St. Thomas, Nevada is really a ghost town in Clark County, Nevada, near in which the Muddy River flows in to the Colorado River. St. Thomas was purchased through the US Authorities and abandoned because the waters of Lake Mead submerged the city within the 1930s. However, as the amount of Lake Mead dropped within the 2000s, the ruins from the town resurfaced. It’s now located inside the Lake Mead National Entertainment Area.
The city began by Mormon settlers brought by Thomas Cruz in 1865. Having a population of approximately 500 at its peak, St. Thomas grew to become a recognised capital of scotland- farms and companies, and it was at some point the county seat of Pahute County. The frontier money is noted because the endpoint of explorer John Wesley Powell’s first Colorado River expedition, the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869.
The Mormons abandoned St. Thomas in Feb 1871, like a land survey shifted the condition type of Nevada one degree longitude towards the east, placing all the Mormon settlements referred to as Muddy Mission in Nevada rather of Arizona or Utah. The condition of Nevada then tried to collect taxes for previous years payable only in gold in the residents. They made a decision to leave without having to pay in 1871. The Mormons gone to live in Utah, where most of them founded new towns in Lengthy Valley (current day Glendale, Orderville, and Mount Carmel).
Once the Mormons left in 1871, others claimed their abandoned qualities. Among the couple of to stay was Daniel Bonelli of St. Thomas, who farmed, found and owned Bonelli’s Ferry around the Colorado River at Junction City later Rioville. After being deserted by the majority of its first settlers, new Mormon settlers found the St. Thomas along with other places in the region within the 1880s.
The making of Hoover Dam and also the resulting increase in the waters from the Colorado River forced the abandonment from the town, using the last resident, Hugh Lord, departing June 11, 1938.
The ruins of St. Thomas, which grew to become visible following the level in Lake Mead decreased, are safe through the Park Service like a historic site. The graveyard was relocated to Overton, Nevada where there’s a St. Thomas interpretive center having a staff archaeologist doing on-going research in to the background and settlement from the Muddy River.
The novel Lords of St. Thomas (GWP, 2018) by Jackson Ellis informs the storyline from the last family to vacate the flooded town in 1938 following construction from the Boulder Dam. The book’s protagonist, Henry Lord, is dependant on Hugh Lord.
Coordinates: 36°27′57″N 114°22′13″W / 36.46583°N 114.37028°W / 36.46583 -114.37028
