Kaolin
The Kaolin townsite was first surveyed in 1908, but evidently there was no development until the LDS church purchased the 1200-acre tract in 1910 as the site of a planned colony for Armenian immigrants who joined the Mormon church. The townsite, which was divided by the new St. Thomas Branch of the railroad, was laid out by the Nevada Land & Livestock Company and saw its first new arrivals in 1911. As the immigrants did not favor the location of their new home, many soon left for Utah. Kaolin, however, continued to develop as a small farming town with a new reservoir built for irrigation. A school district was established in 1912 with a new schoolhouse built the next year.
By 1930, Kaolin had a population of around 100, but it soon became apparent that the town (like St. Thomas) would be submerged by the rising waters of Lake Mead in coming years. The town slowly emptied; the post office closed in 1932 and the schoolhouse was moved to Overton the following year. The Civilian Conservation Corps built a temporary camp at Kaolin in 1933, when work was done at Valley of Fire, and in February 1935 the Kaolin Cemetery's graves were removed to Overton and Logandale. In 1941, Kaolin finally disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Mead and became but a memory. Though the water has since receded and exposed the old town, only faint remnants can be located today.
