By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Logandale resident Dustin Nelson and members of his family took GPS coordinates of home sites in historic St. Thomas to prepare for the upcoming “St. Thomas Alive” community event being held in March.

A community event is currently being planned that aims to bring current Moapa Valley residents more in touch with the rich pioneer heritage of their community. “St. Thomas Alive” will take place on Saturday, March 3 and offers to take local resident on a guided tour of the pioneer town of St. Thomas.

St. Thomas was once the most populous in a string of pioneer settlements dotting the Muddy River Valley. Located a few miles south of Overton, St. Thomas was abandoned in the 1930s as the newly constructed Hoover Dam backed up water into Lake Mead. By the summer of 1938, all the residents had relocated. The town was then submerged in the waters of Lake Mead.

In recent years, low water conditions have revealed the old town site of St. Thomas once again. Many people have since visited the area, fascinated by the unique glimpse of pioneer history that it offers. But the stories and the details of the old town and its people are less apparent to the casual visitor.

“What we are really trying to do is to reforge the connection of that old pioneer town to the modern day community,” said Lindsey Dalley of Logandale, one of the event’s coordinators. “We want to bring St. Thomas to life and show, in a very visceral way, how that history connects to us today.”

“St. Thomas Alive” is to be the finale event of a two day Youth Conference put on by the LDS Logandale Stake. But Dalley, who is the Stake Young Men’s President sees a broader potential for the Saturday event.

“We want this to be more than just a youth event, and more than just an LDS event,” Dalley said. “This fascinating history is something that is of interest to the entire community so we would like it to involve the community.”

Logandale resident and descendant of St. Thomas pioneers, Dustin Nelson, is working to coordinate other local descendants and community members in bringing St. Thomas to life for a day. On Saturday, Nelson hiked down into St. Thomas with his family and took GPS coordinates of many of the homesites there.

Nelson was equipped with a bundle of historic maps depicting the town, its streets as well as its homes and farms and the names of their owners.

“Every plot down there has something fascinating to offer,” Nelson said. “And each one shows a connection to the Moapa Valley of today.”

Nelson is trying to recruit a group of other St. Thomas descendants as well as local residents just interested in pioneer history to help develop historical presentations and information at various old home sites in St. Thomas on the day of the event.

“There are a lot of St. Thomas descendants who still live here,” Nelson said. “People have old family heirlooms that have been kept from St. Thomas, there are old photos and paper histories. There are even homes here in Logandale and Overton, that people are living in and working in, that were moved here from St. Thomas. These kinds of connections are the things that we are looking for. Anything that people have that they are excited about and want to share with the community that day.”

Nelson envisions a presentation or display at each of the St. Thomas home sites. Each of these displays might be hosted by descendants of the family that lived at that site.

“The way that a typical family tree works, we might even have multiple families of descendants at each of the sites giving a presentation,” Nelson said. “We’d love that.”

A meeting will be held on Saturday to start coordinating the various presentations. Nelson is inviting descendants of St. Thomas residents to attend the meeting and find out how to be involved in the event.

“We are definitely interest in St. Thomas descendants that can help us,” Nelson said. “But not just strictly the actual descendants. Anybody in the community who want to be part of “St. Thomas Alive” is certainly welcome to come and lend a hand.”

The meeting will be held on Saturday, February 4 at 11:00 a.m. in the Old Logandale School. Anyone who is interested is welcome to attend. For more information, contact Dustin Nelson by email at savegoldbutte@gmail.com.