Peace Marchers Beat the Odds, Reach Las Vegas

The Great Peace March finally made it here Saturday, three weeks late and against odds that even the bookmakers might think were impossible.

The marchers, who are walking to Washington in an effort to promote global nuclear disarmament, arrived in town and walked through the Strip on a sunny but windy morning. Today, the marchers will begin the next leg of their trip, which will take them into Utah.

‘We really did rise up from the ashes in Barstow,” march organizer Tim Carpenter said, referring to the death and rebirth of the march several weeks ago.

450 Walked 14-Mile Stretch

About 450 people--a combination of about 300 marchers, along with hangers-on and local residents--walked the 14 miles from a camp site south of the city to Heritage Hall on the northeast side. For two hours, the group walked along the Strip, where clusters of tourists and residents looked on.

A few people made spontaneous donations. Marchers reported that one high-roller ran out of a casino and presented two $100 bills to marchers.

In front of the Holiday Inn, two older men sat on a low wall as the marchers moved by. Tears streamed down the cheeks of one of them as he held his thumb up to the marchers. The other man took $10 from his pocket and handed it to a marcher.

Participants split up Saturday night to take shelter in the homes of Las Vegas residents. March organizers said they had at least 100 more offers of shelters than they had marchers.

Delighted to Help

One Las Vegas resident, John Goetz, said he and his wife Millie were delighted to help.

“We’ve got an empty house and I like to cook for people,” Goetz said. “I can’t go myself, so we’ll do this.”

Goetz’s response was typical of Las Vegas.

Vincent Clark, a retired cabdriver, said he had been running errands for the marchers for several days, taking them to coin-operated laundries and providing transportation for some of the younger children.

“Las Vegas has shown them a lot of support. It’s a good-willed town,” Clark said.

The group that marched Saturday is what is left of the more than 1,000 people who set out from Los Angeles on March 1. Two weeks later, their numbers had been diminished by harsh weather, poor finances, lack of adequate equipment and food, and the collapse of their sponsoring organization.

The marchers were left stranded outside Barstow, but regrouped over the next few weeks, reincorporated as The Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament and raised about $60,000 to see them across the desert and into Las Vegas.

The organizers are uncertain just how many are in the group now. Spokesmen said the group will make a new head count once the marchers leave Las Vegas.

The last census, taken in Barstow, numbered 517. Of that number, however, about 300 have been walking, while the rest have been working on support crews or have been fund-raising in Los Angeles and other locations.

About 60 marchers are in Nevada jails, serving short sentences as the result of acts of civil disobedience they committed earlier at the Nevada Test Site, where they protested the underground nuclear explosion that occurred Thursday.