Moapa Valley, Nevada

The Moapa Valley is located just north of the Echo Bay arm of Lake Mead. The Muddy River flows through the valley, before entering Lake Mead. The valley is about 40 miles long and runs in a roughly northwest to southeast direction before ending at Lake Mead. Mormon farmers were the first western settlers in the Moapa Valley. A total of about 6,000 people, predominantly Mormon, live in the valley.

The Moapa Valley consists of one city and two unincorporated communities. The city of Moapa Town is north while the unincorporated communities of Logandale and Overton are located south closer to the lake. Logandale is home of annual Clark Count Fair and Rodeo. Overton is the nearest community to the Valley of Fire State Park, which has spectacular red rock formations. Moapa has a population of about 1,000 residents, about one-third of which are Latinos.

Unexpectedly, Moapa Town has the second and third tallest structures in all of Nevada. The Moapa Entrevision Tower and the Moapa Kemp Tower are both in the city. Prior to the construction of the Hoover Dam and the formation of Lake Mead, the Moapa Valley also included the town of St. Thomas, which was abandoned in 1938 and taken over by the rising waters of the lake.

The Moapa Valley has evidence of human inhabitance since about 350 B.C. The Anasazi people settled in the area and developed farming practices, in addition to hunting Mule deer, jackrabbits, desert bighorn sheep, and rodents using bow and arrow. By 600 A.D., the local people known as the “Puebloans” were building their dwelling with Adobe plastering. The Southern Paiute Indians moved into the area around 1,000 A.D. and the Anasazis departed the area over the next two hundred years.

When Mormon settlers first arrived to the Moapa Valley in the 1860s, the Paiutes were relocated to a reservation north of Moapa, which still exists today. The Moapa Band of Paiute Indians of the Moapa River Indian Reservation are a federally recognized tribe.