Moapa Valley Independence Day

At 7 a.m. sharp on Saturday, July 4, 2026, members of VFW Elwood Perkins Post 8336 raised the flag at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Logandale and opened the Moapa Valley Independence Day Celebration. The day ran until about 10 p.m. and every part of it was free. The Moapa Valley Independence Day Committee runs it. The Mesa Valleys Progress credited the sponsorship of many businesses and individuals and “many, many volunteers,” who had worked six months on the 2026 edition. That year marked the nation’s 250th birthday, and the paper reported “more activities than ever before.”

The fairgrounds stand at 1301 W. Whipple Ave. They are also home to the annual Clark County Fair and Rodeo and to the Pomegranate Arts & Crafts Festival. Logandale lies at the north end of Moapa Valley, about five miles northwest of Overton. The Muddy River, formerly called the Moapa River, runs through the valley on its way to Lake Mead.

Pancakes, bicycles, and fire hoses

Breakfast followed the flag. Starting at 7:30, the Moapa Valley Rotary cooked and served pancakes, and Meadow Gold supplied the milk. The Progress asked people to come in their favorite patriotic outfits. T-shirts were sold in the Fine Arts building during breakfast and again at supper.

Next came the young patriot parade, which the Progress called traditional. Children rode decorated bikes and scooters, and some decorations were on hand for those who arrived without. The county schedule set it at 8:30. In 2026 it was led, for the first time, by Karen Bailey of Turning Point USA and Justin Barrows of the youth group Club America.

Games began at 9 a.m. That year they included a new cornhole tournament run by Moapa Valley Telephone. A watermelon-eating contest followed at 10, and Meadow Gold handed out ice cream sandwiches through the day. Around 10:30 came a water balloon fight, with everyone bringing their own balloons. Around 11, the Moapa Valley Fire District drove its engines onto the grounds and hosed everyone off. The Progress called this the most anticipated tradition of the day. Travel Nevada gives the valley’s summer average as 103°F.

At high noon the VFW hosted a mud pit tug-of-war. All day, a community time capsule sponsored by the Moapa Valley Water District stood open, and residents brought small mementos to put in it.

Flag retreat to barn dance

The evening began at 6 p.m., when the same VFW post lowered the flag. Dinner followed, sponsored by the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce and cooked and served by VFW members while supplies lasted. The county schedule listed it at 6:15. Simplot Silica Products provided the water.

Music and local talent took over around 7:15. About 8:30 came the awards and the raffle, with popcorn on hand. Kasen Kolhoss, a realtor, gave the Most Patriotic Dressed award. Alex Arager of Dirt Boss Rentals named the most patriotic business, and the VFW presented the raffle prize.

At about 9 o’clock came the National Anthem. In 2026 no soloist or group sang it. Everyone present was invited to stand, put a hand over the heart, and sing. The fireworks followed, put on by the Moapa Valley Pyro Crew and paid for by the fire district, Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, and the committee. Afterward, the crowd went back to the Fine Arts building for a free barn dance put on by the 4-H Teen Leadership Corps. The Progress described the dance as a “safe and sober event.”

Cotton, canals, and back taxes

The pages consulted give no founding year for the celebration. The valley around it has been farmed far longer. Wikipedia says Ancestral Puebloan people first settled Moapa Valley around 350 B.C., and that Southern Paiutes moved in around A.D. 1000. Travel Nevada says Nevada’s first permanent residents arrived there between A.D. 200 and A.D. 1200, and it points visitors to their artifacts at the Lost City Museum.

Nevada State Historical Marker No. 36 says the explorer Jedediah Smith noted the valley in 1826 and that the Old Spanish Trail crosses it. In 1865, Brigham Young sent 75 families there. Their task was to grow cotton for the people of Utah and to connect Utah with the Pacific Ocean by way of the Colorado River. Their cotton mission was named St. Thomas for its leader, Thomas Smith. That town now lies under Lake Mead; Wikipedia records that it was abandoned in 1938 as the lake rose. The settlers planted orchards, vineyards, cotton, grains, and vegetables.

Logandale began in those years as St. Joseph. Wikipedia gives its start as 1865 and says that in 1868 settlers whose first St. Joseph, on the east side of the Muddy River, had burned moved to the west side. They called the new town New St. Joseph, or St. Joseph #2, and it took over the old town’s post office, which had opened on August 26, 1867.

Then came a survey in December 1870 that placed the valley in Nevada, which meant the property owners owed Nevada back taxes. According to the marker, the settlers of St. Joseph, old Overton, West Point, and Logandale began leaving two months later. They left behind seven years of labor, more than 18 miles of irrigation canal, and several hundred acres of cleared land. The St. Joseph post office closed in October 1871. Other Mormons resettled the land in 1880. The marker says the area remains one of the most agriculturally productive in the state.

A station called Logan

The town revived in 1912 around a railroad station named Logan. Some believe the name came from a Civil War veteran who had settled on the abandoned town site, though Wikipedia notes this has never been documented. The station became Logandale because the mail kept winding up in Logan, Utah.

In 1980, residents of Overton and Logandale voted to merge into a single town called Moapa Valley. The Clark County Commission affirmed the vote, and the town was legally created on February 13, 1981, with about 1,400 people. The 2020 census counted 6,289.