Nevada Historical Marker #41
Pueblo Grande De Nevada. Indians of a highly-developed civilization lived throughout Moapa valley from 300-1100 A.D. several hundred ancient pithouses, campsites, rockshelters, salt mines and caves of ancestral Puebloan people make up what is commonly known as “Lost City.” These people cultivated corn, beans, and squash in fields irrigated by river water. They also gathered wild seeds and fruits and hunted widely for deer, antelope, desert bighorn sheep, small mammals, and birds. They wove fine cotton cloth, fired beautifully painted and textured pottery, and mined and traded salt and turquoise to coastal tribes for seashells. Early dwellings were circular pithouses below ground. Later dwellings above ground were single storey adobes having up to 100 rooms.Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam, flooded the most intensively developed portion of lost city.
South Moapa Valley Blvd, Overton, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #37
Powell Of The Colorado. On August 30, 1869, Major John Wesley Powell landed at the mouth of the Virgin River, about twelve miles south of here, thus ending the first expedition through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.The expedition left Green River City, Wyoming Territory, on May 24, 1869. For three months Powell and his men endured danger and hunger to explore, survey, and study the geology of the canyons along the Green and Colorado Rivers.Exhausted and near starvation, the Powell party was fed by the Mormons of St. Thomas, a small farm settlement about eleven miles north of here.The original sites of St. Thomas and the junction of the Virgin and Colorado Rivers are now beneath the waters of Lake Mead.This, and later Powell surveys, stimulated interest in the water conservation problems of the Southwest.
Echo Bay Road, Overton, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #150
Nevada’s First State Park. Along with most Americans, Nevadans by the 1920’s began to demand greater access to the outdoors, precipitating early efforts on the part of the legislature to designate state lands for recreational use. Building on those efforts, a 1931 land exchange transferred 8760 acres of federal land to the state at Nevada.In 1934, that land was officially dedicated as Valley of Fire, Nevada’s first state park. The following year, Nevada’s legislature established this and three other parks at Beaver Dam, Cathedral Gorge and Kershaw-Ryan. These parks owe much of their early infrastructure to the work of Civilian Conservation Corps crews led by Thomas W. Miller of Reno, who also served as the first chairman of the State Parks Commission. By 2015, Valley of Fire State had grown fourfold, and is recognized internationally for its outstanding scenic, geologic, and archaeological features.
Balanced Roack, Overton, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #168
Arrowhead Trail (1914 1924). Las Vegas promoters claimed to be the originators of this all-weather route between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. From the beginning, the Arrowhead Trail was a “grass roots” effort, including promotion by various chambers of commerce and volunteer construction by local citizens. However, it was Charles H. Bigelow, from Los Angeles, who gave the trail publicity. Between 1915 & 1916, he drove the entire route many times in the twin-six Packard he named “Cactus Kate.”The trail, which extends near here, was built in 1915 and completed the section between St. Thomas and Las Vegas. In its day it denoted a milestone of progress.
Valley of Fire Highway, Overton, NV, United States