HENDERSON (KTNV) — You may have noticed that the “Heart of Nevada” light display on Black Mountain is no longer visible in our valley.
David Koch, its creator, said that he was planning on taking them down today, but someone did that already days ago, and he has no idea when or why someone would remove them.
When he saw from his backyard that the lights were not turning on, he decided to hike the mountain and check on them, thinking that there could be a malfunction. Surprisingly, the lights were gone.
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“Nowhere to be found, not turned off or anything else, they picked them all up, I thought that it was the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the land, but I talked with them the next day but they said no, it wasn't them. It had to be somebody else and, somebody or some group of people, decided to apparently go up and decided to pick up all 60 of the lights off the hill,“ said Koch.
What started a family project, became a sign of hope and unity for the community during the difficult times of 2020.
Koch shared that he's not planning on pressing charges for this, but would like to have the lights back since some people reached out asking for them as souvenirs and are willing to make charitable donations in exchange for them.
If they are returned, he may even consider putting them up again, at least for a little while.
“For the community, it would be very nice to have that type of closure on something like this, it’s been for many months a symbol for people in this area. So that’s kind of the way I feel, not angry, but maybe a little disappointed," says Koch.
Residents in the area also expressed their sadness for not having the lights up on the mountain.
“In these times I don't know who would do something like that when it provided so much inspiration on, I think we all, we enjoyed that,” said Walter Boldish.
Even kids said they miss the light display.
“I want them back, I really liked the lights, “ said Julia Johnson.
