The Nevada Casino Ashtray Project is very proud to have obtained the expertise of Gene and Peggy Kaplan to do the history of Wells and it's gaming establishments. The Kaplans live in Wells and own the old El Rancho and Bull's Head Bar buildings. They are lovingly restoring these two historic structures. This is their history of Wells for our cover page They will also be doing the stories of the individual clubs.

We are honored for their contributions. This is long but a great read.

A Gaming History of Wells, Nevada
By Gene & Peg Kaplan, submitted on behalf of the Wells Society for the
Preservation of Western Heritage. Permission to reuse all or part with
appropriate attribution as to source is hereby granted.
Introduction
Wells, Nevada, is a wild west cow town with a well-deserved reputation for
"showing visitors a good time since Christmas 1869." Saloons and gaming
were an integral part of its economy in the old west, and still are. Wells
in its scale and surrounding landscape would still be recognizable to early
pioneers as would be buildings of Front Street. You walk in the footsteps
of mountain men, railroad builders, ranchers, rustlers, bullwhackers,
gamblers, when you visit Wells, Nevada, junction of I-80 & U.S. 93. Here
Shoshone, mountain men, and overland wagon trains replenished at the
Humboldt Wells. Then in 1869 came the Central Pacific. The railhead packed
Front Street honky-tonks and making Wells the hub for freight wagons &
stagecoaches bound for regional mines.

Wells is undergoing a historic revival to breathe life into its authentic
wild west commercial district where trains still rumble by stirring up
ghosts in the old buildings. For virtual Old Town Front Street Walking Tour
click onto http://www.wellsnevada.com and click onto the "Old Town Wells"
link on the right. Looking for a movie location? Click onto "Wells Wants
Movie Makers" for more local scenes.

The Emigrant Trail Interpretive Center is co-located with the Visitor's
Center & Chamber of Commerce (775) 752-3540 at 395 6th Street. Learn about
wagon trail sites, nearby Metropolis ghost town, and ATV trails that thread
through Sprucemont ghost towns 38 miles south.
One of the State's biggest car shows, the Senior Pro Rodeo, chariot races,
and trap shoots combine with an airport, nine-hole golf course, and
restaurants to keep Wells lively, and casinos still welcome travelers.

The Bulls Head -- Gaming begins in 1869
The future of Humboldt Wells (as it was then known) was bright when it
became a freight division point and helper station where the Central Pacific
coupled-up additional locomotives to pull trains over the Pequop Mountains.
On Christmas Eve, 1869 the fledgling community celebrated the grand opening
of its first commercial building when the Bulls Head Saloon welcomed a blend
of teamsters, railroaders and cowboys. That clientele supported the popular
saloon for over 100 years. Constructed from discarded railroad ties, the
original Bulls Head later gave way to an elegant structure built in 1887
that still stands today.

Rail connections to the meat-hungry East greatly benefited northeastern
Nevada making it the last of the open-range cattle empires. So many herds
trailed up from Texas and into Nevada that observers described Elko County
as a sea of cattle, and with the cattle came cowboys, cattle rustlers, law
officers, ranchers, and gamblers to give Wells and vicinity a colorful,
fascinating, cast of colorful characters and events.
Wells became the transportation hub where railroad-shipped goods were broken
down for transshipment by freight wagons connecting mining camps to the
railhead while Clover Valley and Starr Valley ranchers grew the fodder to
"fuel" the teams. Spruce Mountain mining activity dates back to 1869, the
same year the Bulls Head Saloon opened in Wells and the history of Wells and
the Spruce Mountain mining camps are intertwined. Hardy teamsters who
operated out of Wells braved extreme weather and armed robbers to connect
Cherry Creek, Contact, and Ely to the railhead with twenty-mule teams.
Freight teamsters and cowpokes who drove in stock camped by the stock
corrals and walked across the tracks to Front Street to gamble.
For its first seventeen years Wells liquor was poured and cards were dealt
in saloon-casinos that were false front one-story frame buildings thrown
together in typical cow town style. Then in 1887 J.B. "Ben" Fitch who had
been the first Elko County Sheriff partnered with cattle king Colonel E.P.
Hardesty to replace the primitive Bulls Head with a first-class saloon &
hotel. Marked by a grand opening with revelers arriving on a special train,
that fine building was damaged in an 1893 fire that left only half of the
building serviceable and only half the damage covered by insurance. Fitch
had to cut his losses and move on, leaving Colonel Hardesty to renovate what
remained.

