fuckyeahghosttowns:

Searchlight, Nevada.
(via flickr)

According to Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who has written extensively about his hometown, the most likely story as to how the town received its name was when George Frederick Colton was looking for gold in the area in 1897 he supposedly said that it would take a searchlight to find gold ore there. Shortly thereafter he found gold, leading to a boom era when Searchlight had a larger population than Las Vegas. At the time, it was in Lincoln County, Nevada. As talk surfaced for carving Clark County, Nevada out of Lincoln County, Searchlight was initially considered to be the county seat. Between 1907 and 1910 the gold mines produced $7 million in gold and other precious minerals and the town had a population of about 1,500.

Other stories on the origin of the name include a story that Colton was lighting a Searchlight brand of matches when he discovered the gold ore. Reid dismisses this story saying that the Searchlight matches were not available in 1898. Yet another story says that Colton thought the area would be a good place because it was on a hill. Colton’s mine was called the Duplex because the gold ore was found on two levels.

Searchlight declined after 1917 but hung on as a stop on the Arrowhead Highway. In 1927, U.S. Highway 91 bypassed the town and its population dropped to 50.

The town had a resurgence in the 1930s and 1940s with the construction of nearby Hoover Dam and was home to the El Rey Bordello in the 1940s and early 1950s until it burned. The last gold mine ceased operating around 1953. Senator Reid’s autobiography states that during his youth the town had 13 houses of prostitution but no churches.

Note: while today there are officially living 576 people in Searchlight, Nevada, many old buildings from the early 1900’s remain with many modern structures.

I have gained some respect for Harry Reid for coming from such a comically small town. It’s like something out of a typical coming-of-age neo-Western affair.