Red Light Women of Death Valley
From the 1870s to the turn of the century, while countless men gambled their fortunes in the mines of Death Valley, many bold women capitalized on the boom-and-bust frenzy by establishing saloons and brothels. These women were often clever entrepreneurs and fearless adventurers. They were also mothers, wives and even respected members of their communities. Red Light Women of Death Valley chronicles the sometimes triumphant and sometimes tragic lives of these women who were unafraid to live outside the bounds of polite society and risk everything for a better future in the forbidding Death Valley desert.
About Robin Flinchum (Las Vegas, Nevada Author)
I love to write true stories about lonesome places and the people who live in them, both now and then. I specialize in Western boom town history and women’s stories.
I’ve written for a variety of both news and feature publications, including Nevada Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Chronicle of the Old West, the Nevada Online Encyclopedia, the Nevada Women’s History Project, Las Vegas Life Magazine, The Monthly (East Bay, California), The Progressive, the Pahrump Valley Times, The Inyo Register, and the Las Vegas Review Journal.
I was born in Las Vegas and from there I went east, then west, then south, all the way through Mexico and Central America before coming back to within a hundred miles of the place where I began. The desert owns me, and I am glad.