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Where's McDermitt?

"`Right at the back door is where the state line is,' he says. `All of the bar is in Nevada.'

"The money-covered ceiling hearkens back to McDermitt's salad days, when cattle prices were high, two shifts toiled at the McDermitt Mercury Mine -- closed since 1987 -- and high-stakes poker games went on for days at the Ore-Vada Club. Near the back is a scarred table where two family ranches and $10,000 cash changed hands in a single night of poker around 1928.

"…Since then, modern McDermitt has drifted south along U.S. 95. The town's biggest employers are now the Say When Casino and the McDermitt Combined School. Both are in Nevada, as are the post office, library, a couple of motels, service stations, three taverns, three churches, another casino and a few small businesses.

"…McDermitt is 101 miles south of Jordan Valley -- itself a lonesome little ranching settlement -- and 74 miles north of Winnemucca, Nev., which uses billboards to whimsically advertise itself as the "City of paved streets," and to ask, "If you don't stop, who will?"

"…People who settle here tend to appreciate vast expanses of open space, sagebrush, alkali, rattlesnakes and rimrock bluffs, say Jeff and Theresa White. They abandoned the Bitterroot Mountains of the Idaho Panhandle near Sandpoint and returned here to retire.

"…The Ore-Vada Club and its adjoining dance hall were purchased 12 years ago by a former Caliente, Nev., city clerk, Carol Johnson, 62, who was charmed by the history and roughneck traditions of the region.

"…The presence of two casinos lends an element of human drama to McDermitt usually absent in towns this size. While the casinos aren't a destination for high rollers, tour buses and individuals often stop to gamble while en route to Reno and Las Vegas, says Todd Murrah, 44, assistant general manager of the Say When Casino..."

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