“He would actually ride up to the back of the casino on his horse, tie up the horse back there and come in to the bar,” Sandoval remembered. For example, one of the regular bar customers at the Virgin River was a local rancher and avid cowboy.

She said that there were a lot of colorful characters in town back then. Sandoval reminisced about how much more of a small-town feel there was back in the early days. She has filled various positions over the years including server, cook, cashier, hostess and more. Sandoval has been there ever since, working in the restaurant side of the operation. But when Virgin River opened, she applied to work in the coffee shop there and got the job. She started with a job at the old Peppermill Casino in Mesquite. She attended Virgin Valley High School, graduating in 1988, and went straight into the workforce. Sandoval’s family had moved to Mesquite from Mexico when she was young. Mesquite resident Bertha Sandoval was one of those original employees. The Virgin River started with only around 120 employees. “Other than that it was just all coin slots.” “We opened with only six table games and a ‘Big 6’ wheel,” Hall said. Back then there was just a casino area and a small coffee shop. The casino started small with only about 16,000 square feet of space. The hotel had opened in the spring with 152 rooms. The road came up from the freeway and it ended right in our parking lot. “The Virgin River was the only thing north of the freeway.

“Back then there wasn’t much to Mesquite at all,” Hall said. He said it was quite a change of pace coming to the Virgin River. “Things have obviously changed a lot since those days,” said Lex Hall, who was recruited back in late 1989 to head the management team that opened the then-new hotel and casino.īefore coming to Mesquite, Hall had been working in a small casino in Las Vegas where he had been for 22 years. A small hotel on the site opened just a few months earlier than that, in May of 1990.

The casino has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of its original grand opening which took place in September of 1990. It has been a landmark month for the Virgin River Casino.

Pictured l to r are Bertha Sandoval, Beryl Gussi, Lex Hall, Diane Gussi and Roberto Murataya. The Progress A group of long-time employees got together last week to reminisce about their careers spent at the Virgin River Casino, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last month.

Virgin river hotel and casino