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Searchlight is an unincorporated town and
census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...
(CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, at the topographic saddle between two mountain ranges. At the 2020 census it had a population of 445.


History

According to
U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...
Harry Reid (1939-2021), who wrote extensively about his hometown, the most likely story as to how the town received its name was that when George Frederick Colton was looking for
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
in the area on May 6, 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. The ore was shipped to Barnwell via the
Barnwell and Searchlight Railway The Barnwell and Searchlight Railway is a defunct short-line railroad that operated from 1906 to 1911. The railroad ran from Barnwell, California to Searchlight, Nevada. It was always operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. C ...
. Other stories on the origin of the name include a story that Colton was lighting a Searchlight brand
match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden mat ...
when he discovered the gold ore. Reid dismissed 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. His mine was called the Duplex, because the gold ore was found on two levels. Searchlight declined after 1917 but remained as a stop on the Arrowhead Highway. In 1927, U.S. Route 91 bypassed the town and its population dropped to 50. The town had a resurgence in the 1930s and 1940s with the construction of the nearby Hoover Dam and was the site the El Rey Bordello in the 1940s and early 1950s until it burned down. The last gold mine ceased operating around 1953.


Geography


Climate

The city experiences a desert climate ( Köppen: ''BWh'') with hot summers and cool winters, but it is not uncommon to see temperatures below freezing. Searchlight's elevation makes temperatures somewhat cooler than lower-elevation areas in the Mojave Desert, such as Baker, California; Needles, California; and Fort Mohave, Arizona. However, summers can still be extremely hot. Due to Searchlight's altitude and aridity, temperatures drop quickly after sunset, especially in the summer. Daytime highs in the winter are usually well above freezing, and nighttime lows drop below freezing only a few nights a year.


Demographics

At the 2000
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...
, there were 576 people, 315 households and 136 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 444 housing units at an average density of . The racial make-up of the CDP was 95.0%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
, 0.7%
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.7% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 1.7% from other races and 1.6% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
or Latino of any race were 3.7% of the population. There are 315 households, of which 8.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.9% were married couples living together, 5.1% had a female householder with no husband present and 56.8% were non-families. 48.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 23.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.76 and the average family size was 2.46. 10.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 3.1% from 18 to 24, 20.0% from 25 to 44, 35.8% from 45 to 64 and 31.1% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 55 years. For every 100 females, there were 125.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 131.3 males. The median household income was $24,407 and the medianfamily income was $29,323. Males had a median income of $26,563 and females $27,868. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...
was $19,606. None of the household families were living below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, with just 14.6% of the population comprising that, including no one under age 18 and none of those over 64.


Education

Public education in Searchlight is administered by Clark County School District. The district operates Reid Elementary School (K–5) in Searchlight. Searchlight has a public library, a branch of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.


Transportation

The
Silver Rider Transit Silver Rider Transit is a public transportation operator in Clark County. Silver Rider Transit operates in the rural portion of Clark county, with focus cities of Laughlin and Mesquite History Silver Rider Transit was incorporated in 2002, as a ...
operates express buses between Laughlin, Searchlight and
Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...
. Private shuttle companies connect Searchlight with Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.


Notable people

* Rex Bell, westerns actor and politician. Owned the
Walking Box Ranch Walking Box Ranch, west of Searchlight, Nevada in the Mojave Desert, was founded in 1931 by the actors Rex Bell and Clara Bow as a working ranch. The ranch covered at the time it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Jan ...
with his wife Clara Bow. The ranch was a popular destination for Hollywood actors. * Edith Head, costume designer who won more Oscars than any other woman. *
William Harrell Nellis William Harrell Nellis (March 8, 1916 – December 27, 1944) was a United States fighter pilot who flew 70 World War II combat missions. He was shot down three times, the last time fatally. On April 30, 1950, the Las Vegas Air Force Base in Nevada ...
, aviator for whom Nellis Air Force Base is named * Harry Reid, United States senator, 1987–2017, senate majority leader, 2007-2015


In popular culture

In 1907, the "
Searchlight Rag The "Searchlight Rag" is a ragtime composition by Scott Joplin, first published in 1907. It was named after the town of Searchlight, Nevada, where his friends had gone prospecting, inspiring the title. History In 1907, the "Searchlight Rag" by S ...
" by Scott Joplin was published. In the early 1890s, Joplin's friends, the brothers Tom and Charles Turpin, had been prospecting in the Searchlight area. Their frequent stories of this experience, recounted to the patrons of their bar, inspired the title of the rag.


See also

*
Barnwell and Searchlight Railway The Barnwell and Searchlight Railway is a defunct short-line railroad that operated from 1906 to 1911. The railroad ran from Barnwell, California to Searchlight, Nevada. It was always operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. C ...
* LORAN-C transmitter Searchlight * Searchlight Airport


References


External links


Searchlight Town Advisory Board
{{Authority control 1897 establishments in Nevada Census-designated places in Clark County, Nevada Piute Valley Populated places established in 1897 Populated places in the Mojave Desert Unincorporated towns in Nevada