St. Thomas, Nevada: A History Uncovered

The Mountains Brought Down and the Valleys Exalted

77 A. E. Cahlan, a prominent local journalist, visited the Moapa Valley in the early twentieth century. His experience shows St. Thomas entering the modern era, albeit haltingly. He described some difficulty he had in breaking a twenty-dollar note to pay a bill. He had to visit just about everyone in town to get enough change gathered together. The Moapa and Virgin Valleys were both very cash poor, and the closest bank, in terms of travel time, was in St. George. Nonbarter exchanges were accomplished using endorsed checks. Cahlan reported: A buyer would write a check for the amount of his purchase, say $1 or 50c. This immediately became legal tender. The merchant would give it back in change. The recipient would use it again in making his purchases. Each handler, of course, had to endorse the check. When there was no more room for an additional endorsement , the holder would take it back to the maker and have him make out a new one and start all over again. The check became sort of a negotiable promissory note not unlike the green iou’s Uncle Sam puts out today and calls them money. Checks were written for as little as 10 cents and a few ever went above $5. During the same visit, Cahlan attended a basketball game. The only electricity available in the valley was from personal generators, and the basketball venue did not have one. The light for the night game was provided by ten to fifteen citizens standing around the court holding old-fashioned kerosene lamps on their heads.1 Both experiences show an interesting mix of old and new. 5 The Mountains Brought Down and the Valleys Exalted Mountains Brought Down and Valleys Exalted 79 account for 70 of the people.2 In the twenty years that this chapter covers, the population of the town increased 395 percent. It is not just the total population that made a significant recovery in the twentieth century. When the Muddy missionaries left St. Thomas, the lds population was reduced to one family. Although census returns do not list religion and the lds Archives do not make membership rolls public, a familiarity with the stories of many of the families in the town lets the careful reader count at least part of the lds population. In 1900, out of the total population of 43, at least 29, or 67 percent, were lds. The percentage could have been higher, but some of the people listed are not mentioned in any available sources as lds or not. For 1910 the number was 44 out of 93. By 1930 the total lds population was at least 105 out of 194, which is 54 percent. The actual number was likely much higher. Regardless of the actual proportion , none of the available sources on the history of the town mentions any sort of confrontation or conflict between the Latter-day Saints and any non-lds neighbors during this period of time. Farming and ranching remained residents’ main occupations, though the crops they grew were much different from those in the 1860s. While the town was part of the Muddy Mission, cotton, wheat, and corn received the most attention. The twentieth century brought much greater experimentation with crops. William M. Murphy, upon moving to St. Thomas in 1903, put in twenty acres of asparagus. He was the first to grow this crop on a commercial scale. Onions were another experimental commercial crop for area farmers. One reporter stated in 1908 that farmers along the Muddy grew enough onions to “perfume the breath of every girl in the United States” and were experimenting to produce an odorless variety.3 There were several other cash crops as well. Various farmers produced alfalfa, cantaloupes, watermelons, sugarcane, corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, peaches, pears, grapes, pomegranates, and many other fruits and vegetables . The land was so productive that one person could handle only ten acres by himself. Another sign of modernity was that the Moapa Orchard and Fruit Company seriously contemplated the construction of a hydroelectric plant on the Muddy. Nothing ever came of the plans to build the dam, but it certainly would have been welcome not only for the electricity, but also for flood control. Floods in 1910 and 1914 wiped out crops and fences, as well as damaged a railroad right-of-way.4 80 s t. t h o m a s, n...