starting in 1905 and reaching a circulation of 10,000 by 1909. It ceased publication in 1912, and the Beatty area had no newspaper from then until 1947. The Beatty Bulletin, a supplement to the Goldfield News, was published from then through 1956.
Beatty's population grew slowly in the first half of the 20th century, rising from 169 in 1929 to 485 in 1950. The first reliable electric company in the community, Amargosa Power Company, began supplying electricity in about 1940. Phone service arrived during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and the CDP installed a community-wide sewer system in the 1970s. When a new mine opened west of Beatty in 1988, the population briefly surged from about 1,000 to between 1,500 and 2,000 by the end of 1990. Since the mine's closing in 1998, the population has fallen again to near its former level.
Geography and climate
Beatty lies along U.S. Route 95U.S. Route 95
U.S. Route 95 is a north–south U.S. highway in the western United States. Unlike many other US highways, it has not seen deletion or replacement on most of its length by an encroaching Interstate highway corridor, due to its mostly rural course...
between Tonopah
Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah is a census-designated place located in and the county seat of Nye County, Nevada. It is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95 approximately mid-way between Las Vegas and Reno....
, about 90 miles (144.8 km) to the north, and Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, about 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast. State Route 374
Nevada State Route 374
State Route 374 is a state highway in Nye County, Nevada, United States. It serves as Nevada's gateway to Death Valley National Park, connecting the park to Beatty...
connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada in the arid Great Basin of the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes,...
, about 8 miles (12.9 km) to the west. Yucca Mountain
Yucca Mountain
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository was to be a deep geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear reactor fuel and other high level radioactive waste, until the project was canceled in 2009. It was to be located on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County,...
and the Nevada Test Site
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...
are about 18 miles (29 km) to the east. The most densely populated part of the CDP is located at 36°54′34"N 116°45′16"W (36.909337, -116.754531), although the CDP extends well beyond this urban center. According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the CDP has a total area of 175.6 square miles (454.8 km²), all land. The most populated area lies at 3307 feet (1,008 m) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
between Beatty Mountain and Bare Mountain
Bare Mountain (Nevada)
The Bare Mountain Range is a mountain range in southern Nye County, Nevada, in the United States. Bare Mountain and Wildcat Peak are the high points of the range.-Range summary:...
to the east and the Bullfrog Hills
Bullfrog Hills
The Bullfrog Hills are a small range of mountains in southern Nye County, Nevada. The historic Rhyolite, Nevada, mining district was in the Bullfrog Hills, and the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad crossed the hills to its Rhyolite station via the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad The Bullfrog, Nevada,...
to the west. The Amargosa River, an intermittent river that ends in Death Valley, flows on the surface through part of the CDP but has not been counted as water in the Census Bureau statistics.
Nevada's main climatic features are bright sunshine, low annual precipitation, heavy snowfall in the higher mountains, clean, dry air, and large daily temperature ranges. Strong surface heating occurs by day and rapid cooling by night, and usually even the hottest days have cool nights. The average percentage of possible sunshine in southern Nevada is more than 80 percent. Sunshine and low humidity in this region account for an average evaporation, as measured in evaporation pan
Pan evaporation
Pan evaporation is a measurement that combines or integrates the effects of several climate elements: temperature, humidity, rain fall, drought dispersion, solar radiation, and wind. Evaporation is greatest on hot, windy, dry days; and is greatly reduced when air is cool, calm, and humid...
s, of more than 100 inches (2,540 mm) of water a year.
