Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. history

By 1956, Southwest Gas counted 5,500 customers and had grown to more than $700,000 in annual revenues.

In 1961, the company bought the Carson Water Company, which supplied the water system to the state's capitol; the venture into water distribution did not last long, however, and the water system was later sold to the city.

In 1963, Southwest Gas built a new, 230-mile pipeline that stretched from Idaho to Reno.

The company had previously moved into the Colorado River region, with service to Bullhead City; in 1972, Southwest Gas extended its operations to Boulder City, next to the Hoover Dam, with the acquisition of Boulder Natural Gas Company.

The company's revenues jumped to $275 million for 1979.

By 1981, revenues had grown again, reaching $315 million on a customer base of 335,000.

Revenues grew to $611 million in 1985, and net income was also high, nearing $24 million.

Paiute Pipeline officially begins operations on August 1, 1988.

In 1993, Southwest made its first move to exit the banking business, selling off its Arizona operations to World Savings and Loan, based in Oakland, California.

Revenues dropped from $599 million in 1994 to $563 million, and net income (not including a $17.5 million charge for discontinuing its PriMerit operations) sank to $2.7 million.

A warming trend in the Southwest had been leading to milder winters in the past two decades; the winter of 1995 was particularly mild, cutting deeply into the company's sales.

Southwest posted revenues of $644 million in 1996, for an operating profit of nearly $71.6 million and a net income of nearly $6.6 million.