Born in Kentucky, Colonel Hardesty came west when he fought in the U.S. War
with Mexico, then pioneered in Colorado and Montana. In the 1860's he
engaged in freighting from Salt Lake City to different points in Montana.
Coming to Nevada in 1872 with a large herd of cattle, his holdings grew and
he came to be named in Thomas Wren's History of the State of Nevada as "one
of the cattle kings of the state." Colonel Hardesty was six foot four inches
tall and habitually wore a six gallon hat, high heeled cowboy boots, and
carried at the very least a horn-handled walking stick and silver hip flask.
As a cattleman he survived rustlers, blizzards and droughts and was used to
meeting adversity head on.

By 1898 business was good enough to rebuild the Bulls Head east wing,
remodel the west wing to match, and fix up the bar room. With a luxurious
dining room to attract railroad passengers during meal stops it was just
good business to engage such patrons in a game of chance before the
conductor shouted "All aboard!" The upscale saloon also had billiard tables
and card tables to accommodate patrons with a few hours to kill. Here John
L. Sullivan shook hands with fight fans while his train changed engines,
Allen Fisher had a famous curio shop, and Jack Dempsey duked it out with
amateur pugilists for bets and beer. The Wild Bunch operated in this county
when Hank Vaughan and Tom McCarty were running stolen horses, so there's no
telling who you could have met back then in a Front Street bar.

Origins of Charlie Quilici's
San Marin Hotel
and the
City Club

In its early days gaming was so natural a component of the ebb & flow of
commerce that to specifically mention it was to state the obvious. No
income taxes were paid, few business records were kept. However it is known
that as early as 1888 members of the Quilici family were operating saloons
in Wells, as reflected by the November 19, 1888 sale of Lot 9, Block E in
Wells (current site of the San Marin Hotel) with all its contents by
Cherubino Quilici to Sebastian Quilici. The family included railroad
workers, merchants, ranchers, bronc busters, saloon keepers and when
Sebastian Quilici bought that saloon in 1888 evidence of customer
preferences was preserved for history because of an inventory filed with the
sale. The transfer of saloon property included a pool table, bar counter,
bar mirror, 2 stoves, 18 arm chairs, water pump, 6 cords wood, 10 gallons
claret wine, 11 gallons California brandies, 15 gallons rum, 21.5 gallons
blackberry brandy, just over 30 gallons whiskey, 12.5 gallons gin, 6 gallons
sherry wine, 12 bottles California champagne, 2 cases smoking tobacco, 2
cases chewing tobacco, 3000 cigars, 10 gross playing cards, three card
tables. According to local legend, locals used two of the tables for poker
games, while itinerant gamblers paid the house to use the third table to run
a faro game.

A few years later Charles Quilici added a general store to that location and
did well enough to outgrow his one-story store with living quarters to the
rear. In 1899 Quilici built the San Marin Hotel and offered furnished rooms
at monthly rates. All the while the brick walls were going up Charles
stayed open for business, the work going on around and above him. The
Nevada State Herald for December 8, 1899 reported " the rooms are
artistically papered and grained; large, well lighted and ventilated and
furnished in the very latest style. The building is frost proof, and
Charley guarantees that no one will suffer from the cold in his house."

On the ground floor of his new hotel Quilici still ran his mercantile store
and rented space for the San Marin restaurant. In the days before railroad
dining cars the San Marin and other eateries were packed while the trains
stopped to add an engine to get over the Pequop Mountains or whenever a
train was "sided" due to a wreck or derailment along the line. That was
often. Whatever the reasons track delays meant trainloads of passengers had
hours to kill walking Front Street looking for diversion.

Dining cars adopted in the early twentieth century cut into the restaurant
trade so Duke Quilici, who by then owned the San Marin, converted the ground
floor into the City Club Casino. Those who remember him describe the Duke as
a man with movie star good looks who always wore a dark suit and tie. In
later years Duke moved to San Francisco to take a management job with the
Palace Hotel and the Saviozzi brothers took over the City Club. The
Saviozzi's also operated the Coffee Cup Café on Sixth Street that offered
gaming and expanded that into the Cosmo Club.

