Cottontail Ranch was a legal, licensed brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 in Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 that opened in October 1967. Located near the intersection of U.S. Route 95 and State Route 266

Nevada State Route 266

State Route 266 is a state highway in Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA. It connects the routing of California State Route 266 east to U.S. Route 95 via the town of Lida...

 known as Lida Junction, in Esmeralda County, Nevada

Esmeralda County, Nevada

Esmeralda County is a county in the west of U.S. state of Nevada. Its county seat is Goldfield. Its 2000 census population was officially 971, making its population density 0.1045 inhabitants/km² , the second-lowest of any county-equivalent outside of Alaska. As of 2010, the population had...

. It is also known as the Cottontail Ranch Club.

History

In 1967, Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

 allegedly made several visits to the Cottontail Ranch for entertainment while he was living in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

.

In the 1970s, then madam Beverly Harrell battled with the United States Bureau of Land Management which was attempting to have the brothel removed from federal land. Harrell also was a candidate for the Nevada Assembly

Nevada Assembly

The Nevada Assembly is the lower house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Nevada. The body consists of 42 members, elected to two-year terms from single-member districts. Each Assembly district contained approximately 47,400 people as of the 2000 census, although...

 in 1974. She published a book about the Ranch, An Orderly House, in 1975 (ISBN 0440058856).

A record, Coming My Way, was released in 1976 and was a collection of stories by the employees of the brothel.

Howard Harrell operated the brothel before selling the Cottontail.

The Cottontail Ranch was closed in 2004 when the madam retired. All the real estate was purchased by real estate investor Lanny D. Love; Miss Love also purchased the luxury house a few miles from the brothel and an additional ≈3300 acres (1,335.5 ha) in the area.

The property remains closed and is now available for sale.

External links

• Cottontail Ranch (archived at Wayback Machine, March 25, 2004)