A Different Kind of Ghost Town; ST. Thomas, Nevada: Our trip to the desert town erected from a 90 year grave #revision #corrected

sorry about the edit. last post malfunctioned.

  Southwest Nevada is really a big desert. True, Nevada has some large cities. Las Vegas, Reno, Tahoe, Carson City; to name a few. Besides Las Vegas, Southwest Nevada is a desolate wasteland. Most of Nevada is sprinkled with ghost towns. Southwestern Nevada has a dry dead theme most can’t understand to appreciate. I mean, you got to like doing things like this. 

 Red, orange, yellow and all shades within its pallet. Desert littered with mines and ghost towns. It is extremely breathtaking. I always felt like I belonged in the desert. Juxtaposing my actual birthplace; I am from Miami, Florida. I would have never thought in a million years I would be living in the desert. I'm here though. I find the nostalgic feeling I have when walking through ghost towns, exhilarating.  Kind of feels like a warm prickly blanket. So this passion led me to this little town in the desert on March 3rd 2018.

 ST. Thomas Nevada was founded by Mormons in 1865. Nine men and three women made up the original settlers. They set up a trading post to help with the passing wagons. They picked a nice spot about 70 miles away from the Colorado River; present day Lake Mead Recreational Park. In a lot of ways, this town was like every other mining settlement emerging in the area but it was in a decision that President Coolidge gave the ok to, that brought this desert town under a watery grave. It laid under the largest man-made lake for 90 years.

 As I mentioned earlier, 9 men and 3 women were among the first settlers to take on the migration. They established a trading post to aid Mormons with migrating into Utah. The settlers themselves had thought their settlement to be in Utah. It was only when the states were re-configuring their state line border that the state of Nevada realize the settlement to be within state lines. After this the state of Nevada told the people of ST. Thomas that they owed Taxes. All the settlers fled to Utah. They did not want to pay the taxes. All left; all but one family.

 The family who ran the trading post decided to stay. In 1880 the town was flourishing. Settlers joined the family running the little trading post. The town of ST. Thomas Nevada had grown in size. At first houses built were adobe mud style. Later as the community grew, the towns economy was doing really well. They had no electricity, running water or indoor plumbing, (at that time, those things didn’t matter much) but as far as a great community; they had it.

 Soon a post office helped put ST. Thomas on the map. Houses started to get built out of wood. The schoolhouse, which schooled 35 children, and the ice cream parlor had solid brick foundation. The people of St. Thomas mined silica and farmed cotton. Soon they found ways to use the muddy waters area of the Colorado River to put in a simple irrigation system.

 Sounds like every other Southwestern Nevada ghost town? Yes, but this one sat under a watery grave for 90 years!

  In 1928 it was President Coolidge who signed a bill authorizing the Boulder Canyon Project. It was to be the largest construction project the United States had ever under gone. Slowly all The settlers were forced to sell their land to the government. St. Thomas was to be flooded as a result of building and operating the soon to be, Hoover Dam. The government payed about 500,000 dollars for the town. Settlers with un-improved land received 40 dollars an acre, while improved land received 75 dollars an acre. By 1938 all settlers, including “the stubborn old man" were gone.  There's always got to be one.

By Francesca Curtice
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asource credit:
youtube.com/pbs/st.thomasnevada
youtube.com/clackcounty.gov/st.thomas
wikipedia.com/st.thomasnevada