Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

by Jessica Bruder

Old-timers say the high season used to bring so many RVs to Quartzsite that you could cross the desert by stepping from roof to roof. But attendance has gone down sharply in recent years. No one seems to know quite why, but everyone has a pet theory, from local political strife, to property tax hikes and increased fees for flea market vendors, to the U.S.–Canadian exchange rate and fluctuating gas prices. Some think the thousands of rockhounds who visit Quartzsite’s gem and mineral shows are defecting to similar events in Tucson. Yet others believe it’s symptomatic of a larger economic malaise, meaning fewer people can afford long drives in a gas-guzzling motorhome, let alone the luxury of free time. “As a Quartzsite native, I remember the early 1980s when we would have over one million visitors during the height of the season. Now it is more around 300,000 people,” Philip Cushman, the president of the local chamber of commerce, told me in an email.