Stephanie
Diamond Member
- Jul 11, 2004
- 70,230
- 10,864
- 2,040
wow, working for government is damn lucrative and you get a big write
up in the newspapers too...while laughing behind our backs, SUCKERS
snip:
A gambler stands at the cashier station at the Searchlight Nugget Casino in Searchlight, Nevada. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently sold his Searchlight home, property, mineral and water rights to Nevada Milling and Mining for $1.7 million. (Isaac Brekken/For The Washington Post)
By Rosalind S. Helderman July 5 at 9:35 PM 
SEARCHLIGHT, Nev. Harry Reid grew up in a shack in this dusty old gold-mining outpost in the middle of the desert.
As he rose to political power, he amassed personal wealth and began living part time in a condo in Washington. But he never stopped holding tightly to a gritty public persona grounded in his Searchlight roots building a house here and keeping the town his official residence.
Along the way, a tiny town that thrived only briefly during a gold rush more than a century ago gained bragging rights as home to the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate.
But this month has brought a remarkable turn of events for Searchlight and its population of a few hundred: A new gold rush has reignited investor interest here. And Reid, whose land quite literally sat on a gold mine, has seized the opportunity to cash out of the town at the center of his political identity.
He announced last month that he had sold his house along with 110 acres of Joshua-tree-dotted, rocky land to Nevada Milling and Mining, a small South Dakota company that bought an abandoned mine next door in 2010 and has high hopes for a new era of gold production.
The $1.75 million deal was a handsome payout for Reid (D), who is paid a Senate salary of $193,400 per year. Nearly all of the land had been in Reids family for decades, much of it originally deeded to his father and some bought by Reid from family members. His brother will continue to live in Searchlight, where Reid will also retain some holdings.
Reid, 74, said he and his wife, Landra, wanted to be closer to their children and grandchildren, as well as his political base in Las Vegas, an hours drive across the desolate Mojave Desert.
Now Reid, who as Senate majority leader is presiding over the Democrats efforts this year to retain control of the Senate and looking ahead to his own potentially difficult reelection in 2016, will need to adjust the carefully tended life narrative he has presented to voters since he entered politics in the late 1960s. And Searchlight is pondering a new but possibly brighter future without its native son.
Were all very, very sad to see Harry go, said Reggie Doing, 32, whose family owns the Searchlight Nugget Casino and Restaurant, which offers 10-cent coffee, $1 beer and is the towns main gathering place. But he said the return of gold mining marked by the sale could renew the town. Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is forever. Change can be a blessing.
A video that Reid recorded to break the news of his land sale to constituents shows the senator lovingly describing Searchlight trinkets he keeps in his Washington office, including an old miners helmet with a carbide lamp. Even after all these years, you can still smell the carbide, he said, sniffing the item.
Searchlight is my birthplace, it is my home, my favorite place in the world, Reid said in a statement provided to The Washington Post. He called the sale a a very difficult decision.
The return of gold mining to Searchlight is part of a new rush throughout Nevada made possible by a spike in gold prices following the economic crash of the last decade, when gold was thought to be a safe investment in a volatile financial world. The price of gold soared to over $1,900 an ounce in 2011; it has now settled back to about $1,300 an ounce, still a historically high price.
Election Lab: See our current forecast for every congressional race in 2014
New technologies have allowed gold-mining companies to leach tiny particles of gold from ore that would have been considered of far too low-grade to be worth mining in Searchlights heyday. Mining, along with gambling, is one of Nevadas most profitable industries, with nearly all of the gold produced in the United States lifted from beneath the states rocky deserts.
Searchlight has seen past attempts to revive its once-lucrative mining, but has in recent years been plagued with more scam artists than gold strikers. Town historian Jane Overy recalled one man nicknamed Santa Claus by residents, who showed up around Christmas carrying a suitcase full of cash and declaring he would invest in a gold mine. He was gone in a few months.
But Nevada Milling and Mining has been a steady presence since it bought 88 acres next to Reids property in 2010. The company says it has invested at least $15 million in the site, which included a mill and an abandoned mine, and it plans to begin mining operations there this month. Newly installed machines will crush 200 tons of rock a day, said mine manager John Hayes, enough to rival the best of Searchlights boom years.
