Photo Essay: Nevada's Home of the 'Miracle Metal' That Helped the Allied Forces Win World War II

For as many times as I've visited Las Vegas, I still have a lot to learn about the Las Vegas Valley—and Southern Nevada as a whole. 

That's one of the reasons I like traveling for the annual "Home + History" weekend sponsored by Nevada Preservation Foundation—whose events have taken me to unexpected places on the Strip, just off the Strip, on Fremont Street, and even to nearby Boulder City. 

This year, the one big draw for me was the historic bus tour of Henderson, now Nevada's second-largest city. 

While Boulder City had the Hoover Dam to thank for its founding, Henderson had something completely different: magnesium.

In fact, although Henderson wasn't incorporated until 1953—named after Nevada Senator Charles Belknap Henderson—it began over a decade before that as the "Basic Townsite," home of Basic Magnesium, Inc. (BMI).

And the bus tour I'd driven five and a half hours for, which was co-presented by Nevada Preservation Foundation and Henderson Historical Society, took us through the old BMI plant.

 

I Could Write a Book

I've been a professional writer since I was a senior in high school (and broke a national news story). But since then, I've aways written short pieces—newspaper and magazine articles, essays, blog posts, poems, short stories, and the like. 

I always knew I wanted to publish a book sometime in my future, but I wasn't sure if I could actually write something that... long. And besides, I haven't been able to figure out what the story would be—and where the story would end. 

But then in 2022, I answered a call for help put out by The Los Angeles Breakfast Club: It wanted to publish a history book for its 2025 centennial, and it was looking for writers to pitch in. 

The club was lucky enough to have a few published authors among its ranks—including me, but also those who'd actually written books before. But in the end, those writers had other things going on in their lives and careers. And I was the last man standing, as it were.

It was really the perfect scenario for me: I would be brought on to make the words, but I would be part of a team that would also include Club Historian Rachel Skytt, who would handle most of the heavy lifting when it came to research and crafting the overall narrative of the book. 

With someone else to outline the book and each of its individual sections, I didn't have to worry so much about structure—something I'm not really trained on doing when it comes to long-form writing—and could just focus on wordsmithing. 

The only original research I'd really have to do—besides some fact-checking and contextualizing based on what was going on in the world and in Los Angeles in the early- to mid-20th century—would be to interview current members who'd been around long enough to remember the club when it was hanging on by a thin strand of bacon fat.

Photo Essay: LA's Underdog Basketball Team Gets a Billion-Dollar Dome

There have been lots of new stadiums and arenas popping up all over—and the Los Angeles-adjacent city of Inglewood is home to two of them. 

I already toured SoFi Stadium in 2021, shortly after it opened. And now it was time to tour its neighbor, the $1.8-billion Intuit Dome.*

It opened in August 2024 as the new home to the Los Angeles Clippers, the NBA team that used to have the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena all to themselves (and later shared the Staples Center with the team that usually overshadows them, the LA Lakers).

Photo Essay: The Glorious Human-Powered Sculptures of the Kinetic Grand Championship

Why fly to Sacramento and drive five hours to Arcata, California in Memorial Day Weekend traffic?

To spectate the Kinetic Grand Championship, of course!

This kinetic sculpture race goes back the year 1969, when artist Hobart Brown raced a souped-up version of his kid's tricycle in the town of Ferndale, California. 

Now, it's expanded into a three-day, all-terrain event — and there are kinetic races in other cities across the country, like Ventura, California and Baltimore, Maryland. 

 

It's called the "Triathalon of the Art World"—but to me, the land, water, and sand races sound more like a Tough Mudder obstacle course. 

Photo Essay: The 'Tunnel Tree' of the Northern California Redwoods

We were driving three hours south to Fort Bragg from Arcata, California, where we'd spent the night to watch the lineup of the Kinetic Grand Championship races in the morning. 

Our next stop was to ride the Skunk Train. 

But after we twisted and turned down the 101 South (a.k.a. the Redwood Highway), following the course of the Eel River's South Fork, we turned onto Highway 1 and saw a sign that caught our eye.

 

"Drive-Thru Tree?!" I exclaimed. And my passengers all chimed in, "Can we go?!"

Photo Essay: A Springtime Make-Good at Tejon Ranch

It was a disappointing spring for wildflowers. The only ones I'd seen were along Highway 178 between Inyokern and Lake Elizabeth—and I hadn't had much time to stop and enjoy them during my drive.

So when I was invited to once again tour Tejon Ranch, I was hopeful I'd see some spring blooms. After all, some of the best wildflower displays I've ever seen have been there. 

Then again, I've also seen Tejon Ranch totally brown and dried up. So there were no guarantees.

 

I was pleasantly surprised what awaited us. No superbloom by any means, but plenty of color in a feast for the eyes, like the red penstemon...

Photo Essay: No Better Place to 'B' in Vegas Than the Bellagio Conservatory in Spring

People always ask me, "What is there good to do in Las Vegas?"

 

And the first thing I always tell them is the Bellagio Conservatory. "It's different every time!" I say. 

Photo Essay: Kustomized Cars in Vegas, Courtesy of "The Count"

Every time I visit Vegas, I never have enough time to do all the things I want to do. 

And during this last visit, I wasn't feeling well and it was raining—so that really curtailed the amount of adventures I could have. 

But it gave me the opportunity to do an indoor activity that wouldn't require much energy on my part: take the free tour at Count's Kustoms car shop. 

Photo Essay: May Showers Bring Cactus Flowers

"The cacti are probably in bloom around now," my friend said. And until then, it had never really occurred to me to go to the Ethel M. Chocolates Factory Cactus Garden in Henderson, Nevada during the day.

After all, it's so magical at night during the holiday season. What else could there be?

 

But after taking a morning bus tour of Henderson and an afternoon walking tour of the Hoover Dam, I was looking for a little zen on my way back to Vegas. 

Photo Essay: Silver City, A Ghost Town Made of Pieces of Other Ghost Towns

When I first moved to California, some places just seemed so far away. It was impossible for me to wrap my head around making a day trip to Joshua Tree or Palm Springs—a three-hour drive each way. But over the past 14 years, my home state has continued to feel smaller and smaller, easier and easier to tackle. 

In April 2014, I made a detour from the Eastern Sierra to try to see Silver City Ghost Town in Bodfish, California, located in the Kern River Valley of the Southern Sierra. I'd gotten there too late in the day to catch it before it closed or to even photograph it in daylight. And it just seemed so out-of-the-way that it took me 11 years to try again. 

 

This time, I planned my trip a little better and got an earlier start, as I headed home from the early-morning Burro Run I'd attended in Indian Wells Canyon.