Lake Mead Recreation Area

A boating center on Lake Mead

Enough water to cover the entire state of Connecticut, one foot deep. One side of its 550-mile shore is in Arizona, the other in Nevada.

Two large basins of water separated by Boulder Canyon, site first picked for the dam, make up the main body of the lake. At the upper end, eighty miles mile above the dam, the lake narrows down passing through Virgin and Iceberg Canyons. From here the Grand Wash Cliffs, marking the western termination of the high plateaus through which the Colorado River has carved the Grand Canyon, are visible.

Here, too, the muddy Colorado enters the lake dropping its load of silt to the bottom. The silt drops so abruptly the contrast between the brown river water and the clear blue of Lake Mead is astounding. The silt makes it impossible for large craft to navigate farther up the lake into the Grand Canyon itself.

On beyond this silt barrier lie many intriguing side canyons. One of the most unusual and beautiful is Quartermaster Canyon. In addition to forming a ninety-foot waterfall, Quartermaster Creek turns its gravelly wash into a series of deep, crystal clear swimming pools. Its beauty is lost for the average tourist but exploration of these hidden canyons is possible for those coming down the river in small boats or for those who hike down from the mile-high cliffs above.

Up in the Grand Wash Cliffs is Rampart Cave, the home of the prehistoric ground sloth who roamed this area some 5,000 years ago. The country now is populated principally by wild burros and mountain sheep.

The seemingly endless shore of the lake is made Photo description-left: Upper, Lake Mead Lodge, the only resort on the shores of Lake Mead; center, here are the results of a good day's fishing on the lake; lower, a camper lands on the lake shore as evening comes.

more exciting by the weird formations that jet out of the blue waters. Best known of these are "Fortification Mountain," which dominates the lower basin scene, "Napoleon's Tomb," and "The Temple." Other formations resemble mushrooms, sphinxes and phantom ships, the result of erosion of the solt clays and silts. Much of the lake is surrounded by rugged and colorful canyon walls, some of them towering a mile above the lake's surface. Many individual features of the surrounding country are as outstanding as other areas set aside as national monuments or state parks.

All along the shore are excellent places for camping and fishing.

Aside from just being good to look at, Lake Mead abounds with fish. And fishing has not been over-played in publicity given the area. It is good! Recently Lake Mead was named one of the top-ranking fresh-water fishing spots of the United States and Canada. Best of all, it's open season on largemouth bass, crappies, catfish, bluegills, perch and carp twelve months of the year.

More and more anglers have found this arena for sport and are returning every opportunity to try their skill.

Rules and regulations have been jointly established by the states of Arizona and Nevada. A current, valid resident or non-resident license from either state is required. For fishing on the lake, it is necessary to have a $2 permit from the state opposite the one where the license is valid. Fishing from the bank requires a license only from that state. The non-resident license in either state is $5.00. A five-day permit is available for $3.50.

All kinds of water sports are popular. Increasing each year is the number of water skiers. On calm days the water is literally alive with skiers whipping across the lower basin of the lake. Many ski clubs use the lake for annual ski races.

There are three boating concessions on the lakeLake Mead Marina and its subsidiary, Las Vegas Wash Boat Landing; Temple Bar Fishing Resort and Overton Boat Landing.

All of them have boat rentals and repairs, mooring and docking services, fishing tackle, bait, and licenses, refreshment stands and all types of information.

Largest and most complete is Lake Mead Marina, recently taken over by Hal and Jan Whitehouse. It is located just above the dam at Hemenway Wash, six miles from Boulder City. Boat excursions to the upstream face of the dam are made from here three times daily. Charter boats for fishing or sightseeing are available.

New facilities scheduled to go in here are a boat dock with slips for large as well as smaller boats, a coffee shop, marine repair shop and operations office. There are all makes and sizes of boats and motors for rent. Guide service for those who want to get the most out of their first trip on the lake is offered. Boats may be moored with the concessioner or privately.

On week-ends, Hemenway is the Grand Central Station of the boating world. Hundreds of boating en-thusiasts come from nearby communities and Southern California. Most of them haul their small craft up for a week-end of boating, fishing or water sports. A permit to launch a boat is not required, but rangers like to register boats as a precautionary measure. A public launching ramp is maintained by the Park Service at each of the boat landing sites.

The 550-mile shoreline of Lake Mead offers countless panoramas of rugged, beautiful country. The lake itself is becoming an increasingly popular boating and fishing playground throughout the year. The center panel gives a dramatic view of part of the vast lake and surrounding terrain.

Not too far from the boat dock is Anderson's Trailer Park with electricity, water and a grocery store. And adjacent to it is a free public campground maintained by the NPS where the backwoodsman may pitch a tent. It is well developed with shade trees, running water and modern rest rooms.

Although you may camp anywhere in the area with the exception of certain sections which are closed in the interest of public welfare, the shade trees of the Park Service campground make it more inviting.

A romantic atmosphere associated with national parks is created here by the nightly gathering of campers at the small outdoor theater to hear naturalists tell of the wonders of the area. These talks are illustrated with color slides. Many travelers have spent many more days than they planned after learning of the many attractions in the area.

During the summer months, when families take to the road, the campground's tent people spill over into the desert. Additional facilities are planned to care for this overflow.

Below the camp on the shore of the lake is Boulder Beach swimming area, well-defined by buoy markers and well-guarded during the swimming season.

The only resort hotel on the entire shore is Lake Mead Lodge. It capitalizes on the beautiful setting with its dining room overlooking the lake and Fortification Mountain. And for its guests who don't like lake swimming, there is a swimming pool and wading pool for youngsters. Lodge facilities include modern rooms, dining room, lounge and recreation room.

Las Vegas Wash boat landing is farther up the lake. As a subsidiary of Lake Mead Marina, it offers the same services.

On the upper basin of the lake is Temple Bar Fishing Resort, located 65 miles from Boulder City and 70 miles from Kingman, Arizona. Its manager is M. M. Satran, address, Kingman. It is a very popular resort for fishermen. And, little wonder, as they often bring in the limit within an hour or two!

Here, too, the scenery is a drawing card. Directly across the lake from the camp is "The Temple" and on beyond are the Grand Cliffs. The good road in leads through one of the largest Joshua forests in the country.

A new boat dock recently was installed and construction of a restaurant is underway. Cabins and a trailer park serve as accommodations.

On the north arm of the upper basin is Overton Boat Landing offering all types of services and facilities. It is located sixteen miles south of Overton, Nevada, on Nevada State Highway 12 by turning off U.S. Highway Pleasure craft on Lake Mead, at the various boat landings and camping areas, testify to the popularity of the lake as a boating center. Many sportsmen, enjoying both boating and fishing, take extended cruises up the lake towards lower Grand Canyon, being out for days at a time.

91 fifty miles from Las Vegas. Burt Stevens is the manager.

The camp has a cafe, cabins and trailer park.

Its biggest play comes from the anglers although it is visited by those seeking information about the country's Indian background and lately by uranium prospectors.

In contrast to Lake Mead, neighboring Lake Mohave is condensed in an area about two-thirds as long as its upstream big brother. It is long and slender instead of spreading out into two huge basins. Being confined between the sheer cliffs of Pyramid, Painted, Eldorado and Black Canyons, it resembles a miniature Grand Canyon.

The widest spot of the lake is only four miles and it extends almost to the tailrace of Hoover Dam.

Lake Mohave has the advantage of a more or less stable water level. Its maximum difference in level is about ten feet, while Lake Mead fluctuates as much as one hundred feet in one year. Mead's edge is never in the same place twice. The facilities such as boat docks, beaches and cafes at Lake Mohave may be constructed on the water line while those at Lake Mead must be movable.

Like Lake Mead, one side of its shore is in Arizona, the other in Nevada.

If you like variety in your fishing, Lake Mohave's the spot. Anglers can fish here in the same day for both bass and trout. Fabulous trout thrive at the upper end of the lake where the water is cold, coming from the lower levels of Lake Mead through the penstocks of Hoover Dam.

Then where the swift, cold water changes to the placid, warm lake, bass fishing is good.

Imagine trout and bass fishing in the same lake! Just this spring some 15,000 trout (catching size) were planted in the lake.

Lake Mohave has four fishing camps offering all kinds of accommodations and services.

Largest of these is Lake Mohave Resorts, with E. H. Pratt, manager. It is thirty-two miles west of Kingman on the Arizona side of the lake at Katherine Wash, just above Davis Dam. It is a favorite take-off point for sightseeing boats as well as a popular fishing site. The warm temperature of the lake here makes for good swimming and other water sports.

All of the facilities are new having grown up in the past three years. There's a first class motel with some of the cabins having kitchen accommodations, a new cafe with glassed-in dining room overlooking the lake, a trailer park, boat house and dock. The NPS has a campground with many improvements scheduled.