The company inherited oilskin-page records from the old mine site dating from 1904 that provide detailed descriptions of deposits that seemed useless in the old days but are now likely to be lucrative. A new bank safe, its tag not yet cut off, sits inside a concrete-walled room awaiting newly minted gold bars.
Reids property is valuable to the company for potential drilling years from now and for its strong well, which could be tapped soon to feed the water-intensive mining process, Hayes said.
By Reids telling, he did not anticipate the value that would ultimately be assigned to the land holdings he spent years amassing bit by bit.
I can remember coming back after law school, and the one thing I wanted to do was start buying Searchlight property, he said in a video clip released to The Post. And I started that. I would get a little piece, Id pay some of my uncles $50 a month. So I wound up collecting property. At the time, it wasnt worth much. But as the years have gone on, its now worth more money.
With land sales in Searchlight largely static for years, there are few recent deals with which to compare the mines purchase, said Fred Marik, a real estate agent trying to sell other land in Searchlight.
The sales price is about $700,000 more than the value assessed by Clark County, although according to the assessor, that value does not account for the water underground or possible mineral deposits.
The investors behind Nevada Milling and Mining issued a statement saying the purchase was negotiated with Reid at arms-length. It took into account the need to buffer nearby neighbors from the sound of dynamite blasts at the companys new mine, as well as water and mineral rights. The value of Reid's land was based on numerous factors that the company considers proprietary and confidential, the statement said.
The companys investors include Roland Gentner, a South Dakota businessman who used to run a company that sold slot machines, and James Oegema, president of a South Dakota investment company with casino and car-dealership holdings, according to public records.
They declined to be interviewed, but George Garcia, a development consultant working on the project, said the company wanted to buy Reids land before the new mine starts pouring gold and causes a spike in prices throughout the area.
The whole county is in a stir, he said. Its like any gold rush. Theres always an element of people who think they can make money.
Something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, Hayes added.
Asked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal following the sale if he had gotten a sweetheart deal, Reid responded: I hope I did. Thats what this great free enterprise system is all about.
all of the sweet drippy from the compost at
Harry Reid?s land sale to gold mine is boon for him and opportunity for Searchlight - The Washington Post
up in the newspapers too...while laughing behind our backs, SUCKERS
snip:
A gambler stands at the cashier station at the Searchlight Nugget Casino in Searchlight, Nevada. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently sold his Searchlight home, property, mineral and water rights to Nevada Milling and Mining for $1.7 million. (Isaac Brekken/For The Washington Post)
By Rosalind S. Helderman July 5 at 9:35 PM 
SEARCHLIGHT, Nev. Harry Reid grew up in a shack in this dusty old gold-mining outpost in the middle of the desert.
As he rose to political power, he amassed personal wealth and began living part time in a condo in Washington. But he never stopped holding tightly to a gritty public persona grounded in his Searchlight roots building a house here and keeping the town his official residence.
Along the way, a tiny town that thrived only briefly during a gold rush more than a century ago gained bragging rights as home to the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate.
But this month has brought a remarkable turn of events for Searchlight and its population of a few hundred: A new gold rush has reignited investor interest here. And Reid, whose land quite literally sat on a gold mine, has seized the opportunity to cash out of the town at the center of his political identity.
He announced last month that he had sold his house along with 110 acres of Joshua-tree-dotted, rocky land to Nevada Milling and Mining, a small South Dakota company that bought an abandoned mine next door in 2010 and has high hopes for a new era of gold production.
The $1.75 million deal was a handsome payout for Reid (D), who is paid a Senate salary of $193,400 per year. Nearly all of the land had been in Reids family for decades, much of it originally deeded to his father and some bought by Reid from family members. His brother will continue to live in Searchlight, where Reid will also retain some holdings.
Reid, 74, said he and his wife, Landra, wanted to be closer to their children and grandchildren, as well as his political base in Las Vegas, an hours drive across the desolate Mojave Desert.
Now Reid, who as Senate majority leader is presiding over the Democrats efforts this year to retain control of the Senate and looking ahead to his own potentially difficult reelection in 2016, will need to adjust the carefully tended life narrative he has presented to voters since he entered politics in the late 1960s. And Searchlight is pondering a new but possibly brighter future without its native son.
