By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

Moapa Valley residents discussing the upcoming “St. Thomas Alive” event include, from left, Dustin Nelson holding son Luke, Lindsey Dalley, Kenna Dalley, Gaye Nelson, Bruce Whitney, Bruce Perkins, Amy Keller, Shawna Marshall, Lauren Nelson and Susan Whipple.

Local residents with family ties to historic St. Thomas, which was inundated by Lake Mead in the 1930s, are being sought to participate next month in an event designed to bring the town back to life for a day.

The event, “St. Thomas Alive,” is scheduled March 3 several miles south of Overton at the St. Thomas townsite, 2 ½ miles north of the confluence of the Muddy and Virgin rivers. Building foundations and other remnants of the small community were revealed early this century as the waters of Lake Mead slowly receded because of the ongoing drought.

St. Thomas was a small community laid out and populated by Mormon settlers in the 1860s. Families who lived in the town were forced to relocate to escape growing Lake Mead after Hoover Dam was completed in 1935.

At the time residents fled the rising waters, St. Thomas was much larger than nearby Las Vegas. Among other buildings, it had a two-story school, an automobile garage and even an ice cream store.

“During St. Thomas Alive, we hope to bring the town back to life in part, through presentations and other activities right on the streets and foundations where St. Thomas once stood,” said Lindsey Dalley, a member of a committee spearheading the event.

The event will be the conclusion of a two-day LDS youth conference put on by the LDS Logandale Stake during which youths from 14 to 18 will pull handcarts on a meandering trail that starts at the cemetery near the Logandale Stake Center and ends some nine miles later at the St.Thomas townsite, Dalley said.

“Basically we want to reconnect the youth with their historical Mormon ties,” Dalley said.

Dalley, with Susan Whipple and Dustin Nelson, who are also members of the committee, met last Saturday with community members who are planning to participate in the event.

Among them was Kenna Dalley, theater teacher at Moapa Valley High School, who has already been rehearsing with students on several specially-written narratives that will be held on the St. Thomas school foundation during the event.

It is hoped that other descendants of early pioneers who settled the Moapa Valley area and anyone else with a historical interest in Southern Nevada will help develop presentations and information booths at various sites during the March 3 event.

Whipple told those at Saturday’s meeting she has been contacting known relatives of St. Thomas residents.

“We’d like family members, actual descendants, to do displays with pictures and other memorabilia in the townsite,” Whipple said. “Areas we still need people to do presentations about include the Arrowhead Trail, the bridge out of St. Thomas that led to Bunkerville, the salt mine, the railroad, Bonelli’s Ferry, mining in general and cisterns.”

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