VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: The Final Resting Place of Whiskey Pete
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Vegas Myths Busted” publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition. Today’s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on Dec. 16, 2022.
On Feb. 2, 1994, construction workers were grading the land for the light rail that today connects two casinos, Whiskey Pete’s and Buffalo Bill’s, across Interstate 15 in Primm, Nev. One of their tractors struck a crumbling plywood coffin, knocking it open. What they found inside should have put an end to one of Nevada’s biggest tall tales. Instead, that tale has only grown taller.
Peter “Whiskey Pete” McIntyre, the legendary namesake of the casino, was supposedly buried with his cherished 10-gallon hat on his head, six-shooters strapped to his side, and a bottle of his own moonshine whiskey. His coffin was also supposedly buried upright, facing what was then called the Arrowhead Trails Highway, to honor McIntytre’s request to “see all those sons of bitches going by.”
Sorry, entire internet. Every one of your Whiskey Pete stories is inaccurate. According to Bruce Sedlacek, who supervised the construction crew that found McIntyre’s coffin, it contained his bones, a tuft of hair on his skull, his shirt with a few buttons missing, his dentures, and that’s it. There were no guns or whiskey bottles. And the coffin wasn’t buried standing up. It didn’t even have a slight tilt to it. It was perfectly level to the ground it lay underneath.
