If the management of Nevada Outdoor News were to open a store instead of a Web site, we'd be hard pressed to come up with something better than the Paiute Indians on the Moapa reservation outside Las Vegas.

It's a combination gas station-fireworks-liquor-tobacco and junk food store.

And there's an attached casino for people who feel they haven't quite pushed their luck hard enough with the merchandise.

This place is a must-stop at exit 75 off Interstate 15 north about 50 miles north of Las Vegas, the same exit as Valley of Fire State Park.

You also pass it on the way from Las Vegas to Zion or Bryce Canyon national parks, Brian Head ski resort or anyplace else in southern Utah.

This place has more explosives than anyone who isn't a radical militant movement has seen in a lifetime.

This stash of M-80s, which I remember from when I was a kid as one of the most versatile of all fireworks, is typical of the inventory at the store.

It is aisle after aisle of fireworks, some of them rockets with circumferences as big as wine bottles or charges bigger than coffee cans that sit on the ground.

We didn't get many pictures because there were signs warning against shooting photos or using cell phones in the store. 

The reasoning, according to the signs, was that static electricity from the devices could be dangerous around the fire works.

We took a brief spin around the Internet when we got back to Las Vegas and couldn't find examples of cell phones accidentally setting off fireworks.

But there were some sites showing people how to modify cell phones and attach them to fuses so they can be used to set off fireworks from a safe distance.

Of course, there are plenty of nefarious purposes for such modifications as well.

Anyhoo, in addition to enough explosives to make a showgirl jiggle 50 miles away in Las Vegas if the place were to catch fire, they've got a huge booze and beer selection.

A little liquid courage is always handy after you've loaded up on fireworks -- that is, if you want to have the guts to make a really memorable show when you get home.

In the summertime we've also spotted salespeople in tents out front of this store selling beef jerky. 

The casino is small and smoky and not worth much mention, other than a quick thought on the bum's luck of an Indian tribe suffering a couple of hundred years of oppression only to get a shot at casino wealth then having the misfortune of being about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. Kinda tough to compete there.

Hence the fireworks, I suppose.

And speaking of putting a dollar value on a few centuries enduring genocide, torture, theft, lies and countless social ills, it's apparently worth a discount on gasoline.

This was taped to the front door: