Falling lake levels at Lake Mead have recently uncovered a number of bodies, including the skeletal remains of a possible murder victim discovered in a barrel, as well as sunken pleasure boats.
The National Park Service reports that the Higgins boat, which was used for beach landings during World War II, has now been made visible by receding waters.
The park service began sending divers to the site in 2006 because the landing craft had once been submerged so far. The craft had been submerged for a considerable amount of time, according to the Associated Press.
Photos depict the boat listing onto its side and only partially submerged.
The park service stated in an email that it “suspects that this WWII surplus craft was put into service on the lake for various reasons and then partially salvaged before it sank in its current location.” “It is unclear whether it sank accidentally or was deliberately sunk to get rid of a vessel no longer in use.”
There are few details about how the boat got to Lake Mead.
According to the park service, the craft’s status as a WWII surplus “highlights an earlier era of the Lake when Las Vegas and Lake Mead were much more remote and removed from much of the United States, where relatively inexpensive WWII surplus could be pressed into duty for new peaceful purposes in the park.”
While the discovery of the boat is likely to catch Lake Mead tourists’ attention, it also serves as a reminder of the toll that severe drought and climate change have taken on the Colorado River reservoir between Nevada and Arizona.
The largest reservoir in the country, Lake Mead, was only about 27 percent full on Friday, dangerously close to “dead pool” levels, according to federal officials. The lake would drop below its lowest intake valve at that time, about 150 feet below its present level, which could severely impair water supplies in the western United States.
By next July, the lake is expected to have dropped more than 26 feet.
The federal government is requesting emergency cuts to the amount of water that California and six other western states take from the river in the upcoming months in response to the rapidly declining levels at Colorado River reservoirs.
