The “Primitive Man,” used by the Lincoln County Authority of Tourism as the official symbol for Lincoln County tourism marketing.
The group that has been known as the Lincoln Community Action Team, LCAT, has changed its name and is now doing business legally as the Lincoln County Authority of Tourism. It is a non-profit entity separate from Lincoln County proper.
Team member Holly Gatzke spoke to the County Commission Board meeting Oct. 2 and said the group has changed its focus a bit also.
She said a few changes have been added to the website www.lincolncountynevada.com. “We want people to know what they can plan for when they come here. We need to flesh that out a little more, because we really want them to know what they can do for three, four, or five days. The best benefit would be to have people come to our county and stay longer. More and more are coming, but we also want to be able to get them to stay longer.”
There is another button on the top banner on the website to go to, she explained. “It is the one for ‘Exploring,’ which gives more details about wildlife, off-roading, hiking, biking, and tour groups.”
“The whole purpose of the website,” she said, “is so the tourists who are planning a visit have in their minds a good understanding of what they can do and where they can spend their money.”
LCAT has retained the “Get Primitive” slogan which was developed a few years ago and uses a symbol of “what we call Primitive Man,” Gatzke said.
It is not the well-known Pahranagat Man. LCAT found they had to use a different symbol because Pahranagat Man exists on petroglyphs and pictographs in various places in the county, left there by the early inhabitants centuries ago. Apparently, some of the local tribal authorities did not feel comfortable having Pahranagat Man used in this manner.
Gatzke said, “On the website, we call him the ‘P Man’ and have him doing all kinds of different things. He is hiking, biking, even sleeping in a hotel bed. We want to trademark this little guy that can be followed around from place to place.”
Even though the symbol is not Pahranagat Man, P Man does bear quite a few similarities and is easily recognizable by local school children as being in the same likeness. Gatzke added, “It’s simple and catchy, shows we’re down to earth and real, and that’s what we’re about.”
She said LCAT is interested in “representing Lincoln County as a whole, from one end to the other so that when people come in, they know they have things to do all the way from Alamo to the state parks in the northern end.”
Commission board members gave unanimous approval to use Primitive Man as the slogan, and P Man as the symbol as the branding for county tourism promotion. Commissioner Varlin Higbee was absent.
