BOULDER CITY, Nevada -Lake Mead National Recreation Area is seeking stories and photos about St. Thomas to develop brochures, on-site displays and web pages. This project is intended to educate visitors and enhance their experiences when visiting the park and the park's website.
St. Thomas, Nevada, was established in 1865 by Mormon colonists sent by Brigham Young to start a farming community. The town had a rich history and was important to the social and economic development of Southern Nevada.
As Lake Mead was filling in 1938, the town was inundated with water. Due to an ongoing drought, the town site has been exposed since 2002. The Bureau of Reclamation estimates that it may be exposed for at least 50 years.
A 2.5-mile loop trail allows visitors to see some of the old structures of the town site and tour nearly 40 acres containing foundations of buildings, cisterns, canal features and the old rail spur.
Park employees are developing educational materials to enhance the visitor experience at St. Thomas. If anyone has oral histories, documents or photos that they would like to share with the National Park Service for this project, please contact Leslie Paige at 702-293-8729 or e-mail us by March 14.
Once developed, the displays will align the loop trail, and the brochures will be distributed to museums and visitor contact areas throughout Southern Nevada. The website information will be added to www.nps.gov/lake.
-NPS-
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
