St. Thomas, Nevada: A History Uncovered

Acknowledgments

xiii This book began as an administrative history of the St. Thomas, Nevada, site for the National Park Service. When the ruins of the town began to emerge from the murky depths of Lake Mead in 1999, the National Park Service realized that it needed to know how to administer the site. A few years later, I was recruited to write this administrative history by the late Hal Rothman, professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During the writing, I realized that the site had much to teach about western water issues and western history in general. It is this larger story of St. Thomas that I have expanded into this book. There are many people who have helped in innumerable ways to bring this book to fruition. The staff at the lds Archives, National Archives and Records Administration (nara) in Denver, L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University, and Lied Library Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, went out of their ways to assist in my research. Though I spent less time at these institutions, I also found great help at the Denver Public Library, the Nevada State Museum, the Clark County Museum, Dixie State College, and the Boulder City Museum. Thanks are due to Virginia “Beezy” Tobiasson, who helped with some very good research leads. I will be eternally grateful to Hal Rothman. He introduced me to David Louter, Steve Daron, and Rosie Pepito of the National Park Service, who were all wonderful resources during the research and writing phases and Preface xiv Preface whose insights made this book better. Thanks are also due to Peter Michel for granting me time to work on the manuscript. Thanks to my wife, Xela, and kids, Benjamin and Zion. Thank you for being patient with me during the time I spent writing and revising the manuscript . Sam, I haven’t forgotten, sdg. St. Thomas, Nevada ...