In a recent project I photographed a 20-acre property in Searchlight, NV. The property included several structures, including a Quonset hut.
A Quonset hut in the Mojave Desert
According to Wikipedia [1], a Quonset hut is a semi-cylindrical prefabricated structure made of corrugated steel.
Over 150,000 Quonset huts were manufactured during World War II. The huts are named for the place where they were first manufactured, Quonset Point at the Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center in Davisville, RI. [Building the Navy's Bases in World War II: History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940–1946, volume 1, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1947 (referenced in Wikipedia article referenced above)].
Quonset hut interior
Exterior of Quonset hut
The Quonset hut is a variation and improvement of the British Nissen hut, which was designed in World War I. Quonset huts are strong, quick and easy to construct, can be disassembled and transported easily, and require no internal structural support. For all these reasons, the US Navy made great use of them during World War II [2].
Aerial view of a Quonset hut outside Searchlight, NV
The Quonset hut in these photographs is located in Searchlight, NV. It sits on a 20-acre plot of land that was originally a mining claim, one of three adjacent 20-acre mining claims. All the surrounding area is now federally owned and managed by the Bureau of Land Management.