The year 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of the
incorporation of the City of Henderson. This
anniversary is even more of a milestone given the fact that due to Henderson's origins, it was never expected to remain a populated area, let alone grow into the second largest city in Nevada today. From the early 1900s there had been some small scale mining and the occasional ranch house, but the city was really founded on the basis of communities which provided housing for workers on two of the largest federal projects in the West: Boulder (later Hoover) Dam and the wartime Basic Magnesium Inc. Like many boomtowns before it, Henderson seemed likely to fade away after the federal government halted magnesium production there in 1944. Yet the determination of local residents saved the city, and since its incorporation in 1953, growth has exceeded the expectations of even its most optimistic founders.
Documented through historical photographs is the
construction of the BMI plant, the experience of
working there in the war years, living in the community that was built to support the plant (Camp Anderson, Basic Townsite, Victory Village, and Carver Park for African American workers), and the transformation of this temporary federal venture into a burgeoning city.