What is ‘Hendertucky’, and is the name here to stay?

Las Vegas historian and UNLV professor Michael Green said the term picked up popularity in the 1990s after Henderson expanded west with the development of Green Valley in the late 1970s.

Over time, the older, industrial parts of town were overshadowed by newer suburbs — a common trend for cities across Southern Nevada, Green said.

“In every community in Southern Nevada, as is the case with a lot of other places around the country … there tends to end up being a downtown versus new town vibe,” Green said. “You can see it in Las Vegas with Summerlin, and the feeling that downtown seemed a bit downtrodden.”

Known in the 1940s as the Basic townsite, Henderson grew around the Basic Magnesium Inc. plant, once located near the intersection of Lake Mead Parkway and Water Street, which produced magnesium for bombs and munitions during World War II.

A Review-Journal investigation from 2022 found many original homes built in the 1940s and ‘50s are still standing in downtown Henderson around the original townsite area — decades younger than the homes built east of Interstate 11 in neighboring Green Valley.

Historian Mark Hall-Patton, who served as the administrator of the Clark County Museum located along the nearly century-old Boulder Highway in Henderson, said the nickname harkens back to Henderson’s history as a “blue collar community” that was separate, and very economically distinct, from Las Vegas.

“You had Vegas on the other end of the valley; it had the casinos, it was a different place,” Hall-Patton said. “(Henderson) prided itself on the fact that this was a community that had been built during the war around the Basic Magnesium plant.

“The people that called it ‘Hendertucky’ weren’t the locals — that was a term used by folks in Vegas, and it was an insult.”

But online discourse often focuses less on the name itself and more on where the boundaries of old “Hendertucky” end and the newer Green Valley and west Henderson neighborhoods begin.

Where is ‘Hendertucky’ anyway?

Green argues that “Hendertucky” refers to the original townsite area near the magnesium plant, but on social media, Brandon Johnson, a real estate agent known on TikTok as BrandonFromVegas with over 300,000 followers, has made several videos about real estate in the “Hendertucky” area, which he argues is east of Boulder Highway near Basic High School.

“You can actually see a stark difference between one side of the street and the other side of the street,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who grew up in Henderson, said he sees people online often refer to the whole of Henderson as “Hendertucky.”

The nickname is used so often that, as a real estate agent, he sometimes encounters people from other parts of Las Vegas who are hesitant to buy a home in Henderson because of the name’s stereotypes, he said.

“When we sit down and do a consultation, and I say there’s some great houses in this part of Henderson, they go, ‘I’m not moving to Hendertucky with the cowboys and the bumpkins,’” he said.

City seeks to shift perspectives

While many may think Henderson east of I-11 was left in the dust as the city looked west for growth, Tiffany Reardon, communication specialist for Henderson’s Redevelopment Agency, said the city has been focusing on sustaining its core long term — particularly in the Water Street District — since the mid-1990s.

Reardon grew up around the city’s historic district in the 1980s. She said she isn’t bothered by the “Hendertucky” name, but believes it might reflect outdated views on what downtown Henderson has become post-Great Recession.

“If residents from around the valley haven’t come down here in a while, five to 10 years, I think that you’ll find now that we have almost everything they’re looking for downtown — it’s an authentic downtown core,” she said.

Reardon said the city has invested heavily into its Water Street Plaza area to create a space for family-friendly and community-oriented events — something they won’t necessarily find in the gaming- and tourism-centered downtown Las Vegas area that also underwent major revitalization efforts after the Great Recession.

Henderson, in partnership with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, the Nevada Department of Transportation and Clark County, is also working to beautify and improve the safety of a 7.5-mile stretch of Boulder Highway through the $172 million Reimagine Boulder Highway project. The project promises improved sidewalks, street lighting and a rapid transit system on the historic road, where 25 percent of the city’s traffic fatalities have occurred in the last six years.

“Hopefully we can capture those vehicles that are passing by and draw them into downtown and into the Water Street District so they can see what a hidden gem we have here,” Reardon said.

Social media may end moniker

Johnson said he believes social media plays a big part in changing people’s minds on Henderson.

During the pandemic when the Strip was shut down, he said he noticed more people posting online about visiting Henderson and other off-Strip locations — and loving it.

“People started to put together that Henderson was the place to be,” Johnson said.

With more people online talking about the best restaurants and amenities in Henderson, he believes more people now are taking pride in being born-and-raised Hendersonians, or, rather, Hendertuckians.

“When I was growing up, nobody said, ‘I’m from Henderson,’” Johnson said. “People who have lived in Henderson and been there for 30, 40 years, now they want to make the distinction.

“I think there’s pride there, and I think people are dying to talk about it.”

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.