On the rails again

Cadillac desert

The name of the motel is “North Shore Inn at Lake Mead”. We are in Overton, Nevada, a settlement around 100 km northeast of Las Vegas. “Established in 1868” a welcome sign proudly announces.

Most of the activity and also the hotel is along Moapa valley boulevard, NV 169. Auto part dealers, a thrift shop, a bank and of course churches are all spaced far apart and surrounded by parking lots which will never be full. Like in each, even the most insignificant US town, there is a post office and a library. There also is some entertainment. A wooden building houses the pioneer theater and an enormous red rooster attempts to attract drinkers to the red rooster bar. There is a pizza and a grill restaurant. Across the highway from the motel we are glad to find a Mexican restaurant. For those who want to celebrate it offers a big table under permanent birthday decoration,

Deserted January pool

In the side streets modest houses are surrounded with ample yards. Many residents live in semi-permanent mobile homes or trailers. For a desert settlement, lots of trees provide some shade from the blaze of the desert sun which even is fierce in the middle of January.

Main Street, Overton

Above many of the modest houses and businesses of Overton proudly flies the stars sprangled banner. The flag’s position shows the political attitude of the house owner: after Ex-President Jimmy Carter’s death end of 2024 as usual the flag has been set on half-mast on order of departing President Joe Biden. The present president, who has been inaugurated on 20th of January, has regarded that as an insult. So at houses owned by his voters the flag has been pulled to the top again.

Overton

In some way Overton is the anticlimax, the complete contradiction to the huzz and buzz of Las Vegas. However, what seems to be a boring community, as frequently, at closer look turns out to have more to offer than the consumerist outcry of the oppressive commercials of the big city.

Overton countryside

Although nothing seems to point back to the time of the foundation of the town, in 1868, the current settlement of Overton is already its forth incarnation in this valley

Prickly Pear cactus in Valley of fire state park

Only a short drive outside Overton is the entrance to valley of fire state park, one of Southern Nevada’s greatest natural attractions. Colorful red sandstone rock formations have been modeled into intricate shapes by water and wind. There is Elephant rock, Emoji rocks, Seven sisters, Arrowhead arch, Scout’s arch and many others.

Balancing Rock, Valley of fire state park

This is one of the hottest places in the Americas. Temperatures in summer regularly reach more than 40 °C and highs up to 49 °C have been measured. However, in winter the temperatures are outright pleasant. In January the daytime temperature is around 20 °C. Although it can be freezing at night the campgrounds are full. In winter this is a popular place to stay with a mobile home.

Valley of fire state park

Despite the forbidding climate the area was already visited by native Americans in precolumbian times. There are sites with petroglyphs in and outside the park. One is accessible by a long metal staircase. It is unclear how the Anasazi made it up here and what they were looking for at this height.

Petroglyphs, Valley of fire state park

The Moapa valley housed a number of Anasazi villages. The location was at the western end of their range of habitation which centered around the four corner area where present day Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico meet. Reason for their existence was the mining of salt which could be used for food preservation and was a valuable asset for trading. The remains of the salt mines still can be found in the area.

Reconstructed Adobe pueblo in Lost City Museum

The biggest settlement was the Pueblo Grande de Nevada. It was the first incarnation of a settlement in this area. It had up to 120 rooms, adobe structures above the ground and older pit houses dug into the ground. The prehistoric village even had become a site for early tourists. When Hoover dam was built and the waters of the huge Lake Mead reservoir began to rise it was clear that many of the sites, in particular Pueblo Grande, would be covered by water. Therefore it would become to be called “Lost City”.

Pueblo foundations, Lost City museum

Adobe walls don’t last long with a lot of water around. Archaeologists rushed in to save what was to save. Excavations began in 1924 and continued until 1938 when the lake had reached its full extent.

Artefacts unearthed in the Lost City

Artifacts from this civilization are exhibited in the Lost City Museum in Overton. The museum displays pottery, shells or jewelry unearthed during the project, pictures of the historical excavations, an excavated pithouse and reconstructions of the Pueblo houses.

