As the Lake continues to drop dramatically, all sorts of artifacts that have long been underwater are popping up in the mud and dirt of where the Lake once was.

One such place is St. Thomas.  Once a small Mormon farming community, St. Thomas was established in 1865.  It was near where the Muddy River flowed into the mighty Colorado.  Many of the Mormon families left St. Thomas in 1871 when a re-alignment of the state line placed St. Thomas in Nevada instead of Utah.    Some families stayed and others moved there.  St. Thomas thrived and became a well-known community on the edge of the Moapa Valley. 

The building of Boulder Dam, however, doomed the community.  In anticipation of Lake Mead rising behind the Dam, the federal government bought out the homeowners in St. Thomas beginning in the mid-1930s.  Some families tore down their homesteads that had been in their family for generations.  Others walked away with what they could carry leaving behind their possessions that were too large or burdensome to take.

On June 11th, 1938 the last resident, Hugh Lord, rowed away from St. Thomas forever.   Lake Mead soon engulfed and covered over St. Thomas.  The town became but a memory that old-timers talked about.  When a drought in the mid-1960s caused the Lake to drop, some of St. Thomas briefly reappeared.  But the drought soon ended, the snows returned to the Rockies and St. Thomas soon slipped back under the blue water of the Lake.

Today, the Lake has dropped so dramatically that St. Thomas has resurfaced completely.  Guided tours can be arranged through the National Park Service for those interested in exploring this wonderful piece of Southern Nevada history.

One of these days, the snows will return to the Rockies and the drought will end and the Lake will once again reclaim this fascinating piece of history. 

 Special thanks to RoadsidePictures for letting us use that photo. 

As the water began to fill in behind Boulder Dam, boat landings began springing up.  One of the first on Lake Mead was the aptly named Lake Mead Boat Landing.  It opened in 1935.  Thirty years later it had grown into a full-sized marina and renamed the Lake Mead Marina.
 
Due to a drought through-out the Southwest the last few years, the water in Lake Mead has been dropping.  Dramatically.  The Lake is at an all-time low, one hundred feet below where it was at its peak.  Because the Lake has dropped so low, the old boat landings such as Overton Landing have been closed.  Marinas such as Las Vegas Bay have been moved to Hemenway Harbor in order to literally keep afloat. On Friday morning, Lake Mead Marina fell victim to the shrinking lake and was also moved to deeper water at Hemenway Harbor.  With boat owners and photographers looking on, the Marina began its slow move.  How do you move a marina, boats and all?  
 
Well, we hope these photos from RoadsidePictures helps explain it:  If you haven't been out to see just how low the Lake is, we recommend you do so.  It is a once in a life-time opportunity to see just how dramatically the drought has affected the largest man-made lake in the country.  Islands and other debris that had been beneath a watery grave for over seventy years now dot the landscape of the lake.  But nothing quite prepares for you seeing in person the difference in level between the high water mark and the level of the lake today.