Sun coverage
Thousands of people have confirmed what many Southern Nevada residents have long believed — that Valley of Fire State Park is one of the state’s tourism treasures.
In the Nevada Commission on Tourism’s three-month “Discover Your Nevada” campaign, geared at encouraging in-state travel and educating Nevadans about some lesser-known corners of the state, Valley of Fire received the most votes in the Las Vegas Territory in a completely unscientific popularity contest.
The park, about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas near Overton, was one of six Nevada tourist attractions recognized in the campaign.
“We were really happy with the way the campaign turned out,” said Bethany Drysdale, a spokeswoman for the Tourism Commission. “We think the recognition for these attractions will get people to learn more about them and go out and see them.”
The state agency received 587 nominations of attractions in six geographic areas and encouraged the public to vote for their favorites online. Through a series of “American Idol”-style elimination votes, the public whittled the field to two finalists on April 30, then gave people one last chance to choose their favorites in a week of voting that ended Friday.
Drysdale said 107,959 votes were cast over the three-month period. There was no indication as to how many unique voters there were, and people were invited to cast a vote a day.
That led to some ballot-stuffing opportunities that resulted in seemingly more popular attractions like the Las Vegas Strip and Hoover Dam getting edged out by other attractions, including some commercial operations. The final two in Southern Nevada were Valley of Fire and the Colorado River in Laughlin.
The five other regional winners in the voting:
• The Goldwell Open Air Museum, a collection of sculptures in the Amargosa Desert near Beatty.
• The Nevada Northern Railway in Ely. The historic railroad, which runs from Keystone Village to McGill, beat the Churchill Vineyards in Fallon.
• The historic Star Hotel-Restaurant in Elko. The restaurant, which specializes in Basque cuisine, beat Shooting the West, a photography symposium conducted every March in Winnemucca.
• The Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park in Minden. A centerpiece of 150 years of history in the Carson Valley, the ranch beat the Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe.
• Pyramid Lake, north of Reno. The area, home to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, beat the Lost City Museum, a state museum in Overton.
Drysdale said the sites receiving the most votes were expected to receive some form of recognition from the state and that Gov. Brian Sandoval would be invited to visit them in one of his promotional road trips.
Drysdale said she was most surprised with the outcome of the Reno-Tahoe Territory voting, where the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park emerged as the winner, because Lake Tahoe and its attractions have a major following.
“But I also think that shows you how much people care about the Dangberg Home Ranch,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know about it, but the people there really rallied behind it to win the vote. I think that tells you something about the place, and, hopefully, that will get more people to visit.”