A stone wall and empty sign post are the only visible exterior to what was once the nicest brothel in Ely, Nevada. "Bronc Alley" is the name given to the west end of Ely, Nevada's High Street. Throughout the mining and railroad town's history, brothels flourished in a couple different sections in town, though Bronc Alley was the heart of its Red Light District. Today, active houses of prostitution along this section of High Street continue to bathe adjacent Highway 50 in red neon. However one former brothel remains empty and slowly falling to the elements. Opened in 1959, The Green Lantern wa ...
With a prime location on a Hawaiian black sand beach, the Punalu'u Village Restaurant and Ka'u Center of History and Culture deteriorates into the elements. Historically the land on the southeastern coast of Hawaii's Big Island was that of the Ka'u Kingdom. In the late 1800's, this area was connected to other parts of Hawaii by commercial shipping, allowing the land to build a large economy based around sugar plantations. Prior to the completion of the island's first railroad in 1878, which connected the village of Punalu'u in the Ka'u District to the town of Keaiwa, Punalu'u harbor and landing would be the prima ...
In August of 1903, an American fugitive named Paul Watelet attempted to enter Canada via Washington State. Watelet was trying to avoid an Ohio arrest warrant for fraud charges in connection to his company, the Colville Group Mining Company, for having misrepresented the group's operations in order to obtain an investment from a John Carnahan for $4000 (approximately $120,000 in today's money). The warrant named "Count" Paul Watelet in the scheme of obtaining the money by means of false pretense. Watelet was not actually a Count, but instead was a Belgian miner from Oakland, California. And sometime In 1905, he made his way ...
"We were six prostitutes in a ranch house in the middle of the desert, isolated from the rest of the world, screwing frustrated and horny men for money. That was our life and as far as we were concerned it was as normal as Rice Krispies." -Vickie Star, brothel owner Vickie Star's is a story of a woman who moved west from her Missouri farming upbringing and eventually ended up owning two separate Nevada brothels before retiring to live off of the money she saved from her years in the business. Born to a Garrison, Missouri family in 1923, at age 16 Vickie received an invitation from her older sister to move into her apartment in Sa ...