The Shrinking Lake Mead: A Photographic History

As the popular saying goes, "A picture is worth 1,000 words."

View of Lake Mead from the abandoned Echo Bay Resort
February 2021

Like many Las Vegans, my reaction to the lowering water levels at Lake Mead has changed from a mere "Wow" to an alarmed "Holy sh*t, we may have to move."

I've read dozens of articles about the woes facing the Colorado River, Lake Mead, and Lake Powell, but I think a look back at pictures of what Lake Mead looked like in prior years versus where we are today says more than anything I've read.

Here are some before and after shots of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam in the 80s, when the water flowed over the dam's spillways and turned into waterfalls, and in February of this year, 2021.

Intake Towers, 1983

Intake Towers, February 2021

Hoover Dam Spillway (Nevada side), 1983

Hoover Dam Spillway (Arizona side), February 2021

Echo Bay used to be the location of a popular hotel, restaurant, and marina. Back in 2011, the resort was closed but the marina was still open. 

View of Echo Bay from the marina's walkway/dock, November 2011

Echo Bay, February 2021

The resort closed in 2010 in the wake of the Great Recession and never re-opened. 

Shuttered Echo Bay Hotel, November 2011

Echo Bay Hotel, February 2021

I think these pictures say it all.

Everyone in this region should be concerned. If you're not, you haven't been paying attention.

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All photos by Terrisa Meeks

Vintage Vegas Pics: The Days When Lake Mead Had No Bathtub Ring

I was searching through my family pictures this evening, and in between the tintypes and Texas farm houses, I found a handful of these shots taken in 1983, when Lake Mead’s spillways were put to use for one of only two times (the first being when Hoover Dam was built).

Some unknown person from my family captured these shots of the water not long after it first started cresting the sides. Later on, misty waterfalls were created by the water rushing over the spillways. 

The intake towers look like they're floating on top of the water, and you’ll notice there’s not a trace of bathtub ring around Lake Mead,

Today, we’ve got rock outcroppings in front of the spillways. Both the old family photo above and the 2012 shot below are of the Nevada Intake Towers. Quite a transformation, isn’t it?

Recent photo of Hoover Dam, Nevada Side Spillway, courtesy of Gnaphron at Flickr. 

Scroll to the bottom of this page from Missouri University, and you'll see photos of the spillways in full waterfall. 

Were you here in 1983? Did you see the spillways turn into waterfalls?

Hoover Dam & A Las Vegas Childhood

"We could be standing on dead bodies" might not normally be a bit of conversation you remember from your childhood. But if you grew up in Las Vegas when I did, it was a staple line for field trips to Hoover Dam. Popular myth said that some dam workers were entombed in the cement of the immense structure, and it made a great story for elementary kids to tell each other. It's not true, by the way. Men did die while building Boulder Dam (it became Hoover later), but they didn't leave the bodies in the concrete.

I was writing about Hoover Dam recently for NileGuide, and I couldn't help but remember what the tours were like before the new visitor center and a post-9/11 world. No fancy escalator, parking garage or ticket counter--you parked on top of the spillways and got your tickets from the glass booth on top of the dam, the now-empty one that faces the road. You stood in a line that snaked back along the sidewalk, and while people waited they leaned over the side of the wall and looked down the dam's 726 foot face. Beyond that, the Colorado River gurgled into Black Canyon. Admittance was something like $5. You went into the structure from one of the elevators in the middle of the dam, the ones screaming Art Deco, and as you dropped down at some astronomical rate, the tour guide explained just how fast you were moving. Poof, you were at the bottom. We got to walk past the generators, outside onto the bottom of the dam to look up, and we were guided through rough-hewn caves weeping Colorado River water. On one trip, we went into a room where we could stand on top of platforms under which river water flowed through pipes, the force of it strong enough that you could feel it under your feet.

The tours aren't the only thing that has changed at Hoover Dam. I remember when Lake Mead overflowed into the spillways and created twin waterfalls on the intake side of the dam, one on the Nevada side, one one the Arizona side. The mist could be seen as you approached, and standing on the side of the spillway for long left you drenched. Now, rocky beach leads up to the spillways.

One thing that never changes is the majesty of Hoover Dam. It's an architectural marvel, a piece of living history, and surprisingly beautiful.
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Picture courtesy of Richard Wasserman at http://tiny.cc/fALkI