Utah's snowbirds fly south.

• Position: Developers plan to transform Peppermill Resort Hotel/Casino in Mesquite, Nevada to major tourist attraction status, expecting trend in large influx of guests from Utah to continue and increase

The Peppermill Golf Course is part of a plan to turn Mesquite from a rest stop into a resort destination.

Daytime motorists unfamiliar with southbound Interstate 15 near the Arizona/Utah border may at first wonder why there is a plush green golf course in the middle of a dry, red-rock desert.

They drive two more minutes to discover that the course on the Arizona side of the border belongs to the Peppermill Resort Hotel/Casino in Mesquite, Nev., and that it is a major aspect of transforming that city from a roadside stop into a traveler's destination.

Peppermill's presence in Mesquite, with a population approaching 3,000, dates back to 1981 when the owners of the Peppermill Restaurant in Reno, Bill Paganetti and Nat Carlasi, purchased a 28-room room truck stop and casino called Western Village.

Eleven years later, the Peppermill boasts eight hotel buildings with 728 rooms, four restaurants, a health club, a gun club, and an authentic western ranch. It also ranks as Mesquite's No.1 employer, with 960 employees. Approximately 40 percent commute from southern Utah.

The change in traveler's attitudes about Mesquite is slow in coming, but it is coming nonetheless, said Peppermill marketing manager Kevin Lewis. The average length of stay of a Peppermill customer is 1.7 nights, not a vacation or a long weekend by most standards, "but it is closer to being two nights than it is to one." Forty percent to 45 percent of Peppermill's guests on any given "1.7 nights" are Utahns, representing the resort's No.1 market in terms of occupancy and revenues.

"Gamblings casinos are still a novelty item to Utahns. Gambling is unique to them; it's exciting; and it's something you can't do in Utah," said Lewis. "But a lot of people prefer to stay in Mesquite rather than Las Vegas because it isn't as foreboding."

The Peppermill has become a popular winter getaway for northern Utahns - affectionately called "snowbirds" - who want to get out from under the weather inversion. That market is equalled by Utahns who enjoy driving 30 minutes or 90 minutes from St. George and Cedar City, and more recently by Las Vegans eager to escape the hustle and bustle of that booming city.

"We don't want Mesquite to be a mini Las Vegas," said Lewis. "We'd rather see it become a mini Palm Springs. Las Vegas is always happening around you. No matter where you look, there are lights, casinos. In Mesquite, we can offer our guests the action of a Las Vegas. But if they want to get away from...