Beatty receives only about 6 inches (152 mm) of precipitation a year. Precipitation of at least 0.01 inch (0.254 mm) falls on an average of 21 days annually. The wettest year was 1941 with 11.89 inches (302 mm) and driest year was 1953 with 0.69 inches (17.5 mm). July is the warmest month, when the average high temperature is 97 °F (36 °C) and the average low is 61 °F (16 °C). January and December are the coolest months with an average high of 54 °F (12 °C) and an average low of 28 °F (-2 °C) in January and 27 °F (-3 °C) in December. The highest recorded temperature was 115 °F (46.1 °C) on June 11, 1961, and the lowest was 1 °F (-17.2 °C) on February 2, 1933.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,154 people, 535 households, and 270 families residing in the CDP. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 6.6 people per square mile (2.5/km2). There were 740 housing units at an average density of 4.2 per square mile (1.6/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 90.90% White, 0.09% African American, 1.47% Native American, 1.21% Asian, 3.12% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3.21% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.93% of the population. There were 535 households out of which 26.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 6.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.5% were non-families. 43.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.16 and the average family size was 3.04. In the CDP the population was spread out with 26.1% under the age of 18, 5.6% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 29.5% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 119.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 121.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $41,250, and the median income for a family was $52,639. Males had a median income of $44,438 versus $25,962 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the CDP was $16,971. About 10.4% of families and 13.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 19.6% of those age 65 or over.
Government
Under the terms of the Unincorporated Town Government Law of Nevada, Beatty is governed by the Nye CountyNye County, Nevada
-National protected areas:* Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge* Death Valley National Park * Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest * Spring Mountains National Recreation Area -Demographics:...
Commission assisted by a local board acting as a liaison between the citizens of Beatty and the commissioners. The Beatty Town Advisory Board consists of five elected members who meet twice a month at the Beatty Community Center. In 2010, they are LaRene Younghans, Teresa Sullivan, Bert Bertram, Kay Handy, and Erika Gerling. The Beatty General Improvement District manages the community's parks, swimming pool, putting course, and other recreational grounds.
Andrew Borasky, Lorinda Wichman, Joni Eastley, Charles Hollis, and Fely Quitevis are the county commissioners in 2010. The administration department, led by Richard Osborne, the county manager, and Lorina Dellinger, the administrative manager, carry out the policies adopted by the commission. Among the many county departments are works and roads, building and code compliance, sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
, animal control, planning, property assessment, the Fifth Judicial District Court
Nevada District Courts
The Nevada District Courts are the trial courts of general jurisdiction in the Nevada state court system.In the District Courts "criminal, civil, family, and juvenile matters are generally resolved through arbitration, mediation, and bench or jury trials."...
, health and human services, senior centers including the Beatty Senior Center, and lower courts including the Beatty Justice Court. The Nye County Sheriff's Office has a substation in Beatty. Among other things, the office handles dispatch
Dispatcher
Dispatchers are communications personnel responsible for receiving and transmitting pure and reliable messages, tracking vehicles and equipment, and recording other important information...
for the Beatty Volunteer Fire Department, which provides firefighting and ambulance services.
Edwin (Ed) Goedhart, a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, represents Beatty and the rest of District 36 in the Nevada Assembly
Nevada Assembly
The Nevada Assembly is the lower house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Nevada. The body consists of 42 members, elected to two-year terms from single-member districts. Each Assembly district contained approximately 47,400 people as of the 2000 census, although...
; his term runs through November 2010. In the Nevada Senate
Nevada Senate
The Nevada Senate is the upper house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature of U.S. state of Nevada. The Senate consists of 21 members from 19 districts, two of which are multimember. Each senator represented approximately 94,700 people as of the 2000 census, although 2006 Census Bureau...
, Beatty, as part of the Central Nevada Senatorial District, is represented by Mike McGinness, a Republican, through November 2012.
Dean Heller
Dean Heller
Dean A. Heller is the junior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Republican Party. Heller was appointed by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to a vacant seat created by the resignation of John Ensign. He was previously a member of the United States House of Representatives,...
, a Republican, represents Beatty and the rest of Nevada's Second Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. His term runs through November 2010. Harry Reid
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
, a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, and John Ensign
John Ensign
John Eric Ensign is a former United States Senator from Nevada, serving from January 2001 until he resigned amid an investigation of an ethics violation in May 2011...
, a Republican, represent Nevada in the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. Reid's term runs through November 2010 and Ensign's through November 2012.