LAKE MEAD LAKE MOHAVE LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA

The trailer park provides water, sewage disposal and electricity for fifty trailers, plus cement patio with modern bath house and laundry.

Still in the planning stages are more motel units, a larger dining room and lounge and an enclosed swimming pool and a golf course, The other three resorts are located at old Colorado River concession sites and were moved back to permanent locations on the shore when the waters of the lake came up.

Scheduled to be a popular spot is Cottonwood Cove Fishing Resort, located at the old Searchlight Ferry landing, thirteen miles east of Searchlight, Nevada. It is a historic old Colorado River crossing site. Vehicles were ferried across the river to connect the old Kingman-Searchlight road. It has recently been leased to the Cottonwood Cove Corporation and existing facilities are being improved as quickly as possible. New boats and motors, a modern trailer park, a cafe and boat dock are being added by the new managers, Robert Cole and Ralph Hill.

Going on up the lake, you come to Murl Emery's Eldorado Canyon Fishing Resort, which is reached by highway through the old mining camp of Nelson, Nevada. Facilities here include a cafe, trailer park, cabins, electricity and water. From this point, fishermen can either go down the lake toward Davis Dam for bass or up the lake toward scenic Black Canyon for trout fishing.

Deep in Black Canyon with its varicolored steep walls is Willow Beach Trout Camp. It is located on the Arizona side, some forty-eight miles from Kingman. E. H. Flother manages the camp which offers cabins, trailer park, water and electricity.

All camps listed have boat rentals and repairs, mooring and docking services, fishing tackle, bait and licenses and refreshment stands.

Fishing rules and regulations are the same as at Lake Mead.

For those anglers who like scenic beauty with their fishing they couldn't pick better lakes than Mohave and Mead.

At the end of Black Canyon is Hoover. What an inspiring boat trip taking in Davis Dam at the beginning and ending with Hoover, viewing sixty-seven miles of deep blue lake, with a colorful rocky shoreline unbroken with foliage except for a green fringe at the water's edge.

Indian history of the LMNRA dates back some 2,000 years. Many Indian camp sites have been found, most popularly known is "The Lost City," now buried beneath the waters of Lake Mead. A replica of this Pueblo Indian village has been erected at Overton where there is a museum of archeology. Many evidences of the activities of the prehistoric Indian inhabitants have been found including large fields of Indian petroglyphs.

Forty miles of the Grand Canyon lie within the boundaries of the LMNRA. In this remote section there are many attractions not publicized due to lack of roads and facilities. The dream of Superintendent Richey is to have these spots opened up developing to a greater extent the travel possibilities of the area.

One of these unpublicized places is Shivwits Plateau, a part of the Arizona Strip country. There's no use advertising the place to the average tourist as it is too inaccessible at present.

It is an arid highland of no towns, no industry, almost no farming, few people and little travel. But its scenic treasure makes up for its deficiencies. It has the distinction of being the only forested area in the whole domain.

Here you stand on the very rim of the sheer Grand Canyon cliffs with the Colorado River crashing some three hundred feet below.

A dirt road also takes those who don't mind roughing it into Bridge Canyon Dam site. This proposed dam would make a lake right in the Grand Canyon itself.

Turning from this vast desert playground to a bit of the old West there are the nearby old mining camps of White Hills and Chloride, Arizona, and Nelson and Searchlight, Nevada. Their ramshackle, unpainted buildings are collapsing, but their history tells of more glamorous days. Chloride, Nelson and Searchlight are still inhabited with Searchlight having added a new section with modern buildings.

Take White Hills. It was once a thriving settlement of some 1,500 eager claimstakers. Some of the richest ore mined in Arizona came from here. Twenty-seven miles of tunnels honeycombed the area. More than $12,000,000 in silver and gold was taken from the mines.

White Hills now is "just another ghost town" of the west with only two cemeteries left to defy the desert with their rock monuments.

A portion of the gorgeous Valley of Fire, near Overton, lies in the Recreation Area. It is a lost world of unusual shapes carved in the bright red sandstone by wind and water. The Valley could be another Palm Springs if developed.

Pointing up the trend toward a program to give greater opportunity for recreational use of the reservoirs created by the two dams was the recent opening up of vacation cabin sites.

Some one hundred sixty-five lots at three sites, two at Lake Mead and one at Lake Mohave, were made available to those who wanted to live here taking advantage of the recreation offered year round.

The first site opened was at Katherine, four miles north of Davis Dam, and many of the vacation homes are already completed. Since then lots have been made available at Stewart Point, sixteen miles south of Overton