from Wikipedia:
St. Thomas, Nevada, is a ghost town in Clark County, Nevada, 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. It is now located within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
HistoryThe town was founded by Mormon settlers 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. The Mormons abandoned St. Thomas in February 1871 due to a shift of the Nevada state line one degree longitude to the east, which put all of the Mormon settlements known as the Muddy Mission in Nevada instead of 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. The Mormons moved to Utah, where many of them founded new towns in Long Valley (present day Glendale, Orderville, and Mount Carmel).
When the Mormons left, others claimed their abandoned properties. 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.
The ruins of St. Thomas are sometimes visible when the water level in Lake Mead is low; they 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.
(
visit link)
----------
The Muddy River, formerly known as the Moapa River, is a short river located in the southern part of the state in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is in the Mojave Desert, approximately 60 miles north of Las Vegas.
GeographyThe Muddy River is approximately 32 miles (51 km) long. It begins as a series of thermal springs in the Moapa Valley before continuing on its course to Lake Mead, where it drains into the northern arm of the lake near Overton, Nevada. Before the Hoover Dam's construction, the Muddy River flowed into the Virgin River.
Near the town of Glendale the Muddy River collects the flow from the Meadow Valley Wash, forming the principal drainage system for southeastern Nevada.
HistoryThe area was part of the Native American Paiute peoples homeland for centuries, with the Mojave to the south. "Moapa" is a Southern Paiute language word meaning "muddy"; although "Moapa River" was formerly the official name, local usage tended to translate the name, and it was made official in 1960.
Mormon settlers established several settlements in the Muddy River area in 1864, including the town of St Thomas, which is now submerged under Lake Mead. Some Paiutes fought to protect and reclaim their homeland. For a variety of reasons, including the harsh climate, unpredictable periods of drought, and a tax dispute with the State of Nevada, the Mormons abandoned the area in 1871.
(
visit link)
----------
The Colorado River, Mojave language 'Aha Kwahwat, Spanish: Río Colorado (Red River), is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 miles (2,330 km) long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The natural course of the river flows from the Continental Divide at La Poudre Pass in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, into the Gulf of California between the Baja California peninsula and mainland Mexico. Large irrigation diversions for California's Imperial Valley through the All-American Canal, and to a much lesser extent irrigation diversions for Arizona, have dewatered the lower course of the river below Yuma, Arizona, resulting in it no longer consistently reaching the Gulf of California. More than 20 dams have been built on the Colorado River and its tributaries.
The watershed of the Colorado River covers 246,000 sq mi (640,000 km2) in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states.
Below the confluence of the Virgin River in Nevada, the Colorado River abruptly turns southward. Hoover Dam, built during the Great Depression, forms Lake Mead, a popular recreation site as well as the supplier of most of the water for the Las Vegas metropolitan area. From Hoover Dam, the river flows south and forms part of the boundary between Arizona and Nevada and between Arizona and California.
(
visit link)