Parking Lot, Moapa Valley

But where is the shore? Except for the pool of the motel, filled and open but deserted in mid of January, there is no water in view in the perimeter of the town. Where has all the water of the lake gone?

After the fusion of Southern Pacific and Union Pacific UP runs the freight trains on the sunset route

The paradisaical south-western part of the United States has an abundance of sun, forever blue skies, lots of resources and fertile soils. Millions of people have coveted to move and live there. The resources like gold and oil and the fertility of the ground have provided abundant possibilities for making a profit. The climate has recently attracted new industries in IT and electronics and makes the elite universities like Berkeley, Stanford or Caltech even more attractive. There is only one problem: the lack of water.

The long trains have remote controlled engines helping in the middle of the train. The earth shakes when they pass by

Certainly the Southern Pacific Railroad had big interests in this area since they had received their land grants along the newly built lines from Los Angeles to the East which crosses the Colorado Rive at Yuma and a branch to the Mexican border at Calexico. In 1892 first efforts were made to divert water into the desert areas of the south west. A diversion channel was dug from the lower course of the Colorado River into what then was called the Valley of the Dead, now the Imperial Valley, a developing agricultural area between the river, the Mexican Border and the Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree high desert areas to the west and north. Within 8 month after completion of the Channel two newly found towns housed 2000 settlers and a hundred thousand acres of land were made ready for harvest.

Bombay beach

The Colorado river has a very variable flow of water and carries enormous amounts of silt. The first channel silted up quickly and by 1904 bypass channels had been dug to allow the cleaning of the original canal. Since they were regarded as temporary the sluice gates were constructed rather whimsical.

Salton Sea, Bombay beach

As fate had it that year’s spring flood was particularly strong and also two months early. The surge of water went away with the sluice gates and the river left its bed to return to an old channel leading to the Salton sink, an extension of the bay of California about 80 m under sea level in the center of the imperial valley. The flood was such that it created a new river bed at a considerable speed and the Salton sink turned into a Salton sea again while the new settlers saw their land and crops disappear in the flood.

Salton Sea, Bombay beach

At first officials of Southern Pacific were indifferent. The argument was that it was cheaper to built a new railway at a higher elevation than stop the course of the recalcitrant river. However, when he heard that 15000 people were threatened with loosing their domiciles, Southern Pacific’s president Edward H. Harriman stepped in and ordered to fill the breach in the dam. It was a colossal task. Eventually the SP built 28 km of new railway, 25 km of embankment, 690 m of dam and used 1.2 million cubic meters of material which was brought from quarries up to 300 km away. Altogether more than 3 million dollars were spent when, after three years, in 1907, the river had finally been forced to return back to its old bed. The struggle went on at a time when the Southern Pacific also had to cope with the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, when the company headquarters, archives and documentation had been lost to fires and many buildings and miles of tracks destroyed.

Salton Sea, Bombay beach

Although the floods of the Colorado river were not able to entirely fill the sink, the Salton sea is still there today, more than 100 years later. It has a depth of 13 m while the surface is at an altitude of -69 m, the second lowest in the US after Badwater in Death valley.

Salton Sea

The lake would have dried up since 1907 but the excessive use of irrigation water by the farmers of the imperial valley preserved the water level for a while. This allowed the area to become a tourist destination after the second world war. Hotels and vacation homes were built. However, since the 1980’ies, the waters became increasingly contaminated with chemicals from farm runoff. Since there is no outlet the salinity constantly increases due to evaporation. Wildlife diseases led to massive die-offs of the fish and avian populations depending thereon.

Lots for sale, beach location, Salton Sea

After 1999 the farmers were forced to use their irrigation water more economically. The lake began to shrink. While the lake bed is exposed, winds sent clouds of toxic dust into nearby communities.

Bombay beach

Tourism has long disappeared from the shores of the Salton sea. Many of the shoreline communities turned into ghost towns. Resorts frequented by celebrities like Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys or Bing Crosby were abandoned. Left over were only those too poor to move away.

Junk yard or Artist's hide-out?

