Drinking laws in the United States are a patchwork of state and local ordinances. There are some places where you can buy liquor inside the city limits, not not outside the limits. Then there are towns inside "wet" states that prohibit alcohol sales within the city limits. The reasons for these towns to hold out against alcohol sales vary greatly. In Panaca, Nevada, it was a matter of geography.
If you want to find the Nevada town that is the most opposite of Las Vegas, check out Panaca, which allows no drinking and no gambling (though their town market does have a nice selection of local honey, so they’ve got that going for them). Founded in 1864 as a Mormon colony, Panaca was originally part of Utah, but congressional redrawing in 1866 pushed the town into Nevada. Still a Mormon community today, Panaca has never allowed drinking, meaning it’s now the only teetotaling town in Nevada. (Interestingly, in Utah, despite the dense Mormon population, no town is dry because no local law can conflict with a state law, so alcohol is permitted everywhere.)
Mel magazine looks at eight towns (of about 500 in the US) with interesting stories behind their dryness. -via Digg
(Image credit: Flickr user Ken Lund)