Last Mustang Ranch building destroyed
Blaze was part of firefighting training
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:02 a.m. CT March 26, 2007

RENO, Nev. - The last remaining building on the grounds where the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel once stood went up in flames Sunday.
The 48-room, 20,000-square-foot structure known as the Mustang Ranch II annex was destroyed as part of a firefighting training exercise.
"It's out with the old and in with the new," said a woman who goes by Air Force Amy, who once worked there. "The day of the $20 roll in the hay in a trailer is gone."

The building was the last at the former site of the Mustang Ranch, the state's first legal brothel. The government padlocked the ranch, located just east of Reno, in 1999 after years of tax problems.

In 2003, the government auctioned off the annex for $8,600 to Dennis Hof, a brothel owner who planned to use it as a museum. Moving it was too expensive, so he donated it to fire crews.

Amy, now employed by Hof, said the annex was built in 1983 for male prostitutes but the plans didn't fly. It later housed about 20 women compared with 50 women at the busier main building.

The government sold the gaudy pink stucco buildings that formed the heart of the complex for $145,000 to another brothel owner, who moved them to another site and continues to operate them under the famous name.

The BLM plans to return the Mustang Ranch land to a natural state and use it for public access to the Truckee River.

© 2007 The Associated Press.