MOAPA VALLEY

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.