However, colonies of free-minded artists and adventure seekers started to arrive in makeshift alternative life style communities like Bombay beach or Slab city. Bombay beach is right behind a dam protecting it from the unreliable and stinking waters of the lake. The “beach” is a zone of smelly muck which transitions into the shallow water. Nobody will ever venture for a dip there anymore. Dust of unknown chemical composition blows down the unpaved sun-baked streets.

Bombay beach motor homes

The regular streets of the settlement with its makeshift homes and trailer parks has plenty of space for hipsters, intellectuals and artists. Golf carts are a popular means of transport since the closest gas station is 30 km away. However, the population is steadily decreasing. Some use their front yard as exhibition space. Other lots are covered with discarded furniture and rubbish. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish what is art and what is garbage. In any case, biannually Bombay beach organizes an art festival.

Bombay beach art

A short drive on California 111 from Bombay beach and up a secondary road from Niland, is Slab City, a "Squatters’ Paradise" considered to be "one of America's last free places". The colony was established after the army transferred the site of a weapons test facility to the state of California. Meanwhile 1500 people live here in winter in trailers and shacks. In summer the population decreases to 350. There is an internet cafe, a music venue, a snack bar and a hostel. Electricity comes from photovoltaic cells, water is trucked in. While properties in Bombay beach still have their price, living here is for free.

Bombay beach art

The entrance to slab city is formed by Salvation Mountain, a colorful art installation on a small hill three stories tall and entirely covered in latex paint, concrete and adobe.

Salvation mountain

Leonard Knight was born in Vermont in 1931. Knight began building Salvation Mountain after his arrival in Slab city in 1984. Although the first construction collapsed in 1989 he continued, undeterred, with the improved present second construction from adobe and straw until he became demented and had to move to a nursing home in 2011.

Salvation mountain

For 27 years Knight slept at the mountain's base in a shack on the back of a pick-up truck covered in scripture, with no electricity or running water. He had no belongings and lived and built from donations. His daily life was building, eating, giving tours, bathing and sleeping. After his move to the nursing home he died on February 10th 2014.

Salvation mountain

“this man was a saint, an American sadhu in the desert of southern California”, Aaron Huey, National Geographic, 2014

For many years the home of Leonard Knight

Today the structure is maintained by volunteers. One of them, a lean guy in his 50’ies, remnants of a mohawk haircut and a shirt featuring a big red cross, gives us a welcoming introduction. He came here from New York state to continue the vision of Leonhard Knight. Everything on him is dusty. Piles of acrylic paint surround the structure and immobilized vehicles covered in scripture. It is almost sunset and the younger residents of Slab city have a stroll down the access road.

Slab city building

The closest place to find a bed to sleep in is in Brawley, 40 km away, In the lobby of the Best Western they play classical music. When the girl at the reception hears where we just came from she comments “Iron man all day long at that place”.

Entrance hall, Best Western, Brawley

Brawley was one of the towns found by the imperial land company in 1902 in combination with the building of the diversion canal and the development of agriculture in the valley. In 1908 it still was a tent city housing around 100 people. That is no surprise: since it is under sea level it would have eventually been covered by water if the deluge of the Colorado river into the Salton sink would not have been stopped.

Belvedere theatre, Brawley

Center of the town is a large rectangular square which is diagonally traversed by Main Street. The attractive, tree covered green space houses the city hall, public library, post office and chamber of commerce. City plaza is also the source of the city’s most central streets, one from each corner and one from each side of the square. E and G street run to the West and East, 5th and imperial street to the North and South.

Gate, Plaza, Brawley

The town center preserves many of the historic art-deco buildings typical for the time when the Imperial Valley started to flourish. At the plaza, the former Belvedere Theater was built in 1922. Across the plaza the Elks lodge is another characteristic California Art Deco building. Across the street the sacred heart catholic church is built in a similar style as most of the buildings around the plaza.

Elks lodge, Brawley

The whole block of Main street east of the Plaza very much still looks like when it was built in the 1920’ies., The arcaded sidewalks would offer shade for pedestrians and shoppers when walking down the store fronts if there would be any. The ceilings of the Arcades are still ornamented with embossed tin plates.

Former Bank of America, Brawley

While the former building of the Bank of America has lost its purpose the facing drug store still has its function. There are a couple of restaurants around the plaza, a cafecito and an ice cream parlor which could have played a role in a James Dean movie.

