St. Thomas site

As seen from near the trailhead, looking slightly east of due north. Note the Lake Mead high-water mark (outlined). Most of the greenery is tamarisk (salt cedar) several feet high. It looks like grass from here but it's not! Only the tallest ruin sticks up enough to be visible (outline with insert). I don't know what the building was. The elevation of the photo point is about at the high-water mark on this side. Those terraces below me are not natural but old shorelines from the reservoir.

St. Thomas is an unusual Nevada ghost town. It was a small Mormon farming community in southern Nevada that lay in the path of Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by Boulder (later Hoover) Dam. The government bought out all the property owners in the mid-1930s and the rising waters covered the site by the late '30s. The last resident, the postmaster (IIRC) rowed away on June 11, 1938 after flinging the postage canceling stamp out into the lake. Those last St. Thomas cancellations are now collectors' items. With Lake Mead's current low level due to the drought on the Colorado River system, the site of St. Thomas is exposed--old weathered concrete foundations amongst a rank growth of tamarisk. The Park Service has an interpretive trail out there. The inserts show some more foundation close-ups with some displayed artifacts. All artifacts, of course, are protected.

St. Thomas is thus an example of fall-out from a major technological project.