Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his wife, Landra, are leaving the Democrat’s boyhood town of Searchlight, Nev., and moving to the Las Vegas area to be closer to their children and grandchildren.  

“Landra and I love Searchlight, the place of my birth, and the memories we have had there, but the time came to sell and do something different,” Reid announced Monday in a news release. “We want to be closer to our 16 grandchildren who live in Southern Nevada, and be able to spend time with them. This is why we will now purchase a residence in the Las Vegas area. Searchlight will always remain my home, my favorite spot in the world where I can look at the quiet desert for miles at end.”  

Reid’s comments came after an Associated Press report detailing the sale of his home, 110 acres, water rights and several mining claims to gold mining company Nevada Milling and Mining for $1.7 million. The deal closed on June 6.  

The mine will create approximately 60 new jobs in Searchlight, a town of less than 1,000, and bring economic development to the mining region, the company says. Searchlight is more than an hour’s drive, about 60 miles, from Las Vegas.  

“Even with the physical risk, and the toll on his body, my dad loved being a miner,” Reid said. “He loved it because he was good at it, and because he was more content battling the earth than being around people. … My father was born to mine, and it was the only thing he wanted to do.”  

The Reids have spent 25 years in Searchlight.  

Reid has never made any secret of his love for his home town. The title of his first book, published in 1998, was “Searchlight: The Camp That Didn’t Fail,” and it gives a comprehensive history of the town.  

Former Nevada Gov. Mike O’Callaghan, Reid’s mentor and high school teacher, writes in the book’s foreword: “I don’t know where Harry’s political future will take him, but I do know the lessons he learned in Searchlight — lessons about handling adversity, confronting a harsh and extreme environment, and facing challenges with courage and principle — will provide the foundation for his life’s work. That’s why this historical tribute to Searchlight is so important; it gives insight into the man who wrote it.”