Former Hotel Dunlack, today Ciudad Plaza

A couple of blocks further east on Main street is the enormous former hotel Dunlack. It was built in 1926 and rebuilt into apartments called Ciudad Plaza in 1976.

Former site of the National Store

After irrigation of the Imperial valley was successful and agricultural production took off suitable transportation infrastructure had to be established. Between 1902 and 1911 the Southern Pacific constructed the “Inter-California Railway” line. It branches off the Sunset Route from Los Angeles to the East at Niland and runs south through the newly-created towns of Brawley and El Centro in the Imperial Valley to cross the border to Mexico at Calexico/Mexicali. The track continued eastward through northern Mexico to reenter the United States and the sunset route at Yuma.

Railway crossing, Brawley

Between 1932 and 1967 the Rock Island and Southern Pacific even ran the “Imperial”, a joint passenger train that connected the Imperial Valley with Los Angeles, San Diego, Kansas City and Chicago. To handle freight and passenger traffic the Southern Pacific also built a big depot in Brawley in 1928. Its last part, the express building, out of service since 1958, was torn down on 25.4.2015.

Office Building, Southern Sierra electricity company

Freight trains still cross Brawley’s Main street near the site of the former depot. A little further on, the former office building of the Southern Sierra electricity company, also built in 1928 but now mainly boarded up, gives an impression of what is lost.

Ice cream Parlor

Many of the historic buildings in downtown Brawley are empty. Others are occupied by thrift and second hand shops. Several other historic buildings were lost by fire. The former national store was torn down and the site is still empty… there is enough empty space here and anything new is built in the outskirts in the center of a huge parking lot.

Abandoned restaurant

Brawley has its share of the homeless. They sit together at the local bus stop at the edge of the plaza. But the prospects of the town are not bad. Like in other parts of the imperial valley the number of residents is on the rise. New businesses like renewable energy and Lithium mining from the Salton sea are emerging. There are plans to renovate the historic theater. There is a local bus service to the other towns of the imperial valley and even to Slab city and there even are plans of a renaissance of a regional passenger rail service between the Mexican border, the Imperial valley, Coachella Valley and Los Angeles Union station. For running that train they will have to built a new depot for Brawley and the other stops …..

Paradise lost

After the initial efforts to divert the water of the Colorado river for irrigation played havoc to the Imperial Valley the Bureau of Reclamation devised a big plan: building dams along the Colorado River. The plan had several objects: next to the main reason of diverting water to the developing agriculture and cities of the South-West it was designed to regulate the water flow and prevent flooding, and generate electricity. In 1922 a contract was drawn up. There was one little problem: the first dam on the Colorado would be built and the floods would cover territory in the states Arizona and Nevada while most of the water was meant to flow to California.

Lake Mead, Sunset View Scenic Overlook

“To some conservationists, the Colorado River is the preeminent symbol of everything mankind has done wrong” Marc Reisner, Cadillac desert

Hoover Dam

The construction of Hoover Dam started for earnest in 1932. First of all 3,5 million tons of rock had to be blasted away to carve two diversion tunnels. Two temporary cover dams forced the river’s water into the tunnels. Next the canyon walls had to be cleaned. Since the walls were too high cranes could not be used. 400 men called high-scalers were suspended from the canyon’s edge to drill holes, insert dynamite and hope to be pulled up in time before the explosion went off. Since the canyon was so narrow more rock had to removed to create space for the power house, the penstock headers and the intake towers.

Intake towers of Hoover Dam at low water level

It was dangerous work, but the biggest threat was the oppressive heat. Apart from being the hottest part of North America, the narrow canyon walls preserved the heat like an oven with the door open.

Turbine houses at the bottom of the dam and highway bridge above

The finished dam has a height of 221 m, a width at the base of 200 m and of 14 m at the crest, and a length of 379 m. It required pouring 2.480.000 m3 concrete to fill its volume. The hardening of concrete is an exothermic reaction. Hardening such a volume would have involved a time span of 100 years to cool down and the risk of shrinkage, warpage, cracking and fissures. Therefore the whole structure was built incorporating hundreds of kilometers of thin refrigeration pipes. A refrigeration plant built for that purpose created frigged water to be pumped through the dam to cool it down and reduce the cooling time to something like 20 month.

