So Did Palms pre-exist in Moapa?
Throughout the valley's history some early white settlers have always maintained that palms have always existed in wild areas and springs around the Moapa Valley. Other clues make it even more probable that Cooper found Palms already thriving in the Moapa Valley when he arrived from Phoenix Arizona!

So Why did locals presume Palms came from AZ?
This idea sounded good simply because Palms were known landscape plants in the Phoenix area by the time this story was considered bona fide local history, and because Cooper arrived from there! Not only is there no other reason for this presumption, the idea is full of provable contradictions. For one thing, Cooper himself NEVER claimed to get the palms in Arizona. He only said he was the first to plant palms in his yard in Overton! The story stretched from there!

What?! No Palms in Mesa AZ in 1893?!
In 1986, researchers: Carmony, Lowe, Turner, and Brown of U. of AZ firmly showed that "no mature [W. Filifera] palms existed around Phoenix" until what would be several years after Cooper's died in 1903! ('New locality for W. Filifera in AZ' ) - (Az Academy of Sciences)

Then in 1996 4 local Moapa tribal Elders indicated that their grandparents had used the local Palms traditionally for food, shelter and baskets before 1923... an impossibility if Mendis were responsible for the advent of palms!

So why don't area Plant Surveys include Palms?
The Cooper story has always been readily available to researchers visiting the area. This is because key people promoting the story were professionally involved as local historical custodians for many years! They also happened to be descendants of Cooper!

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Any flash of insight that these palms might have been a locally native plant species were apparently swiftly rejected by botanists without any thorough investigation!

Are you wondering how botanists could have missed this conspicuous tree in surveys while including non-native species such as Tamarix?
It isn't the first time this has happened with this palm. It was not until 1986 that researchers realized that Palms at Castle Creek Arizona were locally native plants! What REALLY makes this incredible, is that the Castle Creek area is the "TYPE LOCALITY" upon which the genus was erected in the mid 1800's!

So you see, Botanists actually mis-classified this palm AT IT'S OWN TYPE LOCALITY for over 107 years! Note: a "Type locality" is the "place" a species is first identified in nature.

Just 3 more pages...