Rioville, Nevada (first known as Junction City) was a settlement founded by

Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

in what they thought was

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th st ...

in 1869, now under

Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...

and within

Clark County, Nevada Clark County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Nevada with 2,265,461 residents as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county is the location of the state's three largest cities, Las Vegas (t ...

History

Junction City, was located on the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

, above its confluence with the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

(also known as the Rio Virgin). Stone's Ferry was purchased in 1870 and moved to a location adjacent to Junction City in 1876 and renamed Bonelli's Ferry after its new owner Daniel Bonelli. After being deserted by its first Mormon settlers in 1871, new settlers came in the 1880s, and renamed the town Rioville. It had its own post office from 1881-1906. On July 8, 1879, Rioville became the uppermost landing for steamboats of the Colorado River, when Captain Jack Mellon piloted the steamboat ''Gila'' up river through Boulder Canyon to the town, making it the high water head of navigation on the Colorado River. From then until 1887 when silver mining activity declined, steamboats in high water, and from 1879 to 1882 the sloop ''Sou'Wester'' in low water, carried locally mined salt to process silver ore in El Dorado Canyon. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978
/ref> By the 1890s the settlement was virtually abandoned but the post office lingered to 1906 and the ferry until 1934.

Present day

The site of Rioville has been submerged under

since the 1930s.

References

{{Steamboats of the Colorado River Ghost towns in Clark County, Nevada Inland port cities and towns in Nevada Lake Mead Steamboat transport on the Colorado River Populated places established in 1869 1869 establishments in Utah Territory

History

Present day

See also

References