Gas station, stuffed with unique gifts, pumps life into Southern Nevada desert

PALM GARDENS

The bikers, all Asian and all dressed like the leather-jacketed Marlon Brando character in the 1953 film “The Wild One,” swaggered into the Palm Gardens Chevron and talked loudly to clerk Vance Vogelheim.

In Chinese.

They pointed, Vogelheim recalls, “in American.”

“That’s when I understood what they wanted, some of our biker leather stuff in the corner,” Vogelheim says as he stands behind the counter of the shop, off U.S. Highway 95 near the turnoff to Laughlin and Bullhead City, Arizona. “They bought $1,100 worth.”

It turns out the bikers were tourists who rented Harleys 80 miles away in Las Vegas. A support van carried an interpreter, who finally showed up to explain that the Chinese bikers loved the Brando movie considered to be the original outlaw biker film. There was no explanation about how they learned the gas station carried biker gear at a good price.

“Word obviously gets around about this place,” Vogelheim says, laughing as he talks about the store that has employed him for five months. Standing near him, for sale, were life-size cutouts of Charlie Chaplin, Michael Jordan and Darth Vader. “What the Chinese bikers couldn’t fit in their saddlebags they put in the van.”

If ever a gas station qualified as unique, it’s the one that owner Greg Campbell says is “in the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from here.” More than 1,500 items, including paraphernalia from every National Football League team, crowd into a place that is about the size of a Del Taco outlet, a few miles from the California border. Pro wrestler Mark William Callaway, better known by his ring name, “The Undertaker,” bought one of his long leather coats at the store.

Small signs by the gas pumps advertising “gifts” for sale are the only hint of what could be inside. From the road all you see is a Chevron Food Mart sign. Inside, however, zany tin signs, clothes and memorabilia for sale are everywhere.

Look to the left and a sign near women’s clothing shows what appears to be a 1950s-era housewife smiling as she says, “People Say I Have a Bad Attitude. I Say Screw-Em.” Near automobile memorabilia is a sign with a housewife lovingly telling her two small children, ”Mommy has a headache. You kids go play in traffic.”

“I want people who come in here to feel better during a long car trip,” Campbell says. Full-size cutouts of Babe Ruth and The Terminator are standing near him. “I find stuff at trade shows. If customers smile, they’re apt to buy something.”

Look to the right, close to the NASCAR memorabilia, hip flasks, motorcycle goggles and a tan suede jacket, and there is a sign showing a sneering man at a bar yelling: “Rehab is for QUITTERS.” Up high on the wall, above Betty Boop, Superman and Batman regalia and near photographs of John Wayne and Muhammad Ali, is a sign showing a young man talking as he points a gun: “I’m all for gun control. I USE BOTH HANDS.”

Campbell built the gas station/store in 1999 in front of the Palms Gardens neighborhood he was developing so homeowners could gas up and shop. He planned to have 90 homes. The development now has 33. The death of one key contractor, with the Great Recession and the pullout of another contractor, hurt construction. So did a year’s moratorium on building as environmentalists and public officials debated whether the desert tortoise could be hurt by development.

“We had 90 people put up $1,000 for housing sites, but the delays and the recession made them pull out,” he says.

Campbell worked for years in the gaming industry in both Las Vegas and Laughlin before deciding to try real estate development. Though brokers warned him not to buy land in the area now known as Palm Gardens because “it was worthless,” Campbell purchased 135 acres at a $1,000 apiece.

Undaunted that his initial try at development didn’t work out as planned, he continues to expand offerings at his gas station. He believes a 55-acre site across the street will become a successful development of luxury homes on half-acre lots or larger. He doesn’t appreciate negativity about his plan and quotes a message on a nearby sign:

“How come people who think they know everything never know when to shut up?”

Paul Harasim’s column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Friday in the Nevada section and Thursday in the Life section. Contact him at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @paulharasim on Twitter.