Description
The desolate Mojave Desert in Nevada’s extreme southern tip is one of the least hospitable environments in the United States. However, its rugged mountains concealed rich deposits of gold and silver that attracted miners from the time that Spanish explorers first discovered them in the eighteenth century. In the early years of this century, the area became the site of a small but profitable mining boom. At the center of the excitement was a camp called Searchlight. Nevada’s U.S. Senator Harry Reid is a native of Searchlight, and in this charming, meticulously researched book he lovingly recounts the colorful history of his hometown—the discovery of the ores that brought about the boom, the growth of the mines and of the town that served them, and the lives of the hardy, stubborn people who not only worked the mines but with their families built a town from a dusty mining camp. He also reveals to us how the railroad and other transportation came to Searchlight, how the availability of water helped the town and its surrounding ranches grow, and the roles played by famous, and infamous, residents—such as the renegade Paiute Queho, Hollywood royalty like Clara Bow and Rex Bell, and aviation pioneer John Macready. The history of Searchlight is part of Nevada’s early-twentieth-century mining boom, which, unlike earlier booms, was facilitated by advanced mining technologies but was also more vulnerable to fluctuations in the international market for precious metals. That Searchlight survived its short-lived wealth is a tribute to its people who refused to let their town die, but is also a reflection of the phenomenal growth of southern Nevada. Reid’s account of Searchlight is a valuable contribution to the understudied history of southern Nevada. It will inform students of the recent mining West about the development of a typical boomtown, but it will also delight readers curious about life in the forbidding depths of the Mojave and the experiences of the modern-day pioneers who braved that daunting environment to build an enduring community.

Reviews
“Reid has written of an era in Nevada history that has not been fully touched on prior to this, and his book covers an important segment of the history of the West.” —Sally Macready Wallace, Journal of the West,

“. . . this piece of old-fashioned local history is clearly a labor of love. Searchlight, Nevada, originated as a gold mining camp. It has by turns shriveled and flourished from the 1890s until the present, never quite dying even in the worst of times. Reared in Searchlight, Reid, in plain straightforward prose, directs his own searchlight of inquiry toward every aspect of the town’s life.” —D.W. Steeples, CHOICE,