Population growth may have just started

      There wasn't a paved road from Pahrump to Las Vegas until 1954. Electricity didn't arrive until 1963, and phones weren't hooked up until 1965.
      But, as one can see from the constant construction and projections for population growth, those days are a distant memory.
      Today, Pahrump is the fastest growing rural town in the country. Originally a farming community, Pahrump was home to less than a thousand residents in 1960. The town has exploded in the 1990s though, rising from a population of 10,000 at the start of the decade to more than 30,000 people this year. But it appears the boom has just begun.
      With the expanded Highway 160 scheduled for completion in just a couple of months and several housing developments planned or currently in the works -- most notably the ambitious 8,000-home Mountain Falls resort community -- Pahrump is expected to double in size again shortly after the turn of the century and triple within 10 years, according to the state demographer.
      But just where will these people come from and what will they expect?
      "They come from all over and God knows what they expect," said Marge Taylor, executive director of the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce. "The Nevada tax structure and year-round climate is very attractive and people have had it up to here with the big cities (and) crime and congestion so they're coming out to the rural areas because of that."
      While it's safe to say the majority of new residents are retirees and refugees from Las Vegas -- whose commute to work will likely be shortened to as little as 45 minutes when the highway is finished -- people are moving to Pahrump from other places as well.
      "People are moving in from all over the country and all over the world," said Taylor, who estimated 20 percent of the new residents are coming from Canada and other foreign countries.
      Taylor said the chamber received more than 1,100 calls and 800 walk-ins in March from people looking to relocate.
      "A lot of people from back East are looking for the drier weather and climate," said Kate Riley, sales manager for Big Horn Condominiums. "Most are looking to retire to a friendly area."