Letters to the Editor

Reader entertained by PVT cartoonist’s story

I look forward to seeing [cartoonist Eric Coleman’s] weekly illustrations in the PVT. They are entertaining, timely, and mostly funny. I thought the 6/20/25 illustration was hilarious! I learned some new things about a few people on your map, who were a little before my time here. However, you got a couple of things slightly wrong. Michael Jackson never had a studio in the house “built into the mountain on Bell Vista.” It was way too small for a studio and a celebrity with the money and stature the size of MJ’s would never live in such a ramshackle place — even if he wanted to hide away from the rest of the world. The “house” was built by a Dale Schutte — an obviously colorful character who was somewhat involved with Pahrump/Nye County politics for a number of years when there was a town board. If I am remembering correctly, he may even have run for Pahrump Town Board or Nye County Commission at one time.

Schutte placed cement around an old travel trailer for “the house on the hill.” This building obviously was not up to any codes, but there was no zoning rules at that time. Then, he built those structures on the ground level by the street and brought in more trailers. It was rumored that MJ had a house in the area on Corbin or Jarvis, but it was a large, white house to the north in back of the area that was owned by Schutte. There are currently some other large, well-built houses to the north in that area. I was never able to confirm if the rumors were true because celebrities often make large purchases such as land or houses under a corporate name, but I did occasionally observe large limousines (such that MJ would own) coming and going from that area. MJ may have purchased Schutte’s property later to get rid of him, or to have more property there as it was rumored that Schutte moved up to Beatty at a later time. But a search engine that I have shows that Schutte still owns the property. Perhaps he re-purchased it?

Also, you left out a major player on the Map! To the left of Art Bell, you picture a tiger, but you don’t mention the infamous owner of the tiger ranch - Karl Mitchell, who recently had several news reports about the removal of his tigers by Nye County as a safety precaution for other residents, and for his failure to obtain the proper animal permits for owning the tigers. Perhaps there wasn’t enough room to print that information in your story.

I’m fairly sure that my information is correct as we have lived here for over 30 years and have closely followed Pahrump/Nye County news in local media, as I was a 50-year journalist and editor of the Pahrump Valley Gazette, which was purchased by the LVRJ and incorporated into the PVT. I met a lot of local residents, government officials, business owners and celebrities through that work, and I once interviewed Art Bell with his stash of exotic metals. I met Heidi a few times but I don’t remember ever interviewing her.

Thank you for your interesting story.

Mary Michalsky