It isn’t the first time the town of Quartzsite, in La Paz County, AZ, has been in the national news, and it probably won’t be the last. But this may be one of the only times the small desert town hits the front cover of a newspaper with worldwide circulation. The USA Today, with a circulation of around 1.8 million copies daily, is beaten only by the Wall Street Journal (2.1 million), which has also featured Quartzsite on several occasions in the past number of months.
A photograph of Quartzsite’s recently seated mayor, Ed Foster, graces the front cover of the paper, accompanying a story about turbulent local politics around the country and a sub-headline that reads, “The presidential race has nothing [on this].” See the story online HERE.
The Los Angeles Times, the Arizona Republic, the New York Times and others have all contributed to the media attention on Quartzsite’s dramatic politics along with local media. Recent filmmakers from the Netherlands stopped in Quartzsite as part of a tour of American sites.
Parker-based Hemet Productions has been covering the story for a year and a half now, producing a 2013 film on the town. (Visit quartzsitefilm.com to track its progress.)