For decades the city was the place to break your marriage, and pick up the pieces.
A picturesque , scattershot tableauof sleek over buildings against sprawling , dusty Nevada muckle , Tule Springs Ranch in Floyd Lamb State Parkcould easily be misguided for an abandon westerly movie set . Just 20 miles from the glitz of the Las Vegas funnies , it feels like a globe aside . poultry - filled pool have replace the bubbling natural springs that once satiated Ice Age organism ( Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monumentis a couple Admiralty mile northerly ) . Peacocks sports fan out around the profuse grounds . There ’s a historical white bridge , a defunct water bicycle , and a water system tower jutting to the sky .
And to say it ’s out of fundamental molding would n’t be far off from its literal blood . In its 1940s blossom , Tule Springs served as a dude ranch — in this special instance , a working cattle farm converted to accept “ dudes , ” or foreigner male and female holidaymaker , who wanted to , for deficiency of a better term , cosplay Western life . An empty shell of itself today , back then it bustle with strapping cattle farm hand tending to livestock and guide client in the way of the rodeo rider . Fish - out - of - water clients mostly came from big cities back East to play out their countrysidefantasies : go fish , attend rodeos , mount horse , splashing in pond . Shooting yap . And eating copious amount of red meat .
About 15 miles south inLorenzi Park , you ’ll find another set of abandon lodgings , this time cloaked in a more rustic dark-brown chromaticity . It ’s the remnants of Twin Lakes Lodge , another dude ranch dating to the 1940s . With two man - made lakes , islands , and green tree diagram groves , Twin Lakes offered a more slick resort vibe , even more so now that the trees have been replaced with gangling palm reaching skywards . All the better to force starlet clientele .
Peacocks and divorcées alike strutted their stuff on Tule Springs Ranch.|Kit Leong/Shutterstock
And for these two ranches , they were mostly woman clientele . Because while the leftover of the two cattle ranch look vastly unlike , they had one major thing in vulgar : They both serve as “ divorcement ranches , ” a central player in Nevada ’s once - thriving divorcement diligence . For decades , lawfully wed women from other states would check in and , six weeks later , check out — one spouse light .
Accidental Progressives
In the later 19th and early twentieth century , divorce was still largely taboo in much of the United States . couple that want to split had bleak pick . In state like New York , for example , the only means to get a divorcement — up until the 1960s!—was to prove adultery . Reasons like spousal abuse or simple mutual consensus did n’t even forecast in the equation . ( Because of this salacious reasoning , divorces in New York were unremarkably splashy tabloid function , and court trialsbecame public entertainment . Seems like they did n’t have much else to do back then . ) The plaintiff also had to wait a painful year after file their paperwork before a divorcement would be grant .
A few province with more indulgent policies sprung up as “ divorce John Mill , ” places where one half of the distich could go under up residence relatively quickly and part from their mate on less rigorous flat coat . As men were the majority of the work force , residency duties usually fell to the married woman . Utah , South Dakota , and Indiana were all places they could do the deed .
But none of those state could reserve a wax light to good ol’ Nevada , entrepreneurial and strategical from the root , and bighearted as a thing of necessary . When the Silver State was established in 1864 , the residence requirements to love such welfare as voting and charge legal suits — specially divorcement suit — was just six months . Ithadto be abbreviated : The population of westerly boomtowns were transient by nature .
Remnants of Tule Springs Ranch in Vegas' Floyd Lamb State Park|Kit Leong/Shutterstock
But on top of that , the grounds for divorce had wide mooring , and included the catchall of “ uttermost strong-arm or mental harshness ” within either party , typically presented to be of a genial nature . It was acceptable to prove that the suspect had been unkind , rest out late , or have the plaintiff enough distress to interrupt their aliveness . In some cases , it save women from dangerously abusive kinship . Others were ruled on more frivolous grounds like , say , a married man defy to let his wife listen to the radiocommunication in the sign . ( Get rid of him , we say . )
By 1909 , Reno , Nevada ’s most build - up town , had already gained a reputation as a go - to for a quickie divorcement . A very specific industry bound up , with lodging and amusement proliferating within steps of the Washoe County Courthouse . Divorce tourism bloomed : The bridge a pulley block from the courthouse steps became known as the " Wedding Ring Bridge , " where the newly disjoint woulddramatically fling their nuptials rings(or a bum hoop they corrupt at the local Five and Dime ) into the Truckee River . famed actresses like Mary Pickford had come for a divorce , and with them , the eye of the world . Their experience even made it on stage — playwright and representative Clare Booth would afterward write the comedyThe Womenabout her 1929 stay .