The Famous Saloon of Al Fisher

By the 1890's Fisher¹s Saloon was nationally famous for its collection of
animal horns displayed on both its interior and exterior. Tremendous numbers
of coast to coast railroad travelers stopped in Wells while engines were
changed. The hungry flocked to the Bulls Head or San Marin Restaurant to
eat while many of the curious and thirsty made a beeline to Al Fisher¹s
Saloon. One of the best known westerners of his day, Fisher was an
excellent raconteur and knew the history of every article in his museum.

His saloon sign promised "Buffalo, Elk, Mountain Sheep, Antelope Heads and
Horns, Mineral Specimens, Curiosities and Indian Relics." Inside on the
walls and in glass cases were heads and horns of wild animals and mounted
birds from all parts of the world. The mineral cabinet contained thousands
of specimens of rich ore and rock from every mineral producing state and
territory in the Union. Given today's gold prices the melt value alone would
be somewhere between $100,000 to $500,000.

It was a good place to get into a billiard game or poker game with delayed
railroad passengers and local ranchers, rather than the cowhands and
railroaders who frequented the honky tonks. Colonel E.P. Hardesty was a
frequent patron and a good friend of Fisher who in turn would often visit
the Colonel's Bulls Head Saloon.

The oak bar and back bar were ornate and beautiful, but the one poker table
which still survives was carpenter-built from scrap lumber, a fact that
wasn't obvious beneath its green felt covering.

The Mint Saloon, later the Reno Club

The false-front wood frame Mint Saloon didn't look like much but it gave
sweaty, work-dirty thirsty cowhands, railroad workers, teamsters, miners a
place to drink undisturbed while better-heeled travelers and businessmen
enjoyed the high-tone hospitality of Al Fisher's Saloon or Colonel
Hardesty's Bulls Head Saloon.

Because the railroad established a major maintenance and refueling depot in
Wells, railroaders packed the bars for ninety years. Ranch hands,
railroaders, and passengers looking for diversion in Front Street's
honky-tonk saloons made every Saturday night a street carnival. Gambling
was part of the show and Twenty-one began to edge out poker and faro because
as with a slot machine a player could step up, bet, then, win or lose, walk
away without the social entanglements involved in a "friendly" poker game.

Twenty-one was also a good way to shake a buck out of railroad passengers
who would wager a bet or two during a meal stop while waiting for the call
"All aboard." Thus the Mint was less likely to offer a labor intensive game
like craps that needed two men to run the table on a busy night, or Roulette
which required a sizeable initial investment for expensive equipment. A
Twenty-one table also took up a lot less space than a Craps or Roulette
table.

Anti-Gaming Legislation Strikes

After the turn of the 20th century gaming began to attract legislative
attention in Nevada, from those who wanted to tax it and also those who
wanted to prohibit it. In 1905 there was recognition of nickel-in-the-slot
machines. In 1907 a reapportionment of revenues gave each county all the
revenue, except those from slot machines which went to the state. Then in
1909 a wave of anti-gambling sentiment took hold and a measure to stop
gambling was passed. In 1910 operation of gambling games became a felony.

The Reluctant Arm of the Law

In July 1911, a well-publicized raid took place in Elko, the county seat of
Elko County. Sheriff Joseph Harris (who served from 1910 to 1936) and
District Attorney James Dysart yielded to public sentiment -- at least some
sectors of public sentiment -- and raided the Commercial Hotel. The
Commercial still stands in downtown Elko as a popular restaurant & casino
but the difference is today gaming is legal, and then it wasn't. With
17,000 square miles of Elko County to cover it may be Sheriff Harris hadn't
noticed that gambling was going on every night within sight of his county
courthouse office. Or it may be gaming wasn't really a law enforcement
concern until public pressure generated a demand something be done.