Arizona Spillway

Next to the dam two spillways had to be built to allow the passage of excess water once the lake was filled. Two intake towers with the height of a 40 story skyscraper were the highest buildings of the American West at the time. They delivered water to the 19 turbines (17 for generating electricity for the grid and 2 for the operation of the dam) in the power house which is dwarfed by the enormous dam but is a huge building by itself.

Lake Mead upriver of the intake towers

Still today Hoover dam is an awe inspiring site. While road traffic used the crown of the dam to pass over the river from Nevada to Arizona after the dam was finished the road now uses a newly built, graceful bridge which allows a breathtaking view of dam, canyon and lake.

Turbine house

To access the dam proper., visitors, or better, their cars have to pass a security check. After you have parked you are free to walk around. However, the most impressive thing to do is to go on a guided tour which actually brings you into the bowels of the dam. A unique experience nobody should miss. The dam has much in common with the old pyramids; there is a maze of tunnels, stairways and elevators inside. While the tunnels are for servicing and monitoring, much is done to accommodate and impress visitors. Some of the tunnels end in the wall of the dam, where you feel like a tiny ant when you a look into the even bigger, narrow canyon under the graceful highway bridge. Water gushes out of the turbine outlets below. From an enormous balcony clad in marble visitors can enjoy the view of the power house, a cathedral for turbines. Together they can produce 2.08 MW. Low water level decreases the power output to a certain degree. This was compensated by the installation of turbines operating at lower pressure. It took 50 years, until in 1985 the costs for Hoover dam project were payed back to the federal treasury. However, the main reason for the dam was and is water distribution and flood control.

Golden doors to the elevators

Art deco visitors toilets

Floor decoration in one of the inspection tunnels

Inspection hole in the dam wall

Details of the design show how important the project was. Everything is done with nice details lost in modern time. The elevator towers on the crest of the dam have intricate carved reliefs, the doors to the elevators are gold plated. Even the (as always) free toilets have been intricately designed in the Art-deco of the time.

Inspection tunnel

The construction of the dam was done by a joint venture of eight companies, called ironically the Six Companies Inc. after the tribunal of the Chinese mafia. Many of the workers initially had to live in camps close to the building sites. Shanty towns called ragtowns developed where those stayed who waited for an opportunity to get a job there as well. After 1930 a carefully planned company town was built after the plans of the Dutch architect Saco Rienk De Boer.

Boulder city's art-deco center

Visitors to Boulder City were only admitted by permit and had to pass a gatehouse. Alcohol was not permitted until 1969 and it still is one of only two towns in Nevada where gambling is forbidden. The residential areas were arranged according to importance of employees. The most important had their residences on top of the hill, managers were housed further down and the dwellings for the common staffwere located furthest away from the public buildings and parks.

Boulder city's art-deco center

Commercial development around the center of town was strictly regulated. Since the town was built to accommodate the workers at the dam there were initially no schools and for injured workers the closest hospital was 53 km) away in Las Vegas. However, there was a theater and a hotel which housed famous guests like Bette Davis, Howard Hughes, Will Rogers, Boris Karloff or the Maharaja of Indore. Both theater and hotel still exist today.

Boulder dam hotel

The government controlled Boulder City until 1959. However, it stayed a quiet residential town proud of its historic heritage ever since. There are a number of nice old fashioned cafes and diners, a craft beer brewery with the usual unpalatable brew and quite a number of motels which all feature traditional art-deco advertisement signs. The streets are decorated with work of arts, many of which refer to the history of the town.

Coffee Cup Cafe

The Ex-hippie content is high here. The customers in the old fashioned cafe where we go for breakfast are elderly and sport copious gray beards. The walls and the ceiling are decorated with photos, license plates, surf boards and old fashioned skies. And yet times have changed, tells us an old guy smoking a cigarette at the entrance. When I ask what is different he has trouble to find an answer. The people, the prices. He makes jewelry but has moved to Michigan. There he can afford good, healthy food.

