By Vernon Robison

The Old West was once a land of opportunity. The great expanses and endless vistas of the American frontier have been associated, first and foremost, with a rich heritage of innovation and ingenuity. A century and a half ago, even the vast barren wastes of Nevada offered an economic enticement for a determined few.

In a hard, survivalist economy, enterprising minds looked to the Nevada landscape for opportunity and they often found it. Some sought riches from the rocky desert soils by tapping its mineral resources with mines. Other men set out to make their fortunes by running cattle on the open desert. Whole communities were built up around these kinds of activities, complete with extensive services and booming commercial ventures. Many of these endeavors succeeded. Some did not. But all began with the freedom and promise of wide open public land. In those days, opportunity called out from the barren deserts of Nevada and a generation of strong men and women were granted their freedom on the land to follow it.

What a change has come about since then! While the majority of Nevada is still just a vast expanse of empty land, it is no longer open. Most of the state is owned by the federal government. As such, in recent years it has been manipulated from afar, like so many game pieces, by deep-pocketed political interests with little local knowledge of, or meaningful connection to, these lands.

Looking at a map of southern Nevada, one recognizes quickly that there is very little public land still open to the public. Most of it is hemmed in by federal designations, regulations and restrictions. These measures are all done in the noble cause of conservation. But there is more politics than preservation in the motives. Southern Nevada’s public lands have reached a stalemate where every square inch of ground released for private use must be dearly paid for by an equal amount to be locked up in the name of conservation. Rural areas like ours always pay the highest price for this strategy. The result is that the innovation and enterprise that ought to bring economic growth and benefit to this community has, all too often, been locked out of public lands as an unwelcomed guest.

One undesirable element of the Old West has returned to our times, however: the rough and rugged economic environment. We have felt this particularly here in Moapa Valley where the community seems to be ever slipping towards the way of the old ghost town. Driving through the valley, it seems like every third or fourth house is empty; or else its residents are waiting on pins and needles for the bank to foreclose. Folks are feeling beaten down and nearly defeated by the highest unemployment rates in the country. Many have gone broke; moving away in search of greener pastures. This summer, the downtown Overton commercial district felt like it was in an utter freefall. To many local business owners, downtown resembled something from an Old West film, complete with abandoned ramshackled buildings and tumbleweeds blowing across empty streets in the hot wind.

Still from our Congressional delegation in Washington, we hear a stream of assurances, encouraging our residents and business owners to just hold on. Help is on the way! They have been promising to bring a renewed focus on diversification of the state’s economy as well as programs and incentives for job creation. Thus far, though, the cavalry has still not arrived. And many business owners and residents can’t hold out much longer. With an eager eye on the bleak economic horizon they wonder: Where will this long promised help come from?

A recent resolution adopted first by the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce and then, last week, by the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board, proposes an interesting answer to that question. These local organizations can still hear the faint, ancient call of opportunity; and just like in the days of old, it comes from the heart of the Nevada desert.

The adopted resolution calls upon our Congressional leaders to bulldoze down the locked gate guarding Nevada’s public lands and allow the old entrepreneurial frontier spirit to be re-awakened here once more. This bold resolution asserts that there would be ample economic growth opportunities in the deserts of Nevada if not for the heavy chains of government regulation binding those lands.

The plight of our own Overton Beach area has shown just one small example of this. When the Lake water receded there, the National Park Service (NPS) was left with a dilemma. Here there existed all this valuable infrastructure which might, at least, serve a small commercial operation; even with the water and boat marina gone. What should be done with it?

The infrastructure at Overton Beach included an R.V. Park, a trailer village and space for the supporting businesses. Of course, there is a solid demand for all of these types of services in this area. At least enough demand, many thought, for a small business venture to succeed at Overton Beach. A few local business people, looking to keep that area operational, recognized the opportunity and expressed interest to the Park Service. NPS standard procedure, however, was to work with larger, more stable resort concessioners on such ventures. Apparently, none of these saw enough profit in the project to make it worth their while. So NPS did a “study” and simply declared the idea not feasible. So it was all promptly closed down; drawing tourism away from the area and doing harm to our local economy just as the worst recession in memory was arriving at our doorstep.

This is just one example of the iconic American entrepreneur; that romantic character with little more than a sound business plan in his pocket and an ambitious spark in his eye; wasn’t even given a sporting chance by the bureaucracy. To this day, even as the Lake waters are now on the rise once again, all that infrastructure and opportunity just sits out there in the desert at Overton Beach, like a ghost town; empty and unfulfilled. Don’t think for a moment that the resulting opportunity cost of this inaction is not being paid dearly by all of us here in the Moapa Valley community.

Unfortunately, this relatively minor example is far from an isolated case. The public lands surrounding Moapa Valley are teeming with economic opportunities that remain buried deep under federal regulation and red tape.

Our local Chamber and Town Board are right. The current need in our community is too great; our economic circumstances too dire; for this type of thoughtless institutional hoarding of public lands. The resolution adopted last week by Moapa Valley’s community and business leaders raises a standard firmly in the rocky desert soil to which our leaders in Washington ought to look. This is one clear direction for their efforts in diversifying the state’s economy and bringing back needed job opportunities.

Rather than seeking to lock up ever more public lands with designations and restrictions, our Congressional leaders should be helping us break down some of the gates of Nevada’s most plentiful resource, its public lands, and allow for the boundless entrepreneurial spirit to return to the Old West.

If we loose the bands of regulation; if we open the headgates of commerce onto those public lands; business and industry will begin to flow back into the state in ways not previously imagined. If we do not, there is a good chance that we will see many more windswept ghost towns given up to the barren Nevada desert.