If you ever get a chance to visit Las Vegas, be sure to leave. Yes, leave. Get
in your car and step on it as fast as you can. Head northeast towards the
mountains. Keep going until you hit the small town of Mesquite -- population
16,000. Then, head north and get ready to satisfy your appetite for wilderness
with a breathtaking view of Nancy Hall’s “garden” -- the Mormon Mountains -- one
of America’s newest designated wilderness areas.
Just an hour? from the neon lights, cacophony and crowds of “Vegas,” the
Mormon Mountains are some of the wildest terrain in the West -- with high
mountain peaks, deep canyons, rocky cliff faces, a natural arch, and
stalactite-decorated caves. Big horn sheep, mule deer, raptors, and rare desert
tortoise can be found here alongside pictographs and other artifacts of ancient
civilizations.
When you reach the Mormon Mountains, leave your car behind. Breathe deeply.
Cherish the scent of sagebrush and the rare feeling of solitude. And then take a
minute to thank Nancy Hall. This is her garden, and she tends it with care.
The official website of the city of Mesquite, NV, reads “Come for a day, stay
for a lifetime.” Ten years ago, when Nancy Hall left her home in Orlando, FL,
for a taste of the wild West, she took those words to heart. That’s a lucky
thing for us, and for the Mormon Mountains.
“I’ve had a good year,” she says modestly, when congratulated on her recent
victory in helping to get the 157,938-acre Mormon Mountains area permanently
protected as wilderness. “It’s huge, it’s gorgeous. I told them, [the NV
senators] if you give this to me, I’ll take care of it.”
Nancy worked for years as a waitress, but in her spare time explored the
hidden spots of the Mormon Mountains and nearby Gold Butte. When she saw these
wild places threatened by increasing off road vehicle use, she decided to get
involved. She began by writing letters and sending photographs of wild places to
her members of Congress. When she met Senator Harry Reid for the first time, the
first thing he said was, “You’re the one who sends those really great Joshua
tree photos.”
Three years ago, when Nevada’s congressional delegation began discussing
public lands legislation for Lincoln County, NV, Nancy ramped up her activism.
“When they started talking about a bill for Lincoln County, I knew it was now or
never for the Mormon Mountains.”
Nancy wrote more letters, and got others to write, as well. She spoke out at
public meetings and provided detailed information about the Mormon Mountains to
her senators and representative. “I had fun with it,” she said. “It’s my special
place. I wasn’t going to let anything hold me back.”
Last spring, when Senator Reid was visiting southern Nevada, she walked up to
him and invited him on a hike in the Mormon Mountains. The Senator couldn’t make
it, but he did send his top legislative staff person. “There was no turning back
then,” said Nancy, remembering the moment.
Nancy’s love for the Mormon Mountains eventually took her 2,000 miles from
Mesquite, to our nation’s capital, where she met with her legislators and their
staff and made a final plea for protecting every acre of the Mormon Mountains.
At the time, a road was proposed to cut deep into the wilderness, through a slot
canyon lined with pictographs. But through her extensive knowledge of the area
and heartfelt petitioning, Nancy successfully stopped the road through the
canyon.
When asked about the future, Nancy said, “Now that I have my wilderness, I’m
going to take care of it.” She works with the Bureau of Land Management’s site
steward program to prevent damage and vandalism to Nevada’s archaeological
treasures, and was recently asked by the BLM to lead a wilderness land
stewardship program in the Mormon Mountains and some of the other newly
designated wilderness.
Nancy’s advice for others that care about special places? “It doesn’t take
long to write a letter at the end of a hike, and send a picture. Give wilderness
calendars for Christmas presents. Talk about wilderness with your friends and
family. Tell them what special places mean to you. You learn a lot when you put
yourself out there. And there’s so much support.”
At the end of our conversation, Nancy said, “You need to come and see my
garden, especially in April when the wildflowers are in bloom.” Thank you, Nancy
Hall, for preserving this special place for all of us, forever.
