A Short History of Callville Bay

~ today on the shores of Lake Mead

The Mormons, on their expansion west, needed a reliable route for their supplies to reach Salt Lake City, Utah. Elder Anson Call was sent to select a site for a steamboat port on the Colorado River and, in 1864, he established Callville.

A large warehouse was constructed first, followed by a landing, post office and corral. The steamboat Esmeralda completed a trip in October 1866 and delivered 100 tons of freight.

In January 1867, the Army arrived at El Dorado and Fort Callville became an outpost until May 1868. Callville, at the time was so desolate, isolated and lonely, that it had the most desertions of any Army company stationed at El Dorado, including one suicide.

Though steamboats and barges trading salt between Rioville and El Dorado still made a few stops at Callville after the transcontinental railroad was completed in northern Nevada in 1869, the Mormons' plans for a supply route via the Colorado was eventually abandoned.

National Park Service and concession developments at Callville Bay began in 1967, after the North Shore Road was completed around 1966.