The fateful day -- or fateful evening -- came Friday, July 28, 1911. It was
known there was gambling at the Commercial Hotel and the Sheriff was
informed by District Attorney Dysart there would be a raid. The door to the
rooms where the games were carried on was kept locked and it required a
certain number of raps to gain admission, but by that evening the Sheriff
had broken the code. Waiting until about 10 p.m. when the Hotel put on one
of its famous outdoor badger fights which reduced the crowd in the casino
area to controllable proportions, Sheriff Harris and his assistants walked
in the back way and softly tried the door only to find it was locked. The
sheriff rapped softly twice, the door flew open, and the officers walked in
to the astonishment of the dealers, who then realized that a raid was in
progress. Two games were running, a roulette wheel and a faro bank. Play
ceased at once.

"Gentlemen, you must stop this. You are all under arrest," said Sheriff
Harris, telling the men "Cash in your checks and come with me." The
astonished men complied without protest. One man pushed over a stack of
chips and the dealer at the roulette wheel handed over $40. Three other men
who were playing faro were paid cash money for their chips, one receiving $6
and another $5. In the meantime the District Attorney took the names of
those present and secured evidence. The sheriff walked behind the faro
table to seize the contents in the cash drawer, then marched his prisoners
out of the room.

L.L. Bradley, the proprietor of the hotel was hastily called and put up $250
cash bail for each person arrested. Since nine men were arrested Bradley
shelled out $2250.

Those snared in the crackdown were later named by the Elko Free Press as
"Jack Maher, roulette operator, George Foregor, faro dealer, M. Johnson, far
lookout; Ah Jim, a chinaman; Sim, a chinaman; Walter Smith, a stranger,
George Monroe, a stranger, Frank Maloney, stranger, R.J. Bonmar, stranger".

The next day the Elko Free Press for Saturday evening, July 29, 1911,
headlined the story "Gambling House is Raided, Sheriff Harris and Deputies
and District Attorney Dysart Arrest Players and Dealers". The newspaper
account of the raid also said:

In an interview with the sheriff this morning he asked that the public be
notified that all gambling, of whatever character, must cease at once, as he
would tolerate no game, however small. That it had come to his notice that
numerous games in different sections of the county were run for money, and
that hereafter he would at once investigate all reports and arrests would
follow.
"The people elected me to enforce the laws," Sheriff Harris said, "and I
intend to do it irrespective of the parties implicated."
The District Attorney James Dysart said, "Never did a raid on a gambling
house result so favorably. Not only did we catch the men gambling, but
after they were placed under arrest, the dealers paid the players money for
the chips, which was undisputable evidence that they were playing for money
and not pastime. This case will be prosecuted and no partiality shown to
anyone. Gambling must cease in Elko..."
Gambling must stop in Nevada. The people at the polls said so. The time
has passed when every town was wide open, and Nevada had a national
reputation as the only state in the union that permitted gambling.
Sheriff Harris and District Attorney Dysart have the people back of them in
their actions last night in arresting the men who were breaking the law.

The newspaper's presumption that the District Attorney had the support of
the people could more accurately have been written to say "some people."
Church folks, prohibitionists, and some businessmen wanted to end the "wide
open town" image Elko was then famous for. Little did they realize that
another shift in public opinion in the 1930's would capitalize on exactly
the image the gambling raid was designed to change.

Impact of the 1911 Raid

The 1911 raid didn't stop gaming in Elko County, but it did drive it out of
sight in the county seat. Meanwhile, in Wells, just a little over 50 miles
away you could still buy a drink and still make a bet, although the only
folks who knew where to go were everyone in town, every cowhand, miner, and
railroader in the county, and every passenger who stepped down from a
transcontinental train to stretch his legs on Front Street.

Impact of Prohibition

After the First World War came National Prohibition, another law generally
ignored on Nevada's northeastern frontier. A little something to illustrate
how practical westerners coped with laws that got in the way of a good time
appeared in the Elko Free Press for January 21, 1929, which reported the
thirty-two "soft drink" parlors in the City of Elko required a "maximum of
police supervision," and would be placed on the list of establishments
paying $60 for a quarterly license pursuant to a city ordinance that "such
business houses" pay an additional fee. That brought in additional revenue
for the City of Elko and made it clear local authorities weren't paying a
lot of attention to National Prohibition. Be it noted that "soft drink"
parlors usually operated backrooms that offered gaming in addition to liquid
refreshment.

