During the early 1860's, Brigham Young directed that settlements be built in the area known today as the Moapa Valley. The water from the Muddy River, and the rich soil of the Valley, made the land a prime agricultural area for southern Nevada. Settlers sent by the Mormon church created the towns of St. Thomas (1865), St. Joseph (1865), Simonsville/Mill Point (1866), West Point (1868), Overton (1870), Logandale (1881), and Kaolin (1910). Early settlements thrived until 1871, when local residents found they were in Nevada, not Arizona. Moving back to Utah, they did not return for ten years. Overton, Logandale, and St. Thomas were revived, though St. Thomas, along with the later settlement of Kaolin, was ultimately drowned by the waters of Lake Mead.
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