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Desert Companion

Desert Companion examines and celebrates our city’s distinct culture and soul.

03/03/2025

The Pacific and the Mojave may seem like opposites, but they have in common warmth — not only the temperature, but also the aloha spirit that more than 40,000 migrants from Hawai’i have carried across the ocean to their desert home. Since the 1970s, Las Vegas has attracted Hawaiians with its bright lights and affordable lifestyle. The cost of this opportunity is the struggle to keep their Hawaiian culture alive. Tyra Stovall-Ha’o is doing her part by practicing the Hawaiian tradition of lei-making.

➡️ Read the full story by Maicyn Udani: tinyurl.com/n3d75zha
📷️ Photo by Ronda Churchill

03/01/2025

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is currently illegal nearly everywhere in the United States. But there is growing momentum in the states to legalize certain psychedelics — namely psilocybin, the active ingredient in what people often call magic mushrooms.

That push is well underway in Nevada, where at least two bills dealing with legalization of psychedelic-assisted therapy are expected to be introduced into the Legislature this year. The legislative session began February 3 and runs until early June.

🍄 Read and hear more of this story, a collaboration with Nevada Current's April Corbin Gurnis, here: tinyurl.com/3sds6rcy
🎨 Illustration by Ryan Vellinga

02/21/2025

"The warnings came from friends. When I’d tell them I was getting divorced, one thing they would say was: 'If Kate remarries, you won’t like it when your son tells another man, ‘I love you.’”

I heard them. I just didn’t believe it. I thought I was above the petty jealousy it implied.

To my ex-wife’s credit, when divorce was inevitable, she said what I’d been thinking but was too sheepish to utter: 'We have to remain friends' — for our son, for his happiness. And, as I learned many years later, for ours."

➡️ Read the full essay by Joe Schoenmann: tinyurl.com/4wach3jk
Image: Noemi Fabra for Desert Companion.

02/19/2025

There’s less than a month left (25 days to be exact!) to submit your photos for ’s 2025 Focus on Nevada photo contest!⁠ ⁠

➡️ Free to enter! Photos can be from any time and by photographers at any skill level, as long as they were taken by you in the great state of Nevada.⁠ ⁠

📷 Great prizes! Winning photographers will get gear and gift cards from , while the winning photos will be published in the May issue of Desert Companion magazine and be shown in a Southern Nevada gallery.⁠ Enter today at knpr.org.

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The images above are winners and selects from the 2024 contest: Pam Borgos, Doreen Lawrence, Jose Simon, Bill Bruninga, Scott Mortimore, Michael Viapiana, Mark Silverstein.

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02/12/2025

If love was in the air in Chicago on February 14, 1929, it was likely the love of booze. After nine years of Prohibition, America’s inveterate fondness for drink had turned bootlegging into a huge, cutthroat business for mobsters. Thus, at 10:30 that morning, four members of Al Capone’s outfit lined up seven men against the wall of a Chicago garage — five members of Bugs Moran’s rival gang, plus two unlucky hangers-on — and killed them with Tommy gun fire and shotgun blasts.

It was the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: a bad ending for those guys but just the beginning for that bullet-pocked wall, whose notoriety eventually landed it in a prime spot in Las Vegas’ Mob Museum.

➡️ Read more by Scott Dickensheets: tinyurl.com/37bu37r3

02/10/2025

Nowadays it can feel as though it’s both easier and harder than ever to get married in Las Vegas. It’s easier because, thanks to the trend in pop-up weddings, you can now get hitched nearly anywhere, including on street corners, inside a record store, or atop the parking garage at Binion’s. It’s harder because now you have nearly endless options to choose from. Should you tie the knot in the bar where you and your soon-to-be spouse first met? At that bookstore where you had your first date? The whole city is your chapel.

💍 Read more from Reannon Muth: tinyurl.com/48h5m2h4
📷️ Courtesy of Hellbent Hitchings

02/07/2025

"I'm a bit long in the tooth to give advice on romance, but Valentine’s Day is one occasion where I’m comfortable giving recommendations — for a place to eat. Nothing says “I love you” quite like clinking glasses in the right restaurant setting while professionals fawn over you."

❤️ Swipe through to see the recommendations from John Curtas () and read more at the link in bio.

02/06/2025

If any subject has inspired more art than love, we’d like to know what it is … next time. For now, we’re running with Cupid’s prolific starring role — in the Vegas music scene specifically. Eric Duran-Valle, musician and regular Desert Companion contributor, and Gaby Davila Ortiz, founder of local zine Astr0Mag, share the local love songs they’re loving lately.

➡️ Read and hear! more: tinyurl.com/2ujj6hev
Courtesy photos.

02/05/2025

In this partnership between Vegas PBS and Desert Companion, dive deeper into the locations, culture, and wildlife featured in season seven of Connor Fields' "Outdoor Nevada."

Watch, see and read more about Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Gold Butte National Monument, Lovell Canyon, Genoa, and other special corners of Nevada, here: tinyurl.com/n6auyb3j

02/03/2025

💘 OUT NOW: The February issue of Desert Companion magazine. 💘

💍 The chapel bells are ringing for the second annual love issue! Inside, say 'I do' to stories showcasing love in all its forms, from a look into the new way Vegas newlyweds are tying the knot (hint: less is more) and Nevada's Valentine's Day trends, to a guide on loving yourself and an essay on the power of parental affection. And, lest we forget about life passions as expressions of love, we sat down with four collectors to discuss their most beloved items.

📖 Read the published stories at the link in bio, or visit desertcompanion.com to view the digital magazine now. Pick up a copy at participating locations under the Contact tab.

