08/13/2023
My father and creator of Nevada Armored Transport, Inc, Felix Lenox, passed away suddenly on May 21st from unexpected complications after a heart stent surgery.
The week of his passing and after the stent surgery, I took him to the grocery store and noticed he was feeling very dizzy and unwell. Despite almost passing out in the parking lot, he was still very adamant that we pick up a print that he had blown up of his old truck in front of the Nipton trading post. There are wooden signs in front of Nipton that he carved himself in his younger days (he did the bathroom signs too), and he was telling me that he had contacted the mayor of Nipton inquiring what was going to become of the signs since Spiegelworld had bought the small town of Nipton. The mayor said they had no intent of taking them down, but if they did, they would be placed in the museum. I incorrectly assumed he was talking about the Nevada state museum. Dad seemed really grateful and excited. He mentioned the photo of his truck and trading post as being a gift as an article of history, but I did not catch who it was supposed to be gifted to.
When I entered his apartment after his passing, I saw that he had put the picture in a frame even though I knew he barely had energy to walk. It was something that clearly meant a great deal to him, and something I wanted to finish for him. I figured the photo was supposed to go inside of the old Nipton trading post.
My younger sister and her fiance Gabe flew out to Vegas to see me and mourn my father's passing. Gabe is a fan of the Fallout video game series which features dilapidated remnants of the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, Primm, and Nipton. We strapped Dad's box of ashes in, and brought the framed photo, and visited Goodsprings together. On the way to Nipton, I read that the trading post was permanently closed and I felt my heart sink and was suddenly afraid I would not be able to find where Dad's photo was supposed to go. Half-serious and half-joking, I yelled out loud "I NEED A LITTLE HELP DAD."
We arrived in Nipton well after 5pm, and the trading post was in fact, permanently closed. I showed my sister the back of the wooden signs where my Dad had carved his name. There seemed to be a small gift shop open up the way and I approached a women inside and asked if the name Felix Lenox rang a bell. She pondered for a minute and said "no... no I don't think so... why are you asking about this person?" As I was telling her the story about Felix and the alleged conversation with the Mayor, she interrupted me and pointed behind me and said "well that's the mayor right there! You can ask him yourself. Maybe he knew who your father was" I turned around to see a man standing behind me, who introduced himself as Jim Eslinger, and after showing him a picture of my father he exclaimed "YEAH I know that guy!!!" Jim seemed puzzled as I tried to explain my plight with the framed photo, but after I pulled it out of the trunk, he explained that a Nipton museum was going to be built in the brick house, and they wanted old pictures of the Nipton Trading Post. Even though Speigleworld had future plans for Nipton, they also wanted to preserve and honor the history of the town. He took my Dad's framed photograph and said that he would put it in storage and make sure that it found its home in the museum.
I asked if it was alright if we released some of his ashes, and my sister and I released them together into the giant cedar tree in front of the trading post.
The mayor gave us a personal tour of Nipton to show us the artwork being put up, the pond pool being built, and the infamous Clara Bow room. And then he gifted me a massive jar of local honey.
He also said Netflix approached him for a potential Fallout series, and Gabe was pretty happy about that.
So it's not a part of Nevada history per se, but it's part of my Dad's history. Thank you to everyone who connected with my father and helped contribute to this page. It was something he was very proud of and put a lot of time into. I hope that it stays up for years to come. My dad has a bunch of old Vegas slides he collected and vintage photographs. I read in a message that he had no intention of selling, and that he wanted to donate his collection to the Nevada State Museum or the UNLV libraries special collection and archives. If anyone has any information or connections on how I could do that for my father, please contact me. And if there is anyone that happens to be an armored truck fanatic as much as my Dad was, I have some patches and nic nacs I don't know what to do with if anyone would like a gift.
Love and miss you Dad.
Leah
