Primm

Understand

History

In the 1920s, the area only had a gas station which was owned by Pete MacIntyre. The story goes that he was having trouble selling gas so he resorted to bootlegging. He died in 1933 and was initially buried in an unmarked grave close by, though unintended exhumation caused his body to be moved into a cave. The man is now often known locally as "Whisky Pete", with the town's first casino named eponymously after him.

Between the early 1950s to the early 1970s, Dale Hamilton owned the town known as State Line at the time with an ambition to place a few slot machines in his gas station to entice travelers, a tradition that continues to this day.

In 1977, businessman Ernest Jay Primm opened Whiskey Pete's to capture gamblers on their way to or leaving Las Vegas. He passed this venture on to his son Gary Primm.

Several decades later and in 1990, State Line's second casino The Primadonna Resort was opened to the public. Its current name is the Primm Valley Resort.

Buffalo Bill's and its Desperado hypercoaster were opened in 1994.

In 1996, State Line was renamed to Primm to remove confusion from the Nevadan town of Stateline near Lake Tahoe and to acknowledge the Primm family's success.

In 2010, the town was featured in the video game Fallout: New Vegas along with much of Southern Nevada including nearby Goodsprings, Jean, and Searchlight.

Climate

As with the rest of the Mojave Desert, Primm has a typical climate of hot days and cold nights. It is constantly arid with little rainfall as well as hot summers and warm winters.

Get in

By car

• If you're driving to Primm from the Los Angeles area or its surrounding counties, drivers can take I-15 North and stay on the freeway all the way to Exit 1 after crossing the California/Nevada State Line.
• From the Las Vegas area, take I-15 South and get off at Exit 1.

By taxi

Taxis are available 24 hours a day from Las Vegas to Primm. The fare however is around $100 each way due to the 40 mi distance between the two destinations; alternatively, cheaper rates can be found via ride hailing services such as Uber and Lyft.

By plane

There are no airports in Primm, though there is a proposal to build the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport (formerly Ivanpah Valley Airport) close by as early as 2029.

The nearest airport to Primm is Jean Airport. It's 12 mi north and is mostly used for recreational aviation and skydiving rather than commercial flights.

Other close airports are Henderson Executive Airport (HSH) and Harry Reid International Airport (formerly McCarran International Airport) (LAS) near Henderson and Las Vegas respectively.

Get around

By monorail

A free monorail connects the three casinos.

By foot

Most of the town is walkable.

Go next

Map of places with Wikivoyage articles nearby

• Searchlight – 42 mi to the southeast of Primm on the I-15 then SR-164. Also a former mining town, Searchlight maintains its heritage with its own museum, which while small is also educational. The town also has two casinos both run by Terrible's and two motels. Searchlight Airport has no scheduled services, and is uncontrolled, unmanned, and unlighted.
• Baker – 50 mi to the southwest of Primm on I-15, Baker is the only significant town on the interstate in the remote desert stretch between Barstow and the Nevada border. It offers food, fuel and lodging, is home to the world's tallest thermometer, and is the starting point for the journeying north to Death Valley.