Park Service wants your photos, memories of St. Thomas
The National Park Service is seeking photographs and stories of a Clark County town famously swallowed by Lake Mead more than 75 years ago following the completion of Hoover Dam.
Staff members at Lake Mead National Recreation Area are collecting materials about St. Thomas to for use in educational brochures, on-site displays and web pages about the lake and the once-submerged town.
St. Thomas was established in 1865 by Mormon settlers sent by Brigham Young to start a farming community.
As construction of the dam got underway in the early 1930s, the government bought the homes and property of everyone living in St. Thomas, eventually emptying the town. Even the cemetery was relocated to a bluff overlooking the Muddy River, near the town of Overton.
The rising waters of Lake Mead finally reached what was left of St. Thomas in 1938.
Due to ongoing drought on the Colorado River, the town site has been exposed since 2002. A 2.5-mile loop trail now leads down to the remnants of buildings, cisterns, canals and the old rail spur — all of it on dry land far from the shore of Lake Mead.
In an effort to improve the visitor experience at St. Thomas, the Park Service is gathering oral histories, documents and photos from before and after the town was sacrificed in the name of water and power for the Southwest.
Anyone interested in contributing to the project should contact Leslie Paige at 702-293-8729 or leslie_paige@nps.gov by March 14.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.
