Southwest of Las Vegas, village of Blue Diamond upholds Nevada’s legacy

Rick Leavitt raced his dirt bike across the desert with his cousins when he visited their Blue Diamond home as a child in the 1950s. Later, he mined for gypsum atop the hill at the edge of Red Rock Canyon. Now, the 60-year-old works for the gypsum plant down the road and calls the area his home.

Many residents of the quaint town have similar stories and fond memories of the mine that gives the area its history and name.

The village, originally known as Cottonwood Springs, changed its name when the Blue Diamond Company took ownership of the mine and built corporate housing for the workers in the early '20s , according to the town's history committee.

"The gypsum was so pure," Leavitt said of the pharmaceutical grade mineral comparable to the blue diamond of precious stones.

With the mine such an integral part of the village's foundation, residents say they're doing their best to preserve that piece of history, which closed in 2005. Residents said they worry that the village's quiet, rural lifestyle could come to a halt with developer Jim Rhodes' plan to build a town square and 7,000 homes atop the hill.

"It got too big too fast," Leavitt says of the town's current capacity -- a couple hundred folks and a few dozen burros. "I want to go back to the old times."

The old times meant hardly a car on state Route 159, a quiet landscape with no worries.

For the "real old-timers," money wasn't exchanged. They signed a list to purchase items from the market, dues automatically deducted from the next week's wage.

Preserving those stories has become a mission for Pat van Betten, who heads the history committee. The group has collected oral histories from long-time residents and is working to mark significant areas around town. The group's efforts already can be seen across the village: in the library, where children's adobe bricks represent an adobe house built in the late 1800s; in the town's center, where a board traces the village roots; or on the market wall, where a mural paints the landscape's past.

"I think people do know this is an important place, and it needs to be preserved," van Betten said. "We are also very concerned about preserving Red Rock Canyon. We feel it is our responsibility to protect that beautiful treasure."

Near the base of the canyon, Blue Diamond Village was originally a stop on the Old Spanish Trail for traders from Santa Fe, N.M., to California between 1830 and 1848, according to the history committee's findings. Paiutes grew pumpkins, melons and corn , as noted in records dated 1872. The trail was then used as a wagon road for the Mormons until 1905.

The Blue Diamond Company started plans to develop the land in October 1923, when Las Vegas' population was only 5,000, according to one miner's account. Mules and hand laborers also built 11½ miles of railroad, and rock from the mine was hauled six miles down the hill to the track until it was more complete.

The town's modern concrete pool is the same hole where children of the '30s splashed and played in the summer heat.

The Blue Diamond School opened in 1929. The company built bunk housing and homes for the workers that it started selling to the public in 1965.

Although fewer than a handful of the plant's current employees live in Blue Diamond -- a stark opposition to the town's start as a company-only village -- the gypsum workers still call the area home.

"There's a commitment from the plant on how we respect the environment here," said production manager Doug Doyle of the plant, now owned by CertainTeed.

Doyle, who has seen the plant change hands six times in his 35 years there, said a strong production value and regard for the nearby village haven't wavered.

Didi Dessaints, a senior administrator who has worked at the plant for 18 years, said she loves the "big shining star in the desert" away from the rat-race city where she lives.

"For a long time, it's just been us, the burros and the snakes," the gypsum worker said. "This is like my home away from home."

For more information on local efforts to keep Red Rock rural, visit saveredrock.com.

Contact Southwest and Spring Valley View reporter Jessica Fryman at jfryman@viewnews.com or 380-4535.