Secrets unsubmerged
Dropping water levels reveal historical, grim remnants of lake's past
A surfaced boat is visible Aug. 12 on the shoreline of Lake Mead near Boulder City, Nev.
A child walks along a shoreline July 21 as a mineral-stained 'bathtub ring' marks previous water levels at Lake Mead near Overton, Nev.
A man walks his boat Aug. 12 toward the receding shoreline of Lake Mead near Boulder City, Nev.
St. Thomas schoolhouse prior to the 1930s flooding
ENVIRONMENT
Lake Mead's falling water level exposed yet another set of human remains, the sixth discovered since 2022, as the reservoir falls to record lows. A woman, a man and his daughter found the remains — a jawbone with teeth and dental fillings, and some rib bones — on Aug. 16 at Boulder Beach on the Nevada side of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
National Park rangers and Las Vegas police recovered the remains. The victim's identity and cause of death are not known.
"A non-criminal, dead body report was taken for the remains," the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told USA Today.
The Guardian reported that some experts believe more remains will be found because Lake Mead is 20 miles from Las Vegas, a historic center of organized crime.
Water level falls
Lake Mead is an artificial reservoir upstream of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. It straddles Clark County, Nevada, and Mohave County, Arizona. Much of the Clark County region reported moderate drought as of Aug. 18, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Lake Mead has the largest storage capacity of any reservoir in the United States. Decades of increasing water demand and drought in the West caused a continual decline in water levels.
The reservoir's water level dropped more than 175 feet since 2000, according to Bureau of Reclamation data. That's a net water loss of nearly 6 trillion gallons. Lake Mead's surface is now close to the same level it was in March 1937, when the lake was filling up behind the newly finished Hoover Dam.
About 10% of Lake Mead's water comes directly from precipitation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Most of the lake's water comes from melting snow on the western part of the Rocky Mountains.
Researchers say rising temperatures driven by climate change are intensifying drought and reducing runoff across the Colorado River Basin. Because of the water loss, Lake Mead now offers a look at what's ahead from climate change and a glimpse of history.
Human remains
May 1, 2022: Boaters find a body stuffed in a rusting metal barrel near Hemenway Harbor boat launch. Police say the barrel was in an area that would have been 100 feet underwater and several hundred feet from shore in the 1980s. It's the only one of the bodies found that's being treated as a homicide. Based on clothing and shoes, the remains are believed to be those of a man who died by a gunshot wound in the mid-1970s or early 1980s, according to Las Vegas police. The identity has not been established.
May 7, 2022: Paddleboarders find human remains in the Callville Bay area. The Clark County coroner's office used forensic analysis, including DNA sampling and X-rays, to identify the remains as those of Thomas Erndt, 42. He jumped off a boat on Aug. 2, 2002, according to news reports at the time. He was presumed to have drowned, but an official cause of death has not been determined.
July 25, 2022: Partial human remains are found at Swim Beach near Boulder Beach. Additional fragments found Aug. 6 and Aug. 16 were determined to be from the same person, Claude Russell Pensinger, who disappeared in 1998.
Aug. 6, 2022: Additional skeletal remains are discovered at Swim Beach, according to the National Park Service. Park rangers and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police dive team recovered the bones, which were later linked to the July 25 and Aug. 16 discoveries and identified as Pensinger's.
Aug. 15, 2022: A third set of skeletal remains is discovered at Swim Beach, according to the park service. They later were identified as those of Pensinger.
WWII craft
A World War II-era Higgins landing craft used to survey the Colorado River reemerged from the lake less than a mile from Lake Mead Marina and Hemenway Harbor. National park staff members began to conduct scuba dives on the boat in 2006.
The plywood boat, wrapped in armor plating, had its engine removed and was modified for lake service. The National Park Service told CNN it's unclear if the boat was sunk by accident or on purpose.
Higgins boats were used to land troops and equipment on beachheads during invasions, including in the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy. More than 20,000 Higgins boats of different configurations were built.
Ghost town
Hundreds of residents of St. Thomas, Nevada, began to leave the town in 1935 after the Hoover Dam was finished and Lake Mead started to fill. The town itself began to submerge in 1938.
Founded in 1865, the town is in the northern part of the park near the Overton Arm along the Muddy River. Water levels fluctuated over the decades, and former residents and family members held reunions in 1945, 1963 and 2012.
At Lake Mead's highest level in 1983, the town was 60 feet underwater, though much of St. Thomas has been above water since 2004. Visitors can walk through what's left of the town.
