St. Thomas Ghost Town · Vegas Ghost Towns

Short history

Settlers founded St. Thomas in 1865 as a Mormon farming town on the Muddy River. A boundary survey placed the valley in Nevada, which rewrote taxes and politics for people who had planted under another assumption. The town lasted anyway, until Lake Mead rose behind Hoover Dam.

Residents left in 1938 as the water took the streets. In low-water years the foundations and the old grid come back on the lakebed. In high-water years they do not. This page does not track the reservoir.

Practical visitor info

Hours and fees change. Check the site, the park, or the business before you go. This page does not quote a current price or a current opening time.

The numbers match the drive times and distances page. Read desert day-trip tips before a hot day, and seesample itineraries if you want to combine stops. The town list is Ghost Towns Near Las Vegas. Tonopah and the Extraterrestrial Highway are indexed under Weird Day Trips.

Drive from Las Vegas

Plan on about an hour and a quarter from central Las Vegas to the trailhead, on the order of 70 miles, depending on the entrance you use and on traffic. The usual shape is I-15 north, then the signed roads toward Overton and the Lake Mead side of the valley.

The last turn is easier on a current map than in a paragraph. Download it before you lose the signal.

Road notes

The road to the trailhead is paved. A normal rental car is enough. From the parking area you walk. The surface can be dry mud, soft crust, or a shoreline, depending on the level of the lake and on recent weather. This page does not describe the tread today.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area often charges an entrance fee. The amount, and which passes cover it, change. Check the National Park Service before you go. That fee is for the recreation area. It is not a ghost-town ticket this guide can quote.

What you can see

When the water is low, visitors walk to stone foundations on an open flat. When the water is high, there may be little of the town to see. Check a current lake level and a recent report before you treat this as the day’s destination.

There is no merchant street and no saloon. The interest is the exposed town grid, the quiet, and the odd fact of a farm town on a reservoir floor. Carry the water you will drink. The trailhead is not a store.

Heat and safety

The walk is exposed. Summer afternoons on this part of the lake commonly run above 100°F (38°C), and the dry mud reflects heat. A short distance on the map can be a bad hour on foot in July.

Do not count on cell service for a rescue, and do not count on the lake as drinking water. If storms are building, a lakebed and a wash are the wrong place to wait them out.

What a half-day looks like

Only if the lake is low. The drive is about an hour and a quarter, then an exposed walk to the foundations. If the water is up, the half day disappears. Lake Mead often charges an entrance fee, and the amount changes. Check the National Park Service before you go. This page does not quote it.

Photos

The pictures below are stored with the site. Each credit links to the Wikimedia Commons file.

A concrete ruin at St. Thomas on the exposed lakebed.
Photo by Daniel Jost, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Foundation remains at St. Thomas, photographed when the reservoir was low enough to walk the old townsite.
Photo by Andrew Cattoir, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Affiliate slots

These boxes mark where a partner link will go. They are not links. They do not track visits, and they do not sell anything.

Car rental

A normal rental car reaches the paved trailhead. Park fees are separate and are paid to the recreation area, not through this site. The rental link is not connected.

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Guided tours

A guide is optional. Most visits are a self-guided walk. A tour link belongs here only if a specific, current trip is worth naming.