Road’s namesake seems to have left valley

In some ways, Frehner Road isn’t the most obvious choice to house the North Las Vegas-bound X Train.

This time next year, thousands of Southern California partiers are expected to step off Las Vegas Railway Express’ long-awaited adults-only party train and onto a road named for Wesley and Vernon Frehner, the industrious descendants of devout Mormon missionaries.

Wesley Frehner, one of three sons born to Harry S. and Mary Frehner of St. George, Utah, hauled hay and ran a grocery store before he and Vernon founded Frehner Trucking in 1960.

The pair started with four trucks parked at a North Las Vegas service station and grew to make room for a third brother, Garth, who joined the firm in 1965.

The brothers picked up and fulfilled their first major state contract in 1966: “A freeway from Sahara Avenue to Charleston Boulevard,” according to “Nevada: The Silver State,” a two-volume historical anthology published in 1970.

Thanks in part to that job, the brothers Frehner managed a fleet of dozens by the end of the decade.

“Hard work and perseverance have resulted in a successful career, supported by a satisfied clientele, for Wesley Frehner,” notes the anonymous author of Wesley Frehner’s “The Silver State” entry. “The business continues to prosper, and operates today with fourteen tractors, twenty-one trailers and a personnel of twenty-five to forty men.”

Beyond the somewhat stilted prose dedicated to Wesley Frehner in “The Silver State,” not much is known about the family.

City of North Las Vegas spokeswoman Juliet Casey was able to confirm that the road was named in honor of Wesley, Vernon and Garth but couldn’t say when it was dedicated or who might have recommended their name.

Other historical volumes, including one referenced by Clark County Museums administrator Mark Hall-Patton, suggest that members of the brothers’ immediate family went on to found Frehner Construction, Frehner Masonry and Frehner Dental Lab.

Mark Frehner, owner of Frehner Masonry and one of dozens of Frehners scattered through Las Vegas Valley phone books, declined to comment and denied through a spokesperson any relation to Wesley and Vernon Frehner.

Neither Rex Frehner, owner of Frehner Dental, nor Kenneth Frehner, who once headed Frehner Construction, returned requests for comment.

“I’m guessing Wesley and Vernon are gone now,” Hall-Patton said. “In 1970, we’ve got 20 Frehners in the (Clark County) directory, but that seems to be it, beyond (‘The Silver State’) account.

“These things happen. Families get uprooted, kids move away or grow apart, and the stories get lost in the process.”

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter James DeHaven at jdehaven@viewnews.com or 702-477-3839.