Wells in the Roaring Twenties
and
the Capitol Club

The brothers John DiGrazia & Joe DiGrazia saw Prohibition as an opportunity.
At the dawning of the 20th century John & Joe DiGrazia were working on the
railroad. Joe¹s job, for example, was laying track rails by hand and laying them down. With long hours and low pay Joe and John
lived in a dismal cabin built with railroad ties, carried water to nurture a
small vegetable garden, ate jackrabbits to save on meal costs and built
their nest egg. Then in 1917, John and Joe were in the Army for WWI. Back
from the service the DiGrazia brothers again worked for the railroad until
their hard-earned savings were enough to buy a saloon. It was in 1926 John
DiGrazia bought Lot #13, Block E, "with the one story brick building and all
other improvements thereon, said premises being known as the old Al Fisher
place" for $4,500. Joe DiGrazia was to have a half interest. Included with
the building were a huge set of elk horns and a carpenter-built poker table
soon to be joined by a craps table, roulette, and Twenty-one Table.

Joe¹s son Sonny DiGrazia¹s recollections of Wells date back to when
horse-drawn wagons were interspersed with Model T Fords on Front Street.
"Back then Front Street used to be a booming place," Sonny recalled. "It
used to be a free Saturday night show for us kids to sneak up on the balcony
of the Bulls Head Bar & Hotel and watch the crowd. My father used to make
wine and I used to fill bottles when I was just a little kid. The grapes
came from California by rail. We¹d run the grapes through a wringer and the
juice ran into a trough. I¹ll never forget the center run of the wine. You
could read a newspaper through a glass of that red wine, it was so clear,"
Sonny said. "After repeal in 1933 Uncle John and my father expanded into a
wholesale business. I was driving a beer truck at 14."

Casino Owner Leo Quilici Gets his Start with the Elite

Leo Quilici -- at one time the owner of four Wells establishments -- came to
America as a teenager and got his start working on an uncle's ranch that
sold horses to the U.S. Cavalry. Soon Leo was helping out at his uncle's
mercantile store and tending bar in his uncle's saloon. The Elite
(pronounced ee-light) was a lively place that caught his eye. After
front-line U.S. Army service in France, Leo came home from WWI and soon
thereafter was able to buy the bar. Leo earned a reputation for running a
saloon "on the square" and put out free bread, peanut butter, and jelly in
winter to help the laid-off ranch hands and railroad workers gathered around
his potbelly stove tough it out till spring when work picked up.

Leo went on to operate the Reno Club (which was originally the Mint Saloon),
bought the Bulls Head, built the Bulls Head Ballroom, then spared no expense
to make his El Rancho one of the finest hotel-casinos in Nevada. (In 2000
discount grocer Pete Cahoon opened the Bargain Barn food store in what had
been the Elite Bar and had its ornamental pressed tin ceiling lovingly
restored. It's worth a look.)

The Depression motivates tax-minded Legislators to admit "wide open" can be
a good thing

The Great Depression motivated legislators to look around for revenue
sources from any business that still could make a buck. Knowing that since
its beginning as a territory in 1861, Nevada was characterized by its
gambling, Assemblyman Philip Tobin, a Winnemucca ranch boy, sponsored a bill
to legalize Nevada gambling, a bill which passed March 19, 1931.

Though not a gambler himself, Tobin saw the chance for increased tax revenue
for the state coffers. As an added benefit the state could move to control
the crooked games present in all the towns at that time. Nevada's
legalization of gambling in 1931 simply regulated an industry that had
always been a state tradition.

The Elko Daily Free Press ran an editorial on March 18, 1931 that admitted
anti-gaming laws were not being enforced, but was less than enthusiastic
about legislation:

The bill to legalize gambling in Nevada passed by a large majority in the
senate yesterday. It will soon be written into the law of Nevada and will
be given a two year trial before it is up for consideration again.
Apparently the legislature acted upon the desire of a majority of people,
although there is naturally a doubt as to how the question would have gone
had it been put to a popular vote. Only the next two years will show just
what effect the gambling law is going to have upon this state. Coupled with
the divorce law it will naturally bring new people to the state as well as
new money. Whether the benefit will be worth the price remains to be seen.
Time will tell.
There is no reason to doubt but that the reason the bill was passed is that
most law-makers figured we should change our present system or enforce it.
As the gambling law was not being enforced, the natural thought was to
license it so that the state would get some benefit. This has been done and
the show is on, let the chips fly where they will.

