St. Thomas and the Disappearing Lake

Before Hoover Dam was built, the town of St. Thomas sat just outside of the Valley of Fire. Then the waters rose, and St. Thomas was submerged beneath Lake Mead. But now that Lake Mead is shrinking, St. Thomas' ruins stand in silent testimony, but I'm not sure to what. What's scarier -- that man's work covered a city, or that nature's work uncovered it?

These first three pictures were taken along the new St. Thomas hiking trail; everything you see went underwater about 1938 and stayed that way until the current drought dropped the lake's level so drastically. Those aren't white rocks on the ground in the third picture - they're shells. Take a good look at the last picture. That's Lake Mead, way off in the distance; the only way to get a picture was with my zoom.