The Las Vegas Courtesan

 Almost directly across the street from The Stardust, the Big Four boasts to be the longest running brothel in the state since 1920. I found that this claim to fame was often gloated by a few other brothels as well, but I think this brothel has actually been in continuous operation at the same location since the early 1900’s while others have been sort of on again-off again since the late 1800’s but moved or changed names along the way. The interior does have an older charm with the wood stove and a time period mural behind the full service bar, but all of that charm was cancelled out since I got the most uncomfortable vibe from the woman tending the house/bartending. She showed me a photo of the one girl that she had working and mentioned that one other was nearby if she wanted me to call her to come over. With quite a bit of hesitation she finally called the one girl who she had in house and got a tour. At the back of the large front room with the bar is a dancing area complete with seats and a pole that then connects to the back hallway that contains doors to rooms and VIP rooms. This was the only brothel that I noticed that had the girls living in separate quarters than the party rooms. She explained on one side of the hall is where the girls live and on the other side is where the girls negotiate and entertain the clients. Towards the back was a VIP area with a Jacuzzi to which she mentioned some clients come to the house and stay for days at a time partying with girls. I asked if it gets busy there and she said it does, but at random times with no rhyme or reason. I asked who comes by to visit the most (I thought it would be more locals since Ely is pretty isolated) but she said it’s usually truckers and people passing through. She also mentioned that locals are timid and won’t even venture to that part of town. Besides the weird vibe I got from the madam, the girl I spoke with was very nice and friendly and if it were a different time of year (since December is so slow for them as well) there would have been more girls.

I was so curious about taking this trip and I am glad I got the time and opportunity to do it, finally. I learned a lot and it really made me see the differences in every city’s or county’s (sometimes ridiculous) laws, how the quality of the houses vary immensely, and how the one state in America where brothels are legal – Nevada – handles legalized prostitution overall. In some ways I was pleased by the businesses and the way they were run and in other ways I was disappointed by the quality of some brothels, their rules, and even their sometimes-remote locations. Information about the brothels on the web is spotty, as far as which ones are currently open versus closed down or switched owners, so I thought actually visiting each place would be the only way to verify which are currently open for business.

First of all, Nevada is a HUGE state. I have taken many a road trip before and have had many people tell me, “You know Nevada is a lot bigger than you think it is,” and I believed them, but the sparse population is what really blew me away. So few people live outside of Clark County (the county Las Vegas is in.) If my little calculations are correct, only 8% of the state’s 2.6 million-person population lives outside of Clark and Washoe counties (Washoe County is where Reno is located.) That’s crazy when you consider the tremendous amount of space in Nevada outside those two counties. It’s also sad that in both of these counties prostitution is disallowed due to the population size being over 400,000, which is written into the state law governing the control of the state’s brothels. The law leaves the other oftentimes-remote counties to decide whether they want or do not want to allow brothels. Surprisingly, Douglas County to the north of Clark County disallows brothels, and it isn’t until Ely (250 miles to the north in White Pine County and pronounced “Ee-lee”) that you find the first brothel in that direction. In fact, the route that I am going to travel is virtually counter clockwise, starting in Ely and ending in Pahrump.

The one thing that really became noticeable as I started visiting these houses is their location. Most all of the brothels are located in a tucked away corner, almost always on the other side of the railroad tracks (and I mean that literally) in these small towns. I got a real shunned vibe from their locations, as if they were banished to that part of town, hidden away for no one to see their sin and shame. Also, I rarely saw roadside advertising, except for along I-80 for the Mustang Ranch and one on the property of Wild West Ranch in Winnemucca (which had a view from the I-80 freeway.) Mind you, these towns are not thriving metropolises, but small towns that have an average population of 5,000 people. I understand the locals not wanting their property value going down due to a brothel in their neighborhood, but as one brothel madam told me, the only reason why you would be going to that side of town is to go to the brothels. So if someone saw you going to that side of town they knew where you were going, and of course, people in small towns notice these things. Most of the brothels had few, if any, signs pointing to its location. You had to be almost to the house for there to be a sign at all and usually you are on your own. Google Maps saved me many times and, if it weren’t for that, I might still be lost driving around the great State of Nevada trying to find my way. Some addresses I had were just plain wrong, and I found plenty of confusing directions, which I hope to clear up completely with each review and brothel profile. In fact, I used a GPS app to get the exact coordinates for the ones that are particularly confusing, and I will be updating that information into my Nevada brothels map.