World War II and Wells

The Skyline Restaurant & Casino at the northwest corner of Sixth Street &
Clover Avenue enjoyed a booming business during the Second World War and
persisted into the early 50's with guests including Bing Crosby and Rita
Hayworth. Bill and Jennie Sallee managed the place.

Jennie Sallee wasn't expecting anything unusual at the Skyway Café & Casino
in Wells one night in the 1940s. The pit boss had just finished racking
chips to open the crap game when a railroader named "Cocky" Robins stepped
up and put a dollar on the Pass Line. "I bet I make it," "Cocky" said.

"Bet you don't," said Bing Crosby, tossing a silver dollar onto the No Pass
Line, and that kicked off one of the biggest crap games in Wells history.
People crowded in to watch the stakes rise. Two contractors from Salt Lake
City got in on the action and wagers really skyrocketed when the house took
the usual limits off the table. The game was still going full bore when the
Skyway closed and the doors were locked, but those already at the table kept
rolling the dice and the game didn't break up until two in the morning.

Anything but dull, Wells in the 1940s was a bustling railroad & ranching
town that also served motorists passing through on U.S. 40. Jennie's
sister-in-law had leased the Skyway Café & Casino and called asking for help
to run the place. She soon learned the small town was teeming with
activity.

When the government rushed to open Wendover Army Air Force Base to train
heavy bombardment crews for World War II on the Utah-Nevada stateline about
58 miles away, building married personnel housing hadn't been the highest
priority. The town of Wendover didn't have a lot of housing stock to offer,
either. That meant wives, fiancees, sweethearts of fliers flocked to Wells
and rented every room available to be close to base for a few precious hours
together before their airmen went to war.

The Overland Hotel across Sixth Street, and the Allen Hotel across Clover
Avenue were both packed with Army wives who usually walked over to the
Skyway for their meals. "They were a great crowd," Jennie recalls. "All
very nice people," and even if their husbands couldn't join them for lunch
they would sometimes drop to treetop level, buzzing the town so low you
could read the numbers on huge B-17 and B-24 bombers wagging their wings by
way of saying "hello." Of course that was against regulations and pilots
were sternly warned low altitude flyovers were prohibited, and of course
that didn't stop the pilots who would drive into Wells on a pass and ask
"Could you see me? Did you see me?"

Quite a place, the Skyway Café had seating for 60, and a banquet room that
could seat 100. Dances were held there, with many if not most of the men in
uniform. There were also Saturday night dances for young people, no alcohol
allowed. Sometimes there was a band, otherwise the jukebox, either way kids
had a good time.

With crowds of thirsty patrons, Bill Sallee had to be innovative to keep
liquor flowing despite wartime rationing. Although wholesale price on a
case of whiskey was $25, demand far exceeded supply. To keep the place open
Bill had to resort to buying on the black market, once calling other bar
owners all around the State until he connected with a State Senator who
owned several Carson City establishments and was willing to do Bill a favor
by selling whiskey -- at $100 a case.

Ray King was Wells Constable and "He was fierce -- he scared the daylights
out of me," Jennie recalls. "I was a little LDS girl seeing all these
things they didn't have in Idaho, when one night our man John, who was
running the crap table, caught a player running in crooked dice and got so
mad he picked up the cheat and threw him out the front window.

"Call the law," my husband Bill said, and Constable King came out. The
cheater was in big trouble, but King also told Bill "You got the run this
place square, or I'll close you up." John tossing a crook through the window
was seen as just doing his job.

1945
The Nevada Tax Commission was empowered to make rules and regulations
governing the conduct in the state and to issue state licenses.

The Eagle Club, also known as Johnny's

The Second World War had brought prosperity to Wells and convinced local
businessmen to build for the future. The Capitol Club did well by adding a
dance floor, and that gave John DiGrazia ideas.

