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Sunken City · Walk in drought

St. Thomas, the Town Lake Mead Drowned

Flooded 1938 · resurfaces in drought, Overton Arm, Lake Mead, Nevada
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

St. Thomas, the Town Lake Mead Drowned: still unexplained.

A whole Mormon pioneer town, lost and found with the water line

The law of this ground: Within Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NPS), walk the ruins, take nothing; it's a protected site.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
A whole Mormon pioneer town, lost and found with the water line
The account

Mormon settlers built St. Thomas where the Muddy River met the Colorado in 1865, farms, shops, five hundred souls. Then Hoover Dam rose and the water came for it; the last resident rowed away in June 1938 as the lake closed over his roof. But the drought keeps giving it back. Since 2002 the foundations, the school steps, and the old ice-cream parlour have stood in the sun again, a town that surfaces and drowns with the level of the lake.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Overton Arm, Lake Mead, Nevada.
  • What you are chasing is A whole Mormon pioneer town, lost and found with the water line. Work the documented record of St. Thomas, the Town Lake Mead Drowned back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Within Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NPS), walk the ruins, take nothing; it's a protected site.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Overton Arm, Lake Mead, Nevada.
  • What you are chasing is A whole Mormon pioneer town, lost and found with the water line. Work the documented record of St. Thomas, the Town Lake Mead Drowned back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Within Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NPS), walk the ruins, take nothing; it's a protected site.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 36.430°, -114.370° (approx.) View on the Map