Eagle Scouts build trail to Southern Nevada history

Heather Rawlyk

Monday, Jan. 19, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

Visitors to historic St. Thomas can now hike their way to the formerly submerged Moapa Valley town through a new trail, cleared and built by volunteers and local Eagle Scouts.

The historic town was submerged under Lake Mead in 1938 after Hoover Dam was built. Lower water levels caused by the drought have exposed remnants of the old town.

Eagle Scout Seth Collup, 15, whose father is a ranger at Overton Beach, said he decided to get a trail built after witnessing visitors getting lost while trying to find the old town site.

Collup also witnessed senior citizens having trouble getting down a hill that leads them to the site.

"I was there sitting with my dad while he was off duty one day, and we started talking to some people about needing a trail," Collup said.

Collup told his dad he wanted to start a project to clear a trail to get to the site. He then recruited fellow Eagle Scout Drew Hort to help develop the project.

"There wasn't even a trail there before and we needed one," he said. "So we decided we needed to build an upper trail and a trail that goes down through the bushes."

About 20 volunteers including fellow Eagle Scouts and friends joined Collup and Hort on Saturday to start clearing out bushes and build a trail, Collup said.

"We took shovels and rakes and worked with our hands to clear the trail and the bushes out of the way," he said. "For the second part, we brought in a trimmer machine to cut off the remainder of it."

A key part of the project was clearing invasive tamarisk, which has made it increasingly difficult for visitors to walk around the site.

"(The site is) a pretty cool thing to see," Collup said "You can see foundations of old schoolhouses, an ice cream shop and a blacksmith shop. Now it's got a trail. It's a pretty nice trail, too."