John DiGrazia saw opportunity in a vacant turn-of-the-century store on Front
Street half a block east from the Capitol Club. After a 1901 fire leveled
the lot, Domenico, Amadeo, and Sebastino Quilici bought it and built a fine
brick building for their Quilici Mercantile Store. The store did a brisk
business and in 1926 enjoyed a brief moment of wire service fame after
displaying three human skulls in the store window found after a respected
Wells woman had a dream that revealed their location. By the mid 1940's the
building was vacant so John DiGrazia bought it and with partner Charles
Nannini converted it into the Eagle Club, a casino-bar with a dance hall
extending to the alley which they opened in mid-1946. Everyone called it
Johnny's. Although packed in the 1940's and still doing a good business
into the 50's, DiGrazia believed the future was where U.S. 93 and U.S. 40
intersected and sold the building after he and Nannini bought the 4-Way Café
& Casio.

U.S. 40 Influence

While John DiGrazia bet on the 4-Way location, other casino operators were
doing a good business on Sixth Street which was where U.S. 40 passed through
town. After the Saviozzi Brothers bought the Coffee Cup gaming was expanded
into the Cosmo Club. Today the building houses the Soap Box Laundromat.

Herman W. Supp built the Pequop Hotel in 1946. Herman ran a hardware store
and knew firsthand how hard it was to get building materials during and
after the war so he scavenged bricks, wood, anything he could use from
Metropolis ghost town to get the materials to make his dream of owning his
own hotel a reality. Supp leased the building to Rod Knight, a Salt Lake
City businessman and sports figure who ran the place under his name and
dubbed his bar the Elbo Room. Among other games, the Elbo Room operated a
Bingo Parlor.

By the 1970's the hotel had changed hands and was renamed the Old West Inn.
When Don Cooper became proprietor he began a tradition of trading an
occasional drink for ranch gear, railroad tools, early automotive
memorabilia, and amassed a fascinating collection of western memorabilia
that still adorns the saloon walls. After Cooper passed, in 2001 his heirs
sold the place but it's still gong strong although its gaming is currently
reduced to slot machines.

In the early 50's Bill and Jennie Sallee took over the Wagon Wheel
Restaurant & Casino, also on Sixth Street in Wells, which they operated
until the 1960's. Jennie and Bill could see there was real money in
combining food service with gaming. The Wagon Wheel had been a popular
eating place and casino since the 1940s. It was owned by the McDaniel
family, then in the 1950s Rod Knight who had leased the Hotel Pequop to
operate his El-Bow bar and casino, bought the Wagon Wheel. Knight and his
partner devoted his energy to building and operating a modern motel. That
gave Jennie & Bill the opportunity to lease the Wagon Wheel
Restaurant-Casino where they took over food service and ran an establishment
that featured roulette, craps, Twenty-one, and slot machines. The Café
could seat 90, the dining room could seat 100, and behind the Wagon Wheel
restaurant-casino was an outdoor barbeque and motel rooms. Running a family
style restaurant, Jennie supervised staff, but also made homemade cinnamon
rolls.

"Every year we had a barbeque for deer hunters, and every room in town was
filled," Jennie said recalling that you never knew who might walk in the
door. Tennessee Ernie Ford patronized the Wagon Wheel as did Jimmy Stewart,
who at the time owned the Winecup Ranch north of Wells. Actor Joel McRea was
in town a lot to shop like most of his Ruby Valley neighbors who often
bought tractor parts from the Quilici's General Merchandise

Then in September 1963 Bill Sallee died. Jennie left the Wagon Wheel in
December of the year Bill passed on, believing she'd learned the key to
running a successful casino-restaurant is treat patrons square, and take
care of the help.

Also on Sixth Street was the Shamrock Café & Casino which still offers slots
operating as Luther's. Anyone who loves microbrewery sampling will love
Luthers which serves huge glasses of Ruby Mountain Brewery Amber All, made
about eight miles south of Wells in Clover Valley. The brew is fabulous,
and even better on tap.