In conclusion, after seeing every brothel that is in operation in Nevada, I’m glad that, on the one hand, in one corner of America there are legal brothels, but on the other – in a way – I’m sad to see so many of them so hidden away and so scrutinized and controlled by local government that they don’t seem so free and liberated after all. I had hoped to see more of America’s freedom in the Wild West poking through, but even in these very rural, remote towns, they were usually isolated and quarantined.

So over the next few weeks I will post a review and photos on each brothel as I virtually travel around the state to all 26 of the open houses. Yes… I said 26!

Even though the small survey that was posted in the Las Vegas Review Journal late last month said that 64% of 405 people didn’t want prostitution legalized in Las Vegas (or Clark county as a whole,) there have been recent moves in the closest legal county next door to revamp two of the brothels out in Crystal, Nevada, since Dennis Hof of the famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch near Carson City bought them. There’s another brothel being built (wow when was the last time they built a brand new building for a new brothel??) south of Beatty. The two are in different directions when leaving Las Vegas but both businesses are in Nye County. I’m definitely going to have to add these stops to my brothel tour I want to take once they open!

I find it interesting that it took this long for Dennis Hof to do something in southern Nevada. His name and reputation are famous from the Cathouse series on HBO over the years and many local vistors get his brothels nearly 450 miles away from Las Vegas confused with the brothels located about 70 miles away. In fact I almost giggle when guys almost threaten me with a, “Well I’ll just go to the Bunny Ranch!” when they can’t agree on entertainment and a lower price. I say, “Ok you can definitely drive 450 miles one way if you want to!” That usually warrants the response of, “What? 450 miles?!” Nye County is also happy about the Dennis Hof movement since the previous owner of the brothels out in Crystal, Nevada, was convicted of bribery of a local commissioner (bribing a commissioner in Nevada? Never heard of such a thing!) These brothels in the county (if they have a certain number of girls) bring in an average of $126,000 annually to the county in fees! I also was digging around and found out each girl must pay a fee every quarter to the county as well. These fee figures vary by county, but in the end they bring a lot of money in to help out with county services (apparently the Veterans Association even gets a good chunk.) I’m curious though how the out-of-the-way brothels in Crystal and Beatty will do. The Denis Hof purchase is 17 miles past the turn off for Sheri’s and the Chicken Ranch while Beatty is a whopping 120 miles from downtown Las Vegas to the new location. The lucky thing about Mound House, where the famous northern Nevada brothels are located, is that they are one split hair away from the Carson City limits and 35 miles from Reno. The little community of brothels gets the advantage of being so conveniently located. That sort of convenience can’t really happen for Las Vegas to Nye County, so will these brothels ever be really busy out there? And why isn’t there another mini-community set up right on the Nye county border on the way out to Pahrump?

Though from my previous post on legalizing prostitution in Las Vegas, I wasn’t much of a fan of actual houses in a certain part of town, but really, if we had some sort of standardization then we wouldn’t be so criticized in the news like prostitution in Las Vegas was just running rampant and some random figure of 3,000 sex workers roaming the streets working here like this is the wild west. I don’t think a lot of people realize how much money the business brings in for the rural counties. In the end I think it could bring a better opinion to the sinfulness of Sin City and keep the shady operations, like the ones just shut down, from scamming our visitors.

I’m thinking about going on a tour of the brothels in Nevada and doing a little research.  I’m curious what the girls that work in them are like, especially outside of the local Las Vegas ones, and also, I want to get some pictures and more details to add to my Nevada brothels page and spruce it up a bit.  It seems like it gets a lot of traffic – it’s certainly something people are curious about – and I think I could make it even better than it is, which is primarily the brothel map, phone numbers, and addresses.

So my question to you guys and girls is “What kind of things would you like to know about the brothels?” Besides location and basic stuff like that, I thought about possibly rating them or something along those lines, but if I’m going to go on a big Nevada brothels tour I will need a plan of attack, so to speak.  😛

What kinds of questions would you be most curious about about the brothels?  I can narrow it down to a handful and then find out at each place and do a big report afterward.

The first one that comes to mind on my list that would be kind of personally curious is a survey of favorite condoms!