Were all very, very sad to see Harry go, said Reggie Doing, 32, whose family owns the Searchlight Nugget Casino and Restaurant, which offers 10-cent coffee, $1 beer and is the towns main gathering place. But he said the return of gold mining marked by the sale could renew the town. Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is forever. Change can be a blessing.
A video that Reid recorded to break the news of his land sale to constituents shows the senator lovingly describing Searchlight trinkets he keeps in his Washington office, including an old miners helmet with a carbide lamp. Even after all these years, you can still smell the carbide, he said, sniffing the item.
Searchlight is my birthplace, it is my home, my favorite place in the world, Reid said in a statement provided to The Washington Post. He called the sale a a very difficult decision.
The return of gold mining to Searchlight is part of a new rush throughout Nevada made possible by a spike in gold prices following the economic crash of the last decade, when gold was thought to be a safe investment in a volatile financial world. The price of gold soared to over $1,900 an ounce in 2011; it has now settled back to about $1,300 an ounce, still a historically high price.
Election Lab: See our current forecast for every congressional race in 2014
New technologies have allowed gold-mining companies to leach tiny particles of gold from ore that would have been considered of far too low-grade to be worth mining in Searchlights heyday. Mining, along with gambling, is one of Nevadas most profitable industries, with nearly all of the gold produced in the United States lifted from beneath the states rocky deserts.
Searchlight has seen past attempts to revive its once-lucrative mining, but has in recent years been plagued with more scam artists than gold strikers. Town historian Jane Overy recalled one man nicknamed Santa Claus by residents, who showed up around Christmas carrying a suitcase full of cash and declaring he would invest in a gold mine. He was gone in a few months.
But Nevada Milling and Mining has been a steady presence since it bought 88 acres next to Reids property in 2010. The company says it has invested at least $15 million in the site, which included a mill and an abandoned mine, and it plans to begin mining operations there this month. Newly installed machines will crush 200 tons of rock a day, said mine manager John Hayes, enough to rival the best of Searchlights boom years.
The company inherited oilskin-page records from the old mine site dating from 1904 that provide detailed descriptions of deposits that seemed useless in the old days but are now likely to be lucrative. A new bank safe, its tag not yet cut off, sits inside a concrete-walled room awaiting newly minted gold bars.
Reids property is valuable to the company for potential drilling years from now and for its strong well, which could be tapped soon to feed the water-intensive mining process, Hayes said.
By Reids telling, he did not anticipate the value that would ultimately be assigned to the land holdings he spent years amassing bit by bit.
I can remember coming back after law school, and the one thing I wanted to do was start buying Searchlight property, he said in a video clip released to The Post. And I started that. I would get a little piece, Id pay some of my uncles $50 a month. So I wound up collecting property. At the time, it wasnt worth much. But as the years have gone on, its now worth more money.
With land sales in Searchlight largely static for years, there are few recent deals with which to compare the mines purchase, said Fred Marik, a real estate agent trying to sell other land in Searchlight.
The sales price is about $700,000 more than the value assessed by Clark County, although according to the assessor, that value does not account for the water underground or possible mineral deposits.
The investors behind Nevada Milling and Mining issued a statement saying the purchase was negotiated with Reid at arms-length. It took into account the need to buffer nearby neighbors from the sound of dynamite blasts at the companys new mine, as well as water and mineral rights. The value of Reid's land was based on numerous factors that the company considers proprietary and confidential, the statement said.
The companys investors include Roland Gentner, a South Dakota businessman who used to run a company that sold slot machines, and James Oegema, president of a South Dakota investment company with casino and car-dealership holdings, according to public records.
They declined to be interviewed, but George Garcia, a development consultant working on the project, said the company wanted to buy Reids land before the new mine starts pouring gold and causes a spike in prices throughout the area.
The whole county is in a stir, he said. Its like any gold rush. Theres always an element of people who think they can make money.
Something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, Hayes added.
Asked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal following the sale if he had gotten a sweetheart deal, Reid responded: I hope I did. Thats what this great free enterprise system is all about.
all of the sweet drippy from the compost at
Harry Reid?s land sale to gold mine is boon for him and opportunity for Searchlight - The Washington Post