The El Rancho

Hard-working Leo Quilici saved enough to buy the Elite Bar. When his bar
showed a profit he re-invested his earnings in Wells, buying the Reno Club
(also known as the Mint Saloon) and the Bullshead Bar & Hotel. Built in
1887 the Bullshead was a grand place in its day but couldn't hide its age.
Leo wanted to show his pride in Wells and spent over $200,000 in 1949
dollars to make the El Rancho one of the finest casino-hotels in the Silver
State. That same year you could buy a brand new Ford pickup at Supp Motor
Company in Wells for $1556.

The El Rancho marks the transition of Wells from frontier outpost to a
modern community with permanence. Unlike the Nevada Hotel, San Marin Hotel,
and Bullshead that were built in the kerosene-lit era before electricity
came to town, the El Rancho boasted structural steel reinforcement and was
designed to be illuminated by electricity.

The original hardwood bar and mirrored back bar are rare examples of period
furnishings that still remain in the casino for which they were made. Atop
the El Rancho is a huge neon sign featuring a wrangler on an animated
bucking horse. That early example of Nevada¹s neon advertising heritage is
one of the few signs of its era that still adorns its original site.

The substantial construction and quality furnishings of the El Rancho made
its July 1949 grand opening a regional event that heralded future
prosperity. Instantly the El Rancho became a crowded, happening place. On
weekends railroaders who lived in section houses along the line came into
town to stock up on groceries, many congregating afterwards at the El Rancho
to drink and party. So too did ranchers, cowboys, miners, come into Wells,
standing shoulder to shoulder at the El Rancho bar to take a drink to cut
the dust.

Gaming Control Board Dooms Small-time Operations

In 1955 the Gaming Control Board was created to act as the enforcement and
investigative unit of the Tax Commission interjecting necessary formality
and regulation into the industry but at the cost of squeezing
hole-in-the-wall gaming parlors.

With the creation of Gov. Grant Sawyer's "hang tough" policy, inaugurated
July 1, 1959, Sawyer insisted that Nevada stay clear of "mobs and
syndicates." This policy led to the Gaming Control Board taking forceful
action in 1960, placing Nevada casinos off limits to underworld figures.
Two such individuals sued the state, some corporations and individuals
charging that the ban was a violation of civil rights.

During the proceedings, Judge Walter L. Pope of the United States Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals gave his opinion with an analogy that rings true
especially today. "In view of the situation of peril which S always
surrounds gambling in Nevada, the trial court may well find that the
plaintiff's entry upon gambling premises would present an emergency
comparable to that presented by an animal running at large while suspected
of being afflicted with the foot and mouth disease."

State revenue from gambling wins continued to rise, as did the cost of the
background investigation for a gaming license, the cost of which was and is
paid by the applicant. Gone were the days when a saloon operator could
install a roulette wheel, or give a faro dealer a table for a cut of the
profits, with no more investment than the cost of equipment. With that,
small casinos and roadside stops with a few slots began to die out as their
owners sold out or passed on. New places that opened were establishments
operated by entrepreneurs who could afford to pay anywhere from $50,000 to
$150,000 to process their gaming license.

By the mid-fifties there were signs that border town development would soon
erode the customer base supporting Wells gaming such as when on January 18,
1954 Boise, Idaho, financed Horseshu Inc. filed an application with the
Nevada Tax Commission for an establishment to be built one mile south of the
Idaho-Nevada stateline on Highway 93.

Jack Anderson built, then rebuilt, his modern and attractive Ranch House
Hotel & Casino just as Sixth Street takes a bend in the road on its way east
to the 4-Way intersection. For several years that fine establishment
prospered offering live music, live gaming, and good food to Utah folks,
among others, but just as the emergence of Jackpot as a gambling town on the
Nevada-Idaho border impacted Wells, so too did the emergence of West
Wendover on the Nevada-Utah border skim off thousands of patrons who no
longer felt the need to drive 58 miles further west to Wells.

Wells Today

Many of the buildings associated with Wells Gaming History still stand, some
remodeled, some in various stages of rehabilitation still in search of a
reason to justify their existence. Still a town that prides itself on
showing visitors a good time, Wells is also a place where a slice of old
west history is still affordable. We are glad folks collect our chips,
postcards and other gambling memorabilia, but we will be even happier when a
collector moves to Wells, reopens another of the old casinos, and throws
away the key.