In 1927 , the residence essential was reduced to three months . And after the Great Depression eliminate domesticated industriousness , the 1931 Nevada law-makers passed two crucial economically drive banknote that would terminate up forever changing the state ’s luck . The first legalized play . And the 2nd upped the entire priming for divorce to nine , and reduced the abidance requisite from three months to just six weeks .
Come one, come all.|Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
“The Reno Cure”
Reno ’s divorcement manufacture was off to the races . With more people able-bodied to give a six week sojourn , the divorcement business ramped up from busy to boom . The city gain a report as the “ divorce capital of the world ” with visitors coming to “ take the six - week remedy . ” Tabloid writer Walter Winchell dub the process the “ Reno - vation . ” The women — and men , and at least one aforeign dignitary — come in swarm : by air , by elevator car , and by train . The Overland Limited that pulled into Reno was dubbeddivorcée special . Over 325,000 marriages would amount to an oddment in Nevada during that time .
And while they may have been there for unlike reasons , all those people dire to return to exclusive life had one thing in common : They need somewhere to appease for six weeks , ended with a housing manager unforced to testify that you had n’t will the state for over 24 hours in that sentence . You could take to take to the woods in a embarkment house , often with a roommate . Some adult female brought their kids and took jobs cleaning or make as “ shills ” in casinos ( AKA posing as decoy customers to get people to participate ) . But if you had some cash and an appetite for escapade — or , at least , some rugged cowhand — you could ditch your pearls for dungaree and cowhand thrill , and shack up at a divorce ranch .
Some ranches were more meek , with rooms not much more than a bare - pearl cabin . And others , like the luxuriousFlying M E Ranchfavored by the Hollywood elite group , offer item-by-item tanning bed , all the good to return home single and mythic . The more high-pitched - end ranches use cowboys to lead group activities and cater amusement . And in some instances , the hunky stockmen themselveswerethe entertainment . ( TheLazy M E Ranch , located just south of Reno , earned itself the nickname the “ Lay Me Easy ” . )
Reno Hot Springs Cottages came with their own sulphur springs bath, popular with future divorcées.|Bettmann/Getty Images
The ranches also provided psychological comforter , foster a community of sort that implicitly understood the stresses and pressures of the situation . One visitor recallsbeing afraid her whole stay , worried that her husband would show up and contest the wedlock , but in the end comforted by welcoming nature of the cattle ranch ( and by a cheeky signaling that enjoin ' Welcome , Divorcées ' ) . Lifelong friendships were forge , and , debate the circumstances , it ’s not surprising that Reno move over path to athriving sapphic scene , as memorialized in filmmaker Donna Deitch ’s innovational 1985 cult hit , Desert Hearts .
Reno delight the fruits of the divorce - seekers wallets , and in turn of events , the women got a taste for what it was like to be unhitched in a frontier sac that was morally … let ’s just say , elastic . They got sitter for their kids and went out on the township . They danced , flirted and had affairs , take chances and went to tavern unaccompanied . The eternal sleep of the land calculate in throughpulp novelswith title likeReno Rendezvousand titillating magazine articles like " My Dude Ranch Love Affair , " put out in a 1938 issue ofTrue Confessions .
For some divorce - seekers , it was a time to release themselves of the bounds of marriage once and for all . Others came with “ spares , ” or humankind that they would tie as soon as their marriage was discerp . And some would pick up a new beau along the style . There ’s even one account of a woman turning in good order around andmarrying her divorcement attorney .
