page_title: Beatty, Nevada
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Beatty, Nevada / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Route 95, Main Street in Beatty, Nevada. Polski: Droga 95, ulica Main Street w Beatty, Nevada, USA.
context_page_description: Beatty is an unincorporated town along the Amargosa River in Nye County in the U.S. state of Nevada. U.S. Route 95 runs through the town, which lies between Tonopah, about 90 miles to the north and Las Vegas, about 120 miles to the southeast. State Route 374 connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park, about 8 miles to the west.
  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 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 town 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.
context_section_description: 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 Castle, 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. However, 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 (33 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.
  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.
caption: Downtown Beatty in 2012
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