River’s restoration plan targets ex-brothel

RENO -- A panel of local officials has approved a $7.2 million river restoration project at the former site of the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel east of Reno.

The Flood Project Coordinating Committee took the action Friday in its push to complete a long-awaited Truckee River flood control project.

Plans call for the river ecosystem to be restored to a natural condition on the land where the Mustang Ranch was located, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

Improvements will include cutting new meanders into the river channel. When finished, the restored site will help floodwaters spread naturally over the landscape, improving fish habitat and water quality.

The area is the site of Nevada's first legalized brothel, founded by Joe Conforte in 1971 and operated until 1999 when the federal government seized it after guilty verdicts against its parent companies and manager in a federal fraud and racketeering trial.

The property was subsequently obtained by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The gaudy pink stucco buildings that once housed the bordello were moved down river to the site of another brothel, the Wild Horse Resort and Spa, after being sold in 2003.

Other restoration projects are planned at 11 locations along the lower Truckee. The river flows more than 100 miles eastward from Lake Tahoe to its terminus at Pyramid Lake, 30 miles northeast of Reno.

Committee members also agreed to spend $2 million for design and other costs associated with the tearing down and replacement of the historic Virginia Street bridge in the heart of downtown Reno.

The bridge, built in 1905 and made famous as the site where some divorcees tossed their wedding rings into the Truckee, acts as a bottleneck during floods, causing floodwaters to spread through the downtown.

Over the objections of historic preservationists, the Reno City Council decided in 2007 that the bridge should be torn down and replaced.