Rioville, Nevada

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Rioville, Nevada
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Rioville,
Nevada
Location in
Nevada–Arizona
Geography
Coordinates 36°9′0″N114°23′57″W / 36.15000°N 114.39917°W / 36.15000; -114.39917 Coordinates: 36°9′0″N114°23′57″W / 36.15000°N 114.39917°W / 36.15000; -114.39917

Rioville, Nevada (first known as Junction City) was a settlement founded by Latter-day Saints in what they thought was Utah Territory in 1869, now under Lake Mead and within Clark County, Nevada.

Utah Territory territory of the USA between 1850-1896

The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state.

Lake Mead reservoir on the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona

Lake Mead is a lake on the Colorado River, about 24 mi (39 km) from the Las Vegas Strip, southeast of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. It is the largest reservoir in the United States in terms of water capacity. Formed by the Hoover Dam, the reservoir serves water to the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada, as well as some of Mexico providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people and large areas of farmland.

Clark County, Nevada county in Nevada, US

Clark County is located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 1,951,269, with an estimated population of 2,204,079 in 2017. It is by far the most populous county in Nevada, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the state's residents–thus making Nevada one of the most centralized states in the nation.

Contents

History

Junction City, was located on the Colorado River, above its confluence with the Virgin River (also known as the Rio Virgin). Stone's Ferry was purchased in 1870 and moved to a location adjacent to Junction City in 1876 and renamed Bonelli's Ferry after its new owner Daniel Bonelli.

Colorado River major river in the western United States and Mexico

The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.

Virgin River river in Nevada, United States

The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about 162 miles (261 km) long. It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the centennial celebration of Zion National Park.

Stone's Ferry is a former Mormon settlement and ferry crossing of the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona, in Clark County, Nevada, United States.

After being deserted by its first Mormon settlers in 1871, new settlers came in the 1880s, and renamed the town Rioville. It had its own post office from 1881-1906. [1]

On July 8, 1879, Rioville became the uppermost landing for steamboats of the Colorado River, when Captain Jack Mellon piloted the steamboat Gila up river through Boulder Canyon to the town, making it the high water head of navigation on the Colorado River. From then until 1887 when silver mining activity declined, steamboats in high water, and from 1879 to 1882 the sloop Sou'Wester in low water, carried locally mined salt to process silver ore in El Dorado Canyon. [2] :78 By the 1890s the settlement was virtually abandoned but the post office lingered to 1906 and the ferry until 1934.

Steamboats of the Colorado River

Steamboats on the Colorado River operated from the river mouth at the Colorado River Delta on the Gulf of California in Mexico, up to the Virgin River on the Lower Colorado River Valley in the Southwestern United States from 1852 until 1909, when the construction of the Laguna Dam was completed. The shallow draft paddle steamers were found to be the most economical way to ship goods between the Pacific Ocean ports and settlements and mines along the lower river, putting in at landings in Sonora state, Baja California Territory, California state, Arizona Territory, New Mexico Territory, and Nevada state. They remained the primary means of transportation of freight until the advent of the more economical railroads began cutting away at their business from 1878 when the first line entered Arizona Territory.

Gila, a stern-wheel steamboat of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company running on the Colorado River between 1873 and 1899.

Boulder Canyon (Colorado River) canyon on the Colorado River, above Hoover Dam, now flooded by Lake Mead

Boulder Canyon, originally Devils Gate Canyon, is a canyon on the Colorado River, above Hoover Dam, now flooded by Lake Mead. It lies between Clark County, Nevada and Mohave County, Arizona. It heads at western end of the Virgin River Basin of Lake Mead, at about 36°09′05″N114°32′51″W. Boulder Canyon divides the Black Mountains into the Black Mountains of Arizona, and the Black Mountains of Nevada. Its mouth is now under the eastern end of the Boulder Basin of Lake Mead, between Canyon Point in Nevada and Canyon Ridge in Arizona. Its original mouth is now underneath Lake Mead between Beacon Rock and Fortification Ridge on the southern shore in Arizona.

Present day

The site of Rioville has been submerged under Lake Mead since the 1930s. [3]

See also

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Quartette or Quartette Mill or Quartette Landing, was a mining settlement, location of the stamp mill of the Quartette Mining Company, owner of the largest mine in the Searchlight Mining District and a steamboat landing on the Colorado River, in what is now Clark County, Nevada. It lay at an elevation of 646 feet.

References

  1. ↑ Gamett, James, and Paher, Stanley W., Nevada Post Offices, Nevada Publications, Las Vegas, 1983, p.111
  2. ↑ Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978
  3. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rioville (historical)


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