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Searchlight: The Camp That Didn't Fail

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Just on the other side of the Arizona and California border, Searchlight is about an hour south of Las Vegas. While Vegas currently has over one and a half million people, Searchlight only has around eight hundred. It wasn't always that way. There was a time when Searchlight's population and modernity eclipsed that of Sin City. "Searchlight: The Camp That Didn't Fail" is a history of this town. Written by the current U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid is a son of Searchlight. Reid examines the hypotheses surrounding the origin of the town's unusual name. This history begins with the site's prospecting days. The story continues with the mining boom and bust and finishes with Searchlight's reincarnation as a retirement community and stop off for Lake Mojave recreationalists. Being one of the most productive mines in US history, the Quartette gold mine is largely responsible for Searchlight's former greatness. Reid spends a good deal of time on founding fathers Benjamin Macready and Colonel Hopkins. Other people associated with the town include Scott Joplin, James Cashman, Rex Bell, Clara Bow, John Macready and Queho, the outlaw Paiute. Topics include banking, the mining strike, newspapers, education, prostitution and the railroad. While the author recounts some of his personal experiences, much of the research for "Searchlight" is based on surviving newspaper articles. The handsome book includes photographs, appendices, end notes, maps and a foreword by former governor O'Callaghan. In terms of drawbacks, the book could have included a tri-state regional map. Harry Reid discusses places that are either not marked or are located off the included Nevada map. Anyone familiar with the region will know the whereabouts of places like Bullhead City, but some readers will wonder about the locality of places like Lanfair Valley, Nelson and Barnwell. Beyond this, there is nothing extraordinary about Searchlight. Sure, there were some interesting characters but unlike places such as Tombstone (Arizona), readers shouldn't expect a theatrical adaptation any time soon. Even Reid appreciates the town's modest place in the big scheme of things. This isn't necessarily a drawback because in this context, Searchlight is a satisfying case study of a typical boom to bust mining town. Thus "Searchlight: The Camp That Didn't Fail" is also recommended for readers who have an interest in Western History, mining and the Mojave Desert. While Harry Reid's hometown may be the camp that didn't fail, his book didn't fail to capture the story of Searchlight.