Divorce ranches look like a good time.|Keystone-France/Gamma Keystone/Getty Images
Las Vegas gets in on the action
But Reno was about to have some competition . In 1931 , Las Vegas was still a sleepy village of about 5,000 , but with the launch of the Boulder Dam ( now the Hoover Dam ) , workers promptly well the universe to about 25,000 . And though the city still lacked a decent hospital ( that could come a few calendar month later , thanks to injury sustained at the dekametre ) , visitant to Las Vegas could now gamble to their hearts ’ content — in fact , the first gambling license in all of Nevada was given to Mayme Stocker at Vegas ’ Northern Club .
Slots - athirst holidaymaker flooded into Vegas from Los Angeles , but Reno still had the monopoly on the divorcement bunch . In an attempt to get their hands on a piece of their babe city ’s economic gold mine , they did what Vegas is so well known for today : They kicked off a celebrity residency .
In 1939,Ria Langhamwas a wealthy socialite with a affair for actors , married to up - and - coming heartthrob Clark Gable . She was on her fourth marriage , him , his second . But though she played a major part in elevating his public visibility ( not to bring up wardrobe and grooming habits ) , the trade union was moderately one - sided . Gable was often figure stepping out on the townspeople with his female Colorado - star , with many a flirt sweep under the rug . That was , until he gather comedienne and Hollywood darling Carole Lombard on the set of 1932’sNo Man of Her Own .
Drop a husband and get some gambling in too.|Bettmann/Getty Images
The pair did n’t set out dating until four years afterwards , while Gable and Langham were separated , and though they preserve the human relationship secret , they were often spotted out on the town . To make matter bad for Langham , the press spat and bucked up — defy we say , shipped — the extramarital affair , inform the royal court of public judgment . Suddenly , Langham was characterize as the one stand in the way of Gable ’s felicity .
While she to begin with contrive to give Gable a long , drawn - out California divorce , perhaps to spare face , Langham opt for a quickie schism in Nevada while Gable was meddling filmingGone With the Wind . In a masterful twist she strike a deal with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce : In exchange for six weeks left alone , she would control her own narration with a splashy spread in theLas Vegas Review - Journal . She paddled around Lake Mead and gambled . She gave phone insect bite about Gable . Shetold the paperVegas had been “ the okay and short vacation I ever had in my life-time . ”
Las Vegas ’ divorce noise was all system go , and the gain of the Vegas strip in 1940 added more refulgence to the city ’s lawless veneering . before long , Las Vegas divorcement ranches like Tule Springs and Lorenzo Park were just as pullulate as Reno ’s divorce ranches . Other celebrities amount to help themselves of their service , likeTarzanauthor Edgar Rice Burroughs . Liz Taylor posted up at a ranch while waiting out Eddie Fisher ’s divorce ( conveniently , he was doing a residency at the Tropicana at the time ) .
Some entrepreneurial lads collect discarded wedding rings.|Bettmann/Getty Images
Of course , the industriousness begin to decline when the rest of the nation see up . In 1970 , California regulator Ronald Regan , a divorced Isle of Man himself , signalize into natural law the country ’s first no - fault divorcement pecker , allot couples the opportunity to split up without place blame . Other nation quickly keep up suit .
And while the divorce ranches have since disappear , one major side impression of the diligence still rest . When quickie divorces were followed soon after by shotgun marriage , the newly undivided almost - newlyweds needed somewhere to secure their impending nuptials . In short lodge , hymeneals chapel read over Las Vegas , and eventually the city traded its reputation for speedy divorces for one of quickfire matrimony ( we see you , Bennifer ) . Often , with Elvis in the construction .
As for the rest of Nevada , they ’ll always have gaming — whether for beloved or money .
Viva Las Vegas: Eddie Fisher divorced Debbie Reynolds and married Liz Taylor on the same day.|Bettmann/Getty Images
The water tower and a residence at Tule Springs Ranch.|Kit Leong/Shutterstock
Remnants of a ranch at Lorenzi Park in Las Vegas.|Kit Leong/Shutterstock
