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St. Thomas, Nevada is a ghost town in Clark County, Nevada, United States, near where the Muddy River flows into the Colorado River. St. Thomas was purchased by the US Federal Government and abandoned as the waters of Lake Mead submerged the town in the 1930s.
However, as the level of Lake Mead dropped in the 2000s, the ruins of the town resurfaced. It is now located within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. [1]
The town was founded by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), led by Thomas Smith in 1865. With a population of about 500 at its peak, St. Thomas became an established town of farms and businesses, and was at one point the county seat of Pah-Ute County. The frontier settlement is noted as the endpoint of explorer John Wesley Powell's first Colorado River expedition, the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869.
LDS Church members abandoned St. Thomas in February 1871, as a land survey shifted the state line of Nevada one degree longitude to the east, placing all of the LDS settlements known as the Muddy Mission in Nevada instead of Arizona or Utah. The state of Nevada then attempted to collect taxes for previous years payable only in gold from the residents. They chose to leave without paying in 1871. [2] The LDS Church members moved to Utah, where many of them founded new towns in Long Valley (present day Glendale, Orderville, and Mount Carmel).
When the LDS Church members left in 1871, others claimed their abandoned properties. One of the few to remain was Daniel Bonelli of St. Thomas, who farmed, mined and owned Bonelli's Ferry on the Colorado River at Junction City later Rioville. After being deserted by most of its first settlers, new LDS settlers came to the St. Thomas and other places in the area in the 1880s.
The construction of Hoover Dam and the resulting rise in the waters of the Colorado River forced the abandonment of the town, with the last resident, Hugh Lord, leaving June 11, 1938. [3]
The ruins of St. Thomas, which became visible after the water level in Lake Mead lowered, [4] are protected by the National Park Service as a historic site. The cemetery was relocated to Overton, Nevada where there is a St. Thomas interpretive center with a staff archaeologist doing on-going research into the history and settlement of the Muddy River.
The novel Lords of St. Thomas (GWP, 2018) by Jackson Ellis tells the story of the last family to vacate the flooded town in 1938 following construction of the Boulder Dam. The book's protagonist, Henry Lord, is based on Hugh Lord. [5]
The novel Muddy: Where Faith and Polygamy Collide (Deseret Book, 2019), by Dean Hughes, tells the story of the early LDS pioneers in the settlement. [6]
The novel The Desert Between Us, (University of Nevada Press, 2020) by Phyllis Barber tells the story of early LDS pioneers, polygamy, the U.S. government's decision to open a road to California, and camels. [7]
Santa Clara is a city in Washington County, Utah, United States and is a part of the St. George Metropolitan Area. The population was 7,553 at the 2020 census, up from 6,003 at the 2010 census, and 4,630 at the 2000 census. The city is a western suburb of St. George.
Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, 24 mi (39 km) east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. Lake Mead provides 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.
The State of Deseret was a proposed state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years, but was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area is a U.S. national recreation area in southeastern Nevada and northwestern Arizona. Operated by the National Park Service, Lake Mead NRA follows the Colorado River corridor from the westernmost boundary of Grand Canyon National Park to just north of the cities of Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona. It includes all of the eponymous Lake Mead as well as the smaller Lake Mohave – reservoirs on the river created by Hoover Dam and Davis Dam, respectively – and the surrounding desert terrain and wilderness.
Pah-Ute County is a former county in the northwest corner of Arizona Territory that existed from 1865 until 1871, at which point most of the area was transferred to Nevada. The remainder was merged into Mohave County. The majority of the territory is now in Clark County, Nevada, which includes the city of Las Vegas. Due to the transfer of most of the county's land to Nevada, Pah-Ute is sometimes referred to as Arizona's "Lost County". Pah-Ute is an historic spelling of the tribal name Paiute.
The Muddy River, formerly known as the Moapa River, is a short river located in Clark County, in southern Nevada, United States. It is in the Mojave Desert, approximately 60 miles (97 km) north of Las Vegas.
Overton is a community that is part of the unincorporated town of Moapa Valley in Clark County, Nevada. Overton is on the north end of Lake Mead. It is home to Perkins Field airport and Echo Bay Airport.
The Mormon corridor are the areas of western North America that were settled between 1850 and approximately 1890 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are commonly called "Mormons".
The Arizona Strip is the part of Arizona lying north of the Colorado River. Despite being larger in area than several U.S. states, the entire region has a population of fewer than 10,000 people. Consisting of northeastern Mohave County and northwestern Coconino County, the largest settlements in the Strip are Colorado City, Fredonia, and Beaver Dam, with smaller communities of Scenic, Littlefield and Desert Springs. The Kaibab Indian Reservation lies within the region. Lying along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon creates physical barriers to the rest of Arizona. Only three major roads traverse the region, I-15 crosses the northwestern corner while Arizona State Route 389 and U.S. Route 89A crosses the northeastern part of the strip, US 89A crosses the Colorado River via the Navajo Bridge, providing the only direct road connection between the strip and the rest of the state. The nearest metropolitan area is the St. George, Utah metro area, to which the region is more connected than to the rest of Arizona.
Angus Munn Cannon was an early Latter Day Saint leader and Mormon pioneer.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the second-largest religious denomination in Arizona, behind the Roman Catholic Church. In 2022, the church reported 439,411 members in Arizona, about 6% of the state's population. According to the 2014 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, roughly 5% of Arizonans self-identify most closely with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Rioville, Nevada 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.
The Colorado River is a major river of the western United States and northwest Mexico in North America. Its headwaters are in the Rocky Mountains where La Poudre Pass Lake is its source. Located in north central Colorado it flows southwest through the Colorado Plateau country of western Colorado, southeastern Utah and northwestern Arizona where it flows through the Grand Canyon. It turns south near Las Vegas, Nevada, forming the Arizona–Nevada border in Lake Mead and the Arizona–California border a few miles below Davis Dam between Laughlin, Nevada and Needles, California before entering Mexico in the Colorado Desert. Most of its waters are diverted into the Imperial Valley of Southern California. In Mexico its course forms the boundary between Sonora and Baja California before entering the Gulf of California. This article describes most of the major features along the river.
Callville Bay is a waterway on the northwestern side of Lake Mead in the U.S. state of Nevada. It has a marina and camping resort. Situated east of Las Vegas and upstream from Las Vegas Bay, it lies within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which was established in 1935. Its name derives from the settlement of Callville which was established in 1865 by Anson Call under a directive led by Brigham Young. Though the settlement was abandoned in 1869, and submerged under Lake Mead when the Colorado River was dammed, Callville Bay retained the name.
Callville is a former settlement of Clark County in the U.S. state of Nevada. Abandoned in 1869, it was submerged under Lake Mead when the Colorado River was dammed, Callville Bay retaining the name. At one time, it was noted to be the southernmost outpost of the Mormon settlement.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Bonelli's Ferry or Old Bonelli Ferry was a Colorado River ferry between Arizona and Nevada. It was located on the Colorado just above the Virgin River, near Junction City. The latter was later known as Rioville, Nevada in the late nineteenth century. Both the former sites of the ferry and of Rioville were submerged below Lake Mead, created by a dam on the Colorado River.
Stone's Ferry is a former settlement founded by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ferry crossing of the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona, in Clark County, Nevada, United States.
Rio Virgen County is a former county in the U.S. state of Utah. It was established by the Territory of Utah on February 1869.
Municipalities and communities of Clark County, Nevada, United States | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| CDPs | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Ghost towns | ||
| Indian reservations | ||
| Proposed communities | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
36°27′57″N114°22′13″W / 36.46583°N 114.37028°W