Economy
Early businesses in Beatty included the Montgomery Hotel, built by a mine owner in 1905, and freight businesses first centered on horse-drawn wagons and later on railroads serving the mining towns in the Bullfrog district. Beatty became the economic center for a large sparsely populated region. Aside from mining, other activities sustaining the community during the 1920s and 1930s included retail sales, gas and oil distribution, construction of Scotty's CastleScotty's Castle
Scotty's Castle is a two-story Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style villa located in the Grapevine Mountains of northern Death Valley in Death Valley National Park, California, U.S.. It is also known as Death Valley Ranch...
, and the production and sale of illegal alcohol during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
.
Nevada's legalization of gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
in 1931, the establishment of Death Valley National Monument
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada in the arid Great Basin of the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes,...
in 1933, and the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment center, brought visitors to Beatty, which became increasingly tourist-oriented. As underground mining declined in the region, federal defense spending, starting with the Nellis Air Force Range in 1940 and the Nevada Test Site
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...
in 1950, also contributed to the local economy.
In 1988, an open-pit mine
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
and mill began operations about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Beatty along State Route 374. Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America...
acquired the mine in 1994 and continued to extract and process ore at what became known as the Barrick Bullfrog Mine. At its peak, the mine employed 540 workers, many of whom lived in Beatty. The mine closed in 1998.
In 2004, the federal Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) named the closed Barrick Bullfrog mine site as one of six slated for pilot reclamation projects under the national Brownfields Mine-Scarred Land Initiative. A local group, the Beatty Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), in discussions with the EPA, suggested solar-power generation as a potential use for the site. Barrick Gold later transferred 81 acres (32.8 ha) of its land to Beatty. In February 2009, the New York Times published a Greenwire
Environment and Energy Publishing
Environment & Energy Publishing LLC is a multi-service online media company that covers environmental and energy policy and markets. Based in Washington, D.C., it publishes global energy and environmental news and several times daily reporting from Capitol Hill.E&E’s 40,000 100% paid readership...
article suggesting that part of the economic stimulus money from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act might finance the Beatty project. "Studies show that the Beatty area has some of the best solar energy potential in the United States, as well as a high potential for wind-power generation," the Greenwire story said.
Tourism remains important to the town's economy. The Beatty Chamber of Commerce web site describes the community as the Gateway to Death Valley, a small rural locality that has "everything the desert visitor needs" including motels and recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle or RV is, in North America, the usual term for a Motor vehicle or trailer equipped with living space and amenities found in a home.-Features:...
(RV) sites. Aside from tourism, businesses contributing to the local economy include mining, retail trade, public administration, and gambling, and a licensed brothel, Angel's Ladies
Angel's Ladies
Angel's Ladies is a brothel in Beatty, Nevada.-History:Mack Moore purchased the property in 1997 and renamed it from Fran's Star Ranch. The brothel had been sold in 2005, after having been listed for sale in 2004 for $1.8 million. Moore foreclosed on the property and resold it again at a later date...
.
Infrastructure and culture
The community is home to the Beatty Museum and Historical Society. The ghost townGhost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Rhyolite and the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a sculpture park, are about 4 miles (6 km) to the west. Bailey's Hot Springs and bathhouses are about 5 miles (8 km) north of Beatty in the Oasis Valley. In addition to highways, Beatty has a general aviation airfield, Beatty Airport
Beatty Airport
Beatty Airport is a county-owned public-use airport located three nautical miles southwest of the central business district of Beatty, a town in Nye County, Nevada, United States.- Facilities and aircraft :...
, about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of downtown. Beatty Medical Center, which opened in 1977, provides family medicine and other services. The Beatty Library, a member of the Cooperative Libraries Automated Network, has a searchable online catalog. Beatty's combined elementary and middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
s, serving kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
through eighth grade, and Beatty High School, grades 9–12, are part of the Nye County School District. The Beatty Water and Sanitation District supplies drinking water from three wells to the CDP residents and treats the community's wastewater.
Works cited
- Lingenfelter, Richard E. (1986). Death Valley & the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06356-2.
- McCracken, Robert D. (1992). A History of Beatty, Nevada. Tonopah, Nevada: Nye County Press. ISBN 1-878138-54-5.