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Muddy Valley Reflections In Print At Last!

Local historians Beezy Tobiasson (right) and Georgia Hall display their new book of local history which is available now. A book signing event will be held on Saturday at the Old Logandale School.

By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress

After eight years of research, compiling and editing, local historians Beezy Tobiasson and Georgia Hall have completed the first volume in a two volume set of Moapa Valley history. The book, entitled Muddy Valley Reflections: 145 Years of Settlement now appears in print with 500 copies. Over 400 copies have already been pre-sold, Tobiasson said. The rest are on sale now.

Tobiasson has been the leader and visionary force behind the mammoth project. As the director of the Old Logandale School Historical and Cultural Society (OLSHACS) she has, in the course of the project, become an expert source for local history.

Interestingly, Tobiasson is not a Moapa Valley native. She was born in 1945 in Ely, Nevada but her family moved here when she was young. She met and married Moapa Valley native Glade Tobiasson in 1961. The couple raised their four children in Logandale. They now have 13 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Though the book has been eight years in the making, Tobiasson claims that the project actually got its start over 40 years ago when her mother encouraged her to write a local history.

“Back then my mom told me, ‘You know, Ginny, I think you should write the history of the Valley’,” Tobiasson said. “She encouraged me to start collecting newspaper clippings and photos and stories and whatever bits of history I could get my hands on. And I did it.”

Co-author Georgia Hall is also not a Moapa Valley native. She was born in 1954 at Perrin Air Force Base in Texas. Her father was in the Air Force so the family moved nearly every year during her childhood. But she quickly developed an interest for the history of each area in which she lived. She has a fascination for old traditional techniques and handicrafts and has become quite skilled in things like spinning, tatting and making soap and candles.

“I have always wanted to be a writer,” she said. “So I jumped at the chance to become Beezy’s assistant.”

A talented sketch artist, Hall provided small pen drawings of a local flavor which appear in various spots throughout the book.

Georgia is married to Charles Hall and they have five children and 15 grandchildren.

The book that has resulted from the collaboration of these two women is a huge, sprawling work of nearly 700 pages. It includes over 1100 illustrations including countless old photographs, historic maps and other drawings and pictures.

Muddy Valley Reflections is not really a formal work of conventional history in the academic sense. It is rather loosely organized and does not follow a more orthodox path of bringing many small strands of local history together into a unifying thread. But in that sense, the book doesn’t just tell the single story of the Moapa Valley communities. Rather it compiles many small stories, anecdotes, references, documents and historical resources; from a variety of different locations and times. These things, taken all together in this volume, provide a colorful and folksy mosaic of the community’s rich history.

The book is a huge offering of historical sources, lovingly gathered, compiled and presented rough-hewn and raw to the voracious reader. It provides a treasure trove of unexpected historical delicacies. The authors have poured through countless old newspapers and periodicals for items of local interest. In many cases, these period articles have actually been reprinted in their entirety as they once appeared in the old newspaper editions. Also included are complete records and plot maps of the four local historical pioneer cemeteries and complete census records from 1868-1930.

The book is brimming with photographs and illustrations. There is an entire chapter filled with old photographs of various people and places. Another chapter is loaded with historic maps showing Moapa Valley and its surrounding region as they appeared long ago. The remote areas rendered in these maps are often dotted with small towns and communities that have since disappeared.

Beezy and Georgia have sought far and wide for surviving residents of the historic Muddy Valley communities. The two of them tell stories of the many ‘field trips’ they have taken, to places all over the western United States, in order to interview people who once lived here, and can recall, first hand, how life was in early Moapa Valley.

“A lot of the people we interviewed or talked to over the years are gone now,” Beezy said. “This book may be the only place where some of these old stories and memories are recorded.”

Muddy Valley Reflections began as a simple history of St. Thomas, Beezy said. But the scope of the work kept expanding.

“As we researched, we kept finding so many interesting things,” Beezy said. “I just couldn’t leave any of them out.”

So the work ended up covering a huge territory from Warm Springs and the Paiute Indian Reservation to Callville Bay and even Hoover Dam; from Gold Butte and Grand Gulch to the Valley of Fire and Sheep Mountain.

There are extensive sections about the Muddy Mission established in the 1860s by Mormon settlers to grow cotton in this region. There are also stories and illustrations telling of the transition of the communities from an eventually abandoned Mormon mission to a more successful agricultural area of cash crops like onions, radishes, tomatoes and, of course, melons for regional markets.

The book has a chapter covering much of what is known about the ancient Anasazi inhabitants of the area along with the discovery and excavation of the Pueblo Grande de Nevada in the 1930s. It also contains details about the Moapa Paiutes: the personalities and rich heritage and customs of the local tribe.

There is a chapter dealing with the importance of early mining in the region. Stories of mines at Gold Butte and Grand Gulch are told. The great salt mine in the area south of St. Thomas is explained and illustrated. Also covered are the silica sand mine operations south of Overton and the gypsum mining that took place near present-day Glendale.

Of course, the book chronicles in some detail the great engineering project of the Hoover Dam. In a chapter entitled “That Dam Project!” the book tells the story of the dam’s construction and of the resultant backing up of water that formed Lake Mead and eventually submerged the once bustling town of St. Thomas.

First hand stories of life in St. Thomas in the words of the old-timers who once lived there are plentifully published in this book and are a delight to read. Old photos of St. Thomas resident reunions held back in the 1960s, when Lake water levels were also low, are also included in the book.

Beezy and Georgia will be available for a book signing event at the Old Logandale School on Saturday, September 11 from 12:00 – 4:00 pm. The event will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of the construction of the Old Logandale School building. To celebrate, the OLSHACS organization will provide an old time pioneer luncheon of bread, milk, onions, cheese and other local-style traditional faire. The books will be available for sale at this event. There are still a limited number of books available at the cost of $75 each.

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