Those of you that know me well will not be at all surprised that visiting a brothel was very high on my list of things to do here. With my collection of "hooker books" it only seemed natural that we should go to a cat house,....so..we did!
There is a sign in Pahrump saying there is a Brothel Museum 20 miles from Pahrump in Crystal, NV. So, we got up this morning and went in search of the museum. We looked on the map for Crystal, but there was no listing, so we headed west on 160, and low and behold, out in the middle of absolutely no where, we saw a sign directing us to turn down a dowdy little road, then we came to this sign! Yippeee, we knew 
were were on the right road then. So here we go!
were were on the right road then. So here we go! the second sign we see is for the Cherry Patch Ranch, boy we are on the right track now!
When we pulled up in front of the Brothel and Museum, much to our dismay it was closed. There was a sign that said it was closed for remodeling. There was a couple that had pulled up 
just ahead of us, ( we were the only 2 vehicles in the parking lot), and they were just sitting in their car. I got out to read the sign on the door of the museum/bar. They stepped out of their car and we whined a little because it was closed. When we pulled up however, we saw yet another sign that said that Mabel's Whorehouse was behind this particular establishment, so the four of us decided we would go to Mabel's and see if she was open!
just ahead of us, ( we were the only 2 vehicles in the parking lot), and they were just sitting in their car. I got out to read the sign on the door of the museum/bar. They stepped out of their car and we whined a little because it was closed. When we pulled up however, we saw yet another sign that said that Mabel's Whorehouse was behind this particular establishment, so the four of us decided we would go to Mabel's and see if she was open! 
Well, Mabel was indeed open. The bar had a sign on the door that said it was open 24 hours a day! The sign shown here was on the fence, so if you were here for the brothel and didn't care to go into the bar, you just rung the bell and they let you in! We decided we would go in the bar and have a drink with our new friends Doug and Barb. They were fro
m New York and seemed to be just as eager for an adventure as we were! They are pictured here with Chelsie, the bartender at Mabel's. We all remember hearing jokes about Mabel's Whorehouse, but who would know there really was such a place. Chelsie was very nice and was more than willing to answer some of my hooker questions. She told me that all the girls are private contractors, they set their own prices and menus, but she did know that $100.00 was the lowest price there was for anything. The place was a little seedy with a bunch of trailer houses out back connected with walkways. While we were there having a $5.00 beer, she told us that the museum would be open in about 30 minutes, so we decided to wait. The brothels are located so far out in the middle of no where because only a few countys in NV allow prostitution. And they have to be so many miles from large metro areas. Mabels and the Cherry Patch advertise as the closest brothels to Las Vegas. OK, so we had our drink, I bought a couple of books, Doug bought the only Tshirt they had left, and then we were off to go back up front to the Cherry Patch museum and bar.
This is a picture of Barry, ringin' the bell to get into the Cherry Patch. Unfortunately the brothel was closed, so he was just out of luck! So that being said, we were off to the museum/bar which was attached to this brothel. I must admit the museum was disappointing, it only had some photos of actors and a bunch of newspaper clipping about the history of prostitution in Nye County. The bartender told us that this skeleton (which was missing it's hands) was assumed to be a hooker that had stolen and so they cut off her hands and shot her in the chest! It could be a skeleton of anyone, but the story was good.
This is a picture of Barry at the bar at Cherry Patch Ranch with the bartender Carrie and some weird guy that was hitchhiking when we came down the highway! He told Barry he had been working on Heidi Fliest's (don't know how to spell her last name, but you kow who I mean!) car. I'm sure she would hire a guy that doesn't have a car of his own to work on hers. Oh well, just another slice of Americana!
What a great day! It is not every day you get to go to an operating brothel. I really wish they had a little more imagination (and money I suppose), to decorate the places more like the old cat houses...(at least what we think they looked like), with flocked wallpaper and red shag carpet!
No comments:
Post a Comment