West, wild and wooly, ceased to exist by 1890, when the U.S. Census concluded: There can hardly be said to be a frontier line. But there was: an irregular line looping through eastern California and Nevada, and encompassing the better part of the Mojave Desert. It was there that in 1895, a hapless prospector idly hammered a rock from an outcrop. It was filigreed with gold and rush was on.   Wonder camps were thronged with builders and wreckers, tradesmen and vultures, miners, cooks, gamblers and more gamblers, whores galore, what-have-you...And photographers. They were little-known and uncelebrated, yet they captured a series of extraordinary images of what was to become a final, go-for-broke chapter in the story of the American West.    Remarkable images probed the souls of nobodies and nabobs, and in their eyes recorded hope for a better life... crushing loneliness... the glint of greed. By 1912, the ore was all but exhausted, and the boom times were over. The Mojave's camps fell to ruin, forsaken but for their images. Join us on December 11th when Nicholas Clapp leads us on the quest for gold and silver in the Mojave, as portrayed in these photographs from the period's unsung photographers.   Nicholas Clapp is a Borrego Springs, California based writer, film-maker, and amateur archaeologist. He has often been called the "real Indiana Jones." He has received 70 film awards (including Emmys), and several films that he edited have received Academy Award nominations. He is a graduate of both Brown University and the University of Southern California, and he has worked for Disney, National Geographic, Columbia Pictures, PBS and the White House.   Invocation: Bob Risley Guest Introductions: Tony Phillips Song Leader: Gary Kearney Accompanist: Ross Jutsum