Searchlight, Nevada
30 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Clark census division. It lies in ZIP code area 89046. It lies near Doherty Mountain. The Survey maps it on the Searchlight quadrangle. 445 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,547 feet above sea level.
On record in Searchlight
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Walking Box Ranchlisted 2009
Population over time
2 figuresSearchlight fell from 539 to 445 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 539 | |
| 2020 | 445 | -94 (-17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 30 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1886 USGS Camp Mohave quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Camp Mohave quadrangle1:250000, 8 printings
- 1926 USGS Mohave City quadrangle1:96000
- 1942 USGS Camp Mohave quadrangle1:250000
- 1947 USGS Kingman quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Kingman quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Kingman quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Kingman quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Kingman quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Searchlight quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Kingman quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1982 USGS Davis Dam quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Searchlight quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
6 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Searchlight between 1993 and 2014, burning about 6 acres in total. 2 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | Southern Nevada District Office | LOUS FLASH |
| 3 August 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Southern Nevada District Office | MILE 25 |
| 8 July 2014 | Natural | under an acre | Southern Nevada District Office | SEARCHLIGHT |
| 20 July 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Southern Nevada District Office | LIBRARY |
| 1 July 1993 | Smoking | 3.0 acres | Southern Nevada District Office | 16417CLARK |
| 30 May 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Southern Nevada District Office | POWER ROAD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 56 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 56 workings within 5 miles of Searchlight: 32 past producers, 11 prospects, 8 occurrences, 3 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Silver, Gold, Gold, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Casino Mine | Lead, Copper, Gold, Silver, Zinc | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Boston Mine | Copper, Gold | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Boston Mine | Copper, Silver, Gold | Prospect | ||
| Duplex Mine | Silver, Lead, Gold, Copper, Zinc, Molybdenum | Past Producer | 1897, 1898 | |
| Duplex Mine | Gold, Molybdenum, Zinc, Silver, Lead, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Good Hope Mine | Gold, Zinc, Silver, Lead, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Monte Carlo Mine | Lead, Zinc, Gold, Copper, Silver | Past Producer | 1913 | |
| Padden Mine | Silver, Copper, Gold, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Quartette Mine | Gold, Copper, Lead, Silver, Molybdenum | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Quartette Mine | Gold, Copper, Zinc, Silver, Molybdenum, Lead | Past Producer | 1902 |
Storms near this place
19 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Searchlight in 19 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 14 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 1996 | Lightning | Searchlight | $50,000 | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $40,000 | A large area of Highway 164 was flooded west of Searchlight. Road crews reported several miles of debris and shoulder erosion. It was estimated that road repairs would take a couple of weeks. |
| July 2017 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $25,000 | Cottonwood Cove Road was inundated and undercut by flooding. |
| July 2017 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $10,000 | Nipton Road was closed in both directions near Searchlight, and Cottonwood Cove Road was closed due to extensive flooding. |
| September 1998 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $5,000 | Heavy rain showers dropped nine-tenths (0.90) of an inch of rain within an hour. The runoff eroded roads and yards around Searchlight. |
| August 2000 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $3,000 | Strong thunderstorms moved through Searchlight, NV producing flash flooding that closed Searchlight Highway for several hours. |
| July 2017 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $2,000 | Water and debris flowed over Cottonwood Cove Road. |
| March 2024 | Hail | Searchlight | $1,000 | A large amount of graupel fell on Highway 95 north of Searchlight, contributing to multiple crashes. The highway was closed between mile markers 24 and 29 from 1408 to 1638 PST. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $1,000 | Westbound Highway 164 was closed due to flooding. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $1,000 | Highway 95 was closed in both directions due to flooding. |
| September 2013 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $1,000 | Multiple low water crossings on Cottonwood Cove Road were filled with swift water. |
| August 2013 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $1,000 | Water, mud, and small rocks flowed through the parking lot of the Searchlight Nugget casino. |
| July 2012 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | $1,000 | Nipton Road was closed west of Searchlight. |
| September 2019 | Hail | Searchlight | - | A driver on Highway 95 reported golf ball size hail. |
| August 2008 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | - | Highway 164 was closed from the Highway 95 intersection to the CA-NV state line due to a road washout. |
| July 1999 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | - | Early in the evening, thunderstorms began to produce rainfall amounts in the vicinity of Searchlight of over one inch per hour. A weather spotter observed two feet of water across a nearby surface road around 6:30 p.m. PDT. By 7:30 p.m. PDT, 2.20 inches of rain had been recorded in Searchlight. After a short break, thunderstorms redeveloped and dumped an additional eight-tenths (0.80) of an inch during the late evening. |
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Searchlight | - | A weather spotter estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 mph along with six-tenths (0.60) of an inch of rain in less than 30 minutes. |
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Searchlight | - | A thunderstorm produced a gust of 60 mph in Searchlight. |
| August 1998 | Flash Flood | Searchlight | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald City (historical) | 2.7 miles | 30 | |
| Camp Sunrise (historical) | 2.8 miles | 30 | |
| Wallace (historical) | 8.6 miles | 29 | |
| Morgantown (historical) | 8.8 miles | 26 | |
| Copper Camp (historical) | 9.9 miles | 29 | |
| Camp Dupont (historical) | 10.8 miles | 29 | |
| Cal-Nev-Ari | 11.2 miles | 30 | |
| Crescent (historical) | 13.8 miles | 27 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Searchlight | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q177756 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 845654. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.












