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In 1864,
after reading the U.S. Army report of navigation possibilities of the Colorado
River,
Brigham YOUNG, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
dispatched an exploration team to the Colorado with
a two fold mission. First they were to determine a location for a warehouse and
river port for supplies and passengers. Second, they were to scout the area and
determine locations for settlements to raise crops and in particular cotton. The
Civil War had cut off cheaper cotton from the south and this was a main crop to
be grown in these settlements. The church also needed a less expensive way to
transport passengers from Overseas to Utah.
A
location was established for the warehouse and river port which eventually
became Calls Landing named for Anson CALL who
supervised the building. Eventually a small community named Callville was
also established, but this was on the Colorado
River and
south of the area that became known as Moapa Valley.
In
January of 1865, a small group of pioneer settlers arrived at a location given
to them by the Church and founded the settlement of St. Thomas,
so named for Thomas Sasson SMITH,
it’s leader. It was eventually moved about a mile and a half farther south at
the direction of the Church to prevent flooding. Several months later, more
pioneer settlers arrived and settled an area seven miles north of St.
Thomas naming
this one St.
Joseph for
Joseph Warren FOOT, their leader. Both settlements were along the Muddy River which
supplied drinking and irrigation water. These pioneers drained
swamps, dug canals for water and raised many crops including grapes, cotton,
barley, rye, wheat, vegetables and maintained cattle, hogs and chickens. A mill
was built on a sand bench above the settlement of St.
Joseph near
what is now Perkins Field. It was called Simmonville for
the builder, and later Milltown.
Some
pioneers settled a small area three miles west of St.
Joseph named Overton.
It was so called as it was referred to as going over town. Overton also received
water from the Muddy River.
These settlements were a source of cotton and other goods to be sent down river
to other settlements in Arizona and
around into California.
With the
failure of Calls Landing in 1868, outside contact was lost with the exception of
trails along the old Sante Fe
Trail into Las
Vegas which
was then a ranch owned by Helen J. STEWART. Farmers sold their wares along the El
Dorado mining
area and Searchlight, and
into Arizona along
the Shiv-Wits plateau and Kingman.
These
settlements were part of the Cotton Mission according to records, but also
referred to as The Muddy Mission. They were located in what was later to become
the Lower Muddy valley. In the spring of 1868, a small group of pioneers under
the direction of Andrew GIBBONS went west into the Upper Muddy and established West
Point,
so called as it was the farthest west of all towns in the region along the Muddy River.
After the abandonment by the Mormons, and in 1873, West Point later became part
of the Moapa River Indian Reservation and the
area settled by whites was named Moapa. Moapa was a
bastardized version of the Pahute name Moa-Pah meaning
"bitter or muddy waters".
The Muddy River had
its beginnings at the springs located in the upper Muddy Valley in
an area now known as Warm Springs. It consisted originally
of a small brick cabin. A few years later, the HUNTSMAN family established Cave
Springs near the mouth of the Meadow Valley Wash canyon. This
later became the dividing line between Lincoln County and
the new Clark County created
in 1909.
A small
canyon dividing the upper from the lower was called the Narrows.
Hiram and Dortha WISER,
parents of Helen Jane WISER STEWART purchased this land as it was near the Sante Fe
Trail between California and Utah.
They built the Wiser Ranch and, along with
providing a resting place for weary travelers, they supplied them with food and
drink.
The
Mormon exodus took place in February of 1871 after two things occurred. The
final Nevada border
line was established determining that this entire area was in Nevada and
not in Utah, Arizona or New
Mexico.
Nevada’s taxes were payable only in gold and the Lincoln County Sheriff was
posting notices on all doors that past (2 years worth already paid to Utah and
Arizona) taxes were now due and payable. The farmers had nothing but their crops
and no way to obtain gold as the miners did. They left crops in the fields,
livestock and in many cases personal possessions, returning to Utah.
Only one family remained headed by Daniel BONELLI.
By this time, BONELLI had
moved down the Muddy to its confluence with the Colorado and
built a home there. He also established a ferry business. This was known as Junctionville, Bonelli’s Ferry or Rioville.
In 1873,
the federal government established a Paiute Indian
Reservation at the abandoned settlement of West
Point.
A Miner by the name of LOGAN settled
in one of the homes abandoned by the settlers of St.
Joseph and
that area became known as Logan or later Logandale.
In 1881,
Elizabeth WHITMORE, widow of Dr. Robert WHITMORE who had explored this area in
the 1850’s, returned to the area and purchased land immediately renaming it Overton.
In her employ was Ute Warren PERKINS. PERKINS cleared the land and purchased
some of his own. PERKINS and WHITMORE became two of the largest landowners of
that area.
In 1935,
upon completion of Boulder Dam, now called Hoover Dam for President J. Edgar
HOOVER, the resulting backup of water creating Lake
Mead covered St.
Thomas,
the only continually occupied original settlement of the Pioneers. Graves were
relocated to the now St.
Thomas Memorial Cemetery located
off Magnasite and State
Route 169 in Southern Overton.
For more
information on this area see:
Zion On the
Muddy by G. Lynn Bowler, 2004
St. Thomas and
Kaolin, Nevada by Patricia
SCOTT and Virginia Beezy Lani TOBIASSON,
2006
Howard Hughes and His Other Empire and His Men by Clint
Baxter and Jim HAWORTH, 1996
Hookey Beans
and Willows by Orville PERKINS, reprint 2001.
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