Boulder City street advertisement panels

Building such a colossal dam also required building railroads to move all the material. Union Pacific built a 36 km long branch line from Las Vegas to Boulder City. There it connected to the 16 km long US government construction railway. The Six Companies Inc. Railroad laid another 32 km of tracks to connect it to the construction site, gravel pits in the river bed and the gravel plant. Building these railways also involved cutting tunnels and dams and everything in a short time. Today those who like hiking or cycling in the searing heat can use a trail on the former right of way of the Six Companies Inc. Railroad to the dam.

UP # 264/6264 comsolidation steam engine

The former Union Pacific Boulder City station now is a dependency of the Nevada State Railroad museum. Union Pacific consolidation engine #264 built in 1913 would have been typical for those used in the time of the construction of the dam. The museum also displays one of those dump cars which, built in 1917, would have been used to transport sand, gravel and tailings to and from the construction site.

Dump car

When we come back to our Motel four cops and two police cars have cornered a guy leaning with the back to his car with his hands up in the air. While answering their questions he nervously exercises his fingers. We get out of here as quickly as possible.

Pacific Lumber # 35 Mikado steam engine ....

... and the Nevada Railroad Museum's platform

After Boulder Dam was finished the waters of Lake Mead started to rise. Eventually it would stretch 193 km upriver from the dam and cover a surface of 640 km2 with water up to 162 m deep. It’s upper end would lap at the feet of Overton and cover the lost city.

Southern Nevada landscape

However, between the departure of the Anasazi and the disappearance of the lost city in the flood, the second and third reincarnation of the Moapa valley took place. Brigham Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, called for a settlement along the freight route from the Colorado River just 23-miles to the south of the lost city to Salt Lake City. In January 1865, Thomas Smith arrived with a dozen Mormons and build the community of St. Thomas in the valley at the confluence of the Virgin and Muddy Rivers.

Southern Nevada landscape

After some initial struggles 45 families were building homes and planting crops in the Muddy River Valley by 1866. With picks, shovels and scrapers the Mormon settlers built an irrigation system to their fields and orchards. By 1869 ditches and concrete-lined canals wound through the town to bring water to the community.

Southern Nevada landscape

Throughout town, cisterns allowed people to draw buckets of water for their daily use. Each held a several months' supply of water, which was filtered through charcoal and sand. The smallest member of a family was lowered into the cistern some of which were more than 5 m deep once a year to scrub the walls.

Resurfaced tree trunk of former Lake Mead bed

Initially, the Mormon settlers of St. Thomas thought they were in Utah or Arizona territories as the boundary lines were not well defined. A boundary survey in December 1870 determined that St. Thomas was actually in Nevada. Immediately Nevada county tax collectors demanded settlers to pay several years of back taxes in gold or silver coin. Before tax payments to Utah and Arizona were made by an informal bartering system and the settlers did not possess the required currency. The Mormon settlers turned to Brigham Young for advice. He allowed them to take a vote to stay or go. The vote turned out 63-2 for abandoning St. Thomas. The Mormons left in early 1870. The second incarnation came to an end after only 5 years.

Former cistern of St. Thomas

While the Mormons left, others saw their opportunity to take over what was already there. St. Thomas was gradually repopulated over the next decade. St. Thomas became a major stop along the so called Arrowhead Trail. As the route stayed at lower elevations it was considered an all-weather road and became the first designated route between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The residents agreed to maintain more than 100 miles of this dirt road to keep it in good condition throughout the year. The local economy began to prosper. The third incarnation became a fact.

House foundations in St. Thomas

Agriculture stayed the main source of income. In a good year, settlers harvested up to 5,000 pounds of lint – enough to produce 900 pairs of denim jeans. In addition, salt, and copper, silver and gold minerals were mined in the mountains to the east of St. Thomas.

House foundations in St. Thomas

The climate always was a challenge in St Thomas. In summer it was so hot that residents slept under wet sheets. While there was water there were only limited means of preserving perishable goods. Desert coolers were built from wood, wire and burlap sacks which cooled the contents by evaporation.

