THIS WAS NEVADA: Phillip I. Earl

      Born Johan Daniel Bonelli in Switzerland on Feb. 25, 1836, Daniel Bonelli was a Colorado River pioneer.
      An early convert to Mormonism, he left his native land for missionary work in 1857 and spent the next two years in London. In 1859, as he sailed for America, he met and fell in love with Ann Hight aboard ship. They were married in New York City shortly after landing. A few weeks later, they embarked for St. Louis where they joined a wagon train bound for Salt Lake City.
      In Salt Lake City, Bonelli worked as a weaver and a tailor and was active in church activities. He accepted a missionary assignment in the southern section of the Utah Territory, arriving with a group of Swiss converts in Santa Clara on Nov. 28, 1861. Bonelli and the colonists set out the first grape arbors in that section of the territory, having brought cuttings from France and Spain.
      While Bonelli and his wife were living at Santa Clara, he happened to meet an Indian who was exhibiting specimens of silver and lead ore from which he had made bullets. When word of this reached church authorities in Salt Lake City, Bonelli and two other Mormons were ordered to investigate. In 1863, they made the first mineral locations in what was later to become the Meadow Valley Mining District and later the Pioche District in southeastern Nevada. They knew nothing of mining law, however, and the claims were taken over by Gen. Patrick Connor and some of his soldiers out of Fort Douglas, Utah Territory.
      Bonelli and his growing family -- a son and a daughter -- moved from Santa Clara after a flood, settling in Beaver Valley in 1867, only to be flooded out again on Dec. 24, 1868. Determined to find a home, the family moved to St. Thomas on the Muddy River a few weeks later. They were once again frustrated when an 1870 survey determined that the communities along the Muddy River were within the boundaries of the state of Nevada and had been for four years. Nevada officials were soon on the scene to collect back taxes and the first of the Mormon families began returning to Utah in February 1871. All but the Bonelli family.
      "I've twice been washed out by floods and to pick up now and leave everything after getting a home started again is too much," he told George Perkins, a writer. Other Mormons considered him an apostate for remaining, but he always maintained that he was a believer in the original tenets of Mormonism and that the church had left him, not the other way around.
      He retained his farm at St. Thomas, but began to look at the prospects of establishing a ferry at the junction of the Colorado and Virgin rivers to serve the mines of Mineral Park, Arizona Territory, and Pioche. He started the ferry business in 1872 and moved his family to the site. Bonelli's Landing, as it was known, became the community of Rioville when a post office opened on Nov. 2, 1881.
      Bonelli also cleared 100 acres on the west bank of the Virgin River to raise hay, started a cattle herd to provide beef for the mining camps, planted a large vegetable garden and opened a trading post.
      In 1882, he discovered a large salt deposit near St. Thomas and began freighting the mineral to mining camps where it was used in the smelting process. He also developed a market for salt in the Eldorado District, downstream on the Colorado River, ferrying it by barge. He was never able to patent the claims because salt deposits were considered public domain under U.S. mining law until 1902. Thereafter, he was engaged in litigation with others seeking to exploit his claims. For example, he had mica claims 15 miles up the Colorado River and was involved in suits over his patents. He also took part in water suits with his neighbors to the north in St. Thomas.
      As the first citizen of his remote section of the state, Bonelli assisted with local educational matters and served on the Nevada State Board of Agriculture. He developed agricultural and mineral exhibits for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and San Francisco's Mid-Winter Fair in 1894. Among the exhibits were blocks of his famous translucent salt, sheets of mica, and figs, peaches, grapes and almonds he grew himself.
      In November 1903, he traveled to Pioche in connection with a salt suit in district court. He returned to St. Thomas on Nov. 16, remaining a day with his son Frank. He continued on to Rioville the next day, but apparently suffered a stroke on the way. He was suffering from dementia when he arrived home and never recovered his sensibilities. He died at his home on Dec. 20 and was buried behind his house.
      Some 30 years later, Rioville was due to be covered by the waters of Lake Mead backing up behind Boulder Dam, so a son, George, had his father's body disinterred and moved to a cemetery in Kingman, Ariz., where he was reburied on Dec. 21, 1934.
     
      Phillip I. Earl is curator of history for the Nevada Historical Society.