01/30/2025

Remember getting away from it all? In 2018, now-editor Heidi Kyser and hiking guru Alan Gegax described 16 (truly) hidden gem hikes around Las Vegas that are rich in sights, silence and solitude.

See them all: tinyurl.com/5zmpkmvt
Image: Cholla Forest and Seven Dry Falls Loop (Scott Lien)

01/28/2025

A gambler. A mobster. A muckraker. In 1989, the deaths of three very different Vegas icons closed an era that shaped our modern city.

When they died, all three were remembered, even by their critics and foes, as crucial figures in the development of Southern Nevada, as philanthropists, and as quintessentially Vegas characters. They helped make it possible for Southern Nevada to become what it is today, for good and ill: a global resort mecca and a bustling desert metropolis. When people say they miss the “old Vegas,” they’re usually referring to generous comps and free-flowing cocktails. These three men embodied a different old Vegas ethos of grit, guts, and vision.

Read more by historian Michael Green: tinyurl.com/a946emsz

This story was originally published in December 2018.
Image: Hank Greenspun (Everett Collection Historical/Almay)

01/26/2025

Hank Vogler has herded sheep in central Nevada for 35 years, a stubborn adherent to an industry he knows is in great peril. He’s an aging ambassador to a colorful 140-year old tradition that got its start in Nevada in the 1880s, when immigrant Basque families dominated the scene with their innate know-how and sprawling flocks.

The trade has watched its sheep numbers plummet from one million a century ago to just 75,000 today, the vestiges of a once-thriving industry now propped up by a dozen remaining families, many of them Basque.

“This business has broken a lot of people who don’t put in the requisite time, sweat, and blood. You almost have to live with these sheep.”

Read the story by John Glionna: tinyurl.com/445hbpwp

This story was originally published in October 2019.
Photo by Anthony Mair.

01/24/2025

Where do we turn when disaster destroys places that were supposed to be sanctuaries?

"People my age have grown up hearing stories from our parents about the worlds of their childhoods, bountiful marshlands and majestic redwood forests and lush desert, worlds we can never experience because they’re already gone."

Read the story by Meg Bernhard: tinyurl.com/y582k7yb

This story was originally published in Feb. 2023.
Images via AP.

01/22/2025

Rock writing, sacred to Indigenous Peoples and critical to understanding ancient cultures, is being slowly destroyed. As urban development and outdoor activities such as off-roading and tourism affect natural areas throughout the Southwest, graffiti and trampling are becoming more commonplace at cultural sites. Panels that Douglas LaVan Martineau cataloged so meticulously and archaeologists have studied for so long have been damaged.

Will they still be here in a thousand more years, for others to learn from and connect with?

📖 Read the full story: tinyurl.com/wvmpharf

01/10/2025

Gia Coppola’s Showgirl elegizes an art form ... with varying degrees of authenticity

01/08/2025

To an outsider, Gage Quinney’s chase might seem to have come full circle. Undrafted twice, overlooked often at camps and tryouts as a youth player, he’s dug out from what once was a non-hockey environment, Southern Nevada, returned to his roots, and is within a step of the world’s best league. But Quinney yearns to be an NHL regular. His chase, recently derailed by illness and injury, continues.

🏒 Read more from Gary Dymski: tinyurl.com/2aa7njtk

01/07/2025

📷 Submissions are open NOW for the 2025 Focus on Nevada photo contest! Enter for free through March 16 to be featured in the May issue, local galleries and to win great prizes from . Find all the details and enter today at desertcompanion.com.

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The Focus on Nevada showcase is now installed at Green Valley Library! Make sure to check out the fabulous gallery of winners from this summer’s photo contest. ✨ @hendersonlibraries #nevada #lasvegas #henderson

❤️ Thank you to the HUNDREDS of you who came to the 2024 Focus on Nevada photo showcase! If you missed the event and reveal, find the June issue of @desertcompanion now at local libraries, Mothership coffee or subscribe today at knpr.org.

We had such an amazing time at @vegasunstripped! Can’t wait for next year, and shout out to everyone who grabbed the latest issue of the magazine! 😋

We’re so excited about this collaboration with @vegaspbs! If you missed any episodes of Outdoor Nevada with @connorfields11 or our guides, find them now at desertcompanion.com! 🥾 🪨 🌸

🎵 Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage 🎵 Pick up a copy of the news Desert Companion today, or read the stories now on desertcompanion.com! 💕 #lasvegas #vegas #nevada #love #valentinesday #vegaswedding #vegasbaby

"A familiar sensation of relief welled within me: Rain, finally. I felt the urge to dart outside like I used to as a kid, when I’d play hide and seek under dripping leaves." Hear or read the full essay: tinyurl.com/4c93h38u

ENTER NOW! There's less than a month left to submit your photos for the 2023 Focus on Nevada photo contest. You can win up to $4,000 in prizes from B&C Camera, and get published in the June issue of Desert Companion! 📷 ↪️ knpr.org/photocontest

Set your shutter speed, because we've opened submissions for this year’s Focus on Nevada photo contest! With prizing totaling more than $4,000 thanks to B&C Camera, it’s a fun way to upgrade your photo gear. Plus, winners will be published in this June’s Desert Companion! 📷 ✨ Submit your photos today! knpr.org/photocontest

Every Voice: Race, Protest, and Power in Las Vegas

Today's #TwoForTuesday 2fer, Adam Throgmorton and Shawn Bicker of Modelworksajt, have the coolest job. Read about them at goo.gl/e9z2dW

Groups moving from location to location. Having a great time - enjoying the music! Galleria at Sunset #dcpubcrawl

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