In 1911, construction began on a spur line of the San Pedro & Los Angeles Railroad from Moapa to

St. Thomas. Upon completion, trains arrived in the community pulling box cars filled with commercial goods and refrigerated cars filled with ice for household use. At last, perishable

food could be stored for longer periods of time. Residents were able to replace their burlap desert coolers with ice boxes. Trains departed the valley with shipments of ore and salt from the outlying mining areas or with fresh farm products like cantaloupes or watermelons for sale elsewhere. Today the line still operates to as far as Overton, where it serves a mine.

Travelers on the Arrowhead trail and the needs of farmers and miners gave rise to the foundation of small businesses. There were several grocery stores and a soda fountain also known as the Hannig ice cream parlor. A café and the Gentry Hotel opened along the Arrowhead Trail. It had 14-rooms and governors, senators and even President Calvin Coolidge enjoyed its amenities.

Former St. Thomas school

In the beginning parents provided a variety of places for their children's schooling, including tents, parlors or living rooms. Education was important to the settlers. Eventually the brick and concrete St. Thomas School House was built. The foundation are still there.

The lake would have reached as far as you can see

After the Boulder Dam Act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge in 1928 the end of St. Thomas was imminent. The rising waters of Lake Mead would eventually flood the town. The government asked a local resident, Levi Syphus, and two Washington D.C. appraisers, Harry Crain and Cecil Creel, to determine the value of the properties. Levi Syphus determined the overall land value at $ 961,15S.75, Crain and Creel at $ 833,028.40. The latter and cheaper appraisal was approved in 1931. The residents were bought out and slowly left. Already by 1932 St. Thomas was a ghost town but some hardy individuals stayed until the bitter end and Hugh Lord only left by boat as the water was lapping at his door in 1938. First he had set his house on fire. The third incarnation of the settlement had disappeared.

Access trail to St. Thomas site

While St. Tomas was covered with more than 20 m of water, the future prospects of Overton seemed bright in 1930. Situated higher, newly created Lake Mead offered new prospects. The lake offered recreational possibilities unheard of in a desert. Several designated beach areas and a place named fishermen’s cove led to a vision of a future of a Miami Beach in the desert. Anglers,

boaters and swimmers appeared floating above the ruins of St. Thomas.

At the shores of Lake Havasu

In 1930, at the time when Hoover Dam was finished and Lake Mead started to rise the population of the American West was about 11 million, half of whom lived in California. The annual average flow of water 21586 million cubic meter. California was allowed to divert around a quarter, 5428 million cubic meter, Arizona 3454 million cubic meter and Nevada only 370 million cubic meter.

At the shores of Lake Havasu

Therefore the big plans of the Bureau of reclamation were continued. Between 1934-1938 Parker dam was built 249 km downstream of Hoover dam. It created Lake Havasu. The Colorado river aqueduct brought water into the Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernadino areas of California while it also formed the water source for the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct (CAP) to provide water for irrigated agricultural areas in Arizona and to several Arizona communities, including Phoenix and Tucson. The production of additional electricity was seen as a useful byproducrt.

At the shores of Lake Havasu

Building Parker Dam almost led to a civil war between the two members of the United States, Arizona and California. Arizona refused the building of the dam on its grounds and mobilized an army. After a court decision the federal government stepped in and forced Arizona to allow the building of the dam.

Lake Havasu Beach sunset, 1988

In 1951 Davis Dam was completed 110 km downstream from Hoover Dam and created Lake Mohave. The dam allows the United States Bureau of Reclamation to re-regulate releases from Hoover Dam upstream, and facilitate the delivery of Colorado River water to Mexico, who had been kindly awarded a share of 1850 million cubic meters of the floods.

Lake Powell

In 1966 Glen Canyon Dam was finished to create massive Lake Powell upstream from Lake Mead. Grand Canyon separates the two big reservoirs. Since that time Lake Powell slowly fills up with the immense amount of silt carried by the river.

