By Nancy Jennis Olds
Mother Nature made a big appearance! The Searchlight Community Center cleanup event, held on Thursday, February 23rd, appeared to be moving along as planned with an ample amount of fifteen or so volunteers as well as some residents attending. It was intended to be a promising event for the volunteers driving in from Summerlin, Las Vegas, Henderson, and including one ambitious lady driving north from Laughlin, to help out the Searchlight community with a cleanup.
Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft and his staff were making a special visit to Searchlight, Nevada, along with members of Get Outdoors Nevada, a 501(c) (3) organization that encourages everyone from all ages and experiences to discover, experience, and become involved with our state’s natural wonders. Representatives of The Harbor, an outreach program which provides a safe place for youth and their families, connecting them with services including tutoring, mentoring, counseling, life skills classes, and so much more brought in some of their members eager to lend a hand.
We gathered at the Searchlight Community Center to meet with Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft prior to preparing for our cleanup. However, the driving sleet morphed into heavy snow, barring any chance of cleaning up on the snow-blanketed grounds! Notwithstanding a change in the weather, this was a golden opportunity to personally meet with Commissioner Naft and discuss issues about the Searchlight community and to visit the wonderful exhibits on display at the museum situated in the Searchlight Community Center.
An enormously popular and influential native son of Searchlight, was the late U.S. Senator Harry Reid (1939-2021). An avid historian, Reid recorded the history of his hometown in his book, "Searchlight: The Camp That Didn’t Fail". Searchlight, an unincorporated town of about 445 residents (2020 census) was once a boom era gold mining town beginning in the late 1890s. The gold mines produced $7 million in gold from 1907 to 1910. During this time of economic success, the population of Searchlight surged to about 1,500, a population growth exceeding that of Las Vegas at the time. The town began declining by 1917. Searchlight suffered further when U.S. Route 91 construction bypassed Searchlight in 1927. Only about fifty residents still lived there.
However, Searchlight experienced a revival in the 1930s and the 1940s when the Hoover Dam was being constructed nearby and the El Rey Bordello drew business from the 1940s to the early 1950s before it burned down. The gold mining ventures drew its final breath around 1953.
Among the people present was someone that Commissioner Naft knew very well since she was the prime force behind Searchlight’s community center and museum. Jane Bunker Overy, eighty-five years young, a U.S. Air Force veteran originally hailing from Kansas and quite the traveler, lived in Searchlight for forty years for health reasons. Throughout her busy life she had been a military newspaper reporter and a historian. She traveled and performed musically at U.S. Air Force shows in Hawaii, Alaska, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Bermuda, Guam, and Okinawa, to name a few places. Her husband once worked for NASA in Houston, Texas. Jane Overy, a cancer survivor, could not tolerate Houston’s environment. Moving to Searchlight greatly improved her respiratory health.
Not one to rest on her laurels, Jane Bunker Overy, has been a past commander of the Disabled American Veterans with the Henderson Chapter and a state commander. While residing in Searchlight, she was the town historian and director of the Searchlight Museum Guild. Presently, she resides with her husband in Henderson. During the time she was living in Searchlight she became good friends with the late Senator Harry Reid. Senator Reid made a surprise visit to the Searchlight Community Center for her eightieth birthday.
The residents of Searchlight wisely chose Overy for planning the Searchlight Community Center and its Searchlight Historical Museum, a library, meeting place, and food bank. The Searchlight Community Center is an integral part of the Clark County government’s parks and recreation system and the social hub of Searchlight.
Safe water was a critical issue with the Searchlight community from its very beginning. The well water in this former mining town was discovered to be dangerously contaminated with asbestos. Two aquifers were constructed some distance from the mines for the health and safety of the Searchlight community. The Clark County Water Reclamation District, “The District”, operates water treatment facilities in Searchlight. The Clark County Water Reclamation District is governed by the Clark County Commissioners, a seven member Board of Trustees. Commissioner Michael Naft is a trustee for “The District”.
Although our attempt to visit this intriguing town as volunteers for a cleanup had to be postponed for a later date, it was a golden opportunity to discover how this town has managed to survive since its inception on May 6, 1897.
Something anticipated for quite some time will undoubtedly affect Searchlight and its surroundings. President Joe Biden plans to establish Avi Kwa Ave, or Spirit Mountain, so named by the Mojave Tribe, to become the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. The Joshua tree enriched surroundings are considered sacred by ten Yuman speaking tribes. These 380,000 acres of stunning canyons, natural springs, spectacular peaks, and biologically diverse desert lands will be further protected for any visitor to explore and enjoy. This could be an exciting time for Searchlight, “The Camp That Didn’t Fail”, to be a part of this new desert monument experience.