Post #380626 by woofmutt on Thu, May 15, 2008 9:15 PM

A search gave me no Tiki Central hits for Winnemucca, Nevada. I was wondering if anyone here has checked the town out.

Friends and I drove through ("...along a dusty Winnemucca road...", of course) several times in the late 80s but we never stopped. At the time I wasn't into drinkin', smokin', honky tonkin' or gamblin'. (In other words: I hadn't been shown the light by the likes of you all.)

As I recall Winnemucca had quite a few casinos, most of them trying to look somewhat flashy in a small way. (The town had humorous signs along the highways leading to it...Winnemucca: If you don't stop, who will?) Because of Winnemucca's location it seems possible the casinos would have made some attempt to lure people from neighboring states who didn't want to head all the way to Reno or Las Vegas.

For years I've wanted to make a side trip there while visiting friends in Idaho, but those same friends have never been enthusiastic about the idea.

The dream, of course, is to find some joints that time forgot and the remodeling crews never visited. And maybe some undiscovered bit of exotica.

But since gambling has become more popular in recent years I'd guess most of the Winnemucca properties have been neutered into well behaved brightly lit big bland hellholes. (Cactus Pete's in Jackpot, near the Idaho border, more or less looks nothing like the picture of it on pg 49 of Tiki Modern. The only thing I found of interest in the place was a postcard with the above mentioned picture.)