London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, like new in 1988

Starting in 1958 Robert P. McCulloch, a businessman dealing in boat motors and chain saws, purchased in total 66.57 km2 of federal desert on the east side of the Lake Havasu. In 1963 Lake Havasu City was established. However, the new city also needed residents. McCulloch Properties acquired half a dozen commercial aircraft and found its own certificated airline, McCulloch International Airlines. From 1964 through 1978, 2,702 flights were made to Lake Havasu City bringing in prospective buyers of residential lots for free.

English village, Lake Havasu City, London bridge in the background, almost new in 1988

To impress tourists and buyers McCulloch bought London bridge from the City of London for 2.5 million US$. The bridge was disassembled and the marked stones shipped to Lake Havasu City and reassembled for another 7 million US$. The construction took three years to complete. McCulloch gave an acre of land in Lake Havasu City to London. When Lake Havasu City wanted to use this land for a visitors' center, London leased it back for a quit rent of a Hopi Kachina figure.

Lake Havasu City is in a desert

McCullogh’s plan seems to have worked. Metropolitan Lake Havasu City now counts more than 57.000 residents, the metropolitan area more than 200.000. The former desert along the lake shore has been turned into a ramshackle conglomerate of fast food parlors, parking lots, golf resorts, mobile home parks, gas stations and mini storage shacks. A limited number of palm trees try to survive in the blazing sun. London bridge connects McCulloch Boulevard on an island housing an English village and Arizona’s only beach resort to what could be called downtown Lake Havasu City, the urban stretch of AZ 95 along which the town is built. Meanwhile London Bridge has become the second-largest tourist attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon.

Ready to boomdock

While the water level of Lake Mead recedes the area along the lake has stayed a remote desert wasteland. Even today along the route from Overton to Boulder there is no gas station for 57 miles. Settlements are only found where irrigation along the Colorado river, the American Nile, and along the shore of Lakes Havasu and Mojave (but not along lake Mead since the water level is too fluctuating) is present. Only a short distance from the water the landscape is a variety of brown, yellow and red. Cacti and thorny scrubs are the only vegetation. However, the climate which is still pleasant in winter attracts lots of visitors. Boom docking is popular and the barren landscape is dotted with camper vans topped by satellite dishes and surrounded by camping chairs and desert-proof vehicles.

Ehrenberg, Arizona

Overton, Nevada, did not have a McCullogh. Overton neither has a lake any more. The fact is that the Colorado river never reached an annual average flow of 21586 million cubic meter. Excessive pumping away of water into the aqueducts for agricultural and domestic use depleted Lake Mead. The gigantic overflow intakes had to be used only twice. Fortunately so, because it turned out that constant use would destroy the spillways. Usually in the water level of the lake is highest in spring. End of March 2025 the water level was 50 m lower than the maximum, a depth of 162 m. In 2022 the reservoir had reached an all time low of 26% of its full capacity.

Ehrenberg, Arizona

The receding waters not only have evaporated the dreams of Overton to become a new Miami Beach. It also allows visitors to walk again among the foundations of St. Thomas. Family members of former residents are returning to their ancestral homes. The national park service has established hiking trails and set down information panels. The expectations are low that the flood will ever come back. Interesting enough this does not happen to Lake Havasu. End of March 2025 the water level was 1 m above the full pool level. There is no threat that London bridge will span a mud flat. For completeness, the level of Lake Powell was 43 m below full pool and of lake Mojave 1 m below full pool.

Country club, Palm Desert, Coachella Valley

“The Colorado’s modern notoriety, however, stems not from its wild wild rapids and plunging canyons but from the fact that it is the most legislated, most debated and most litigated river in the entire world” Marc Reisner, Cadillac desert

Highway Coachella Valley

How places can be transformed by water can be seen in the Coachella Valley. The surroundings of Palm Springs has been turned to an oasis for the rich. The first residents of places like Palm Springs, Palm Desert or Indio were still settling in a desert and kept to its rules by planting a desert resistant vegetation. Meanwhile gated communities and country clubs are watering their lawns and flowering plants. Tall palm trees overshadow the wide streets to allow the battered trucks of immigrant gardeners and housekeepers access to maintain the 500.000 $/acre plots. When you ask where the water comes from they refer to the aquifer. But every aquifer has its limits and the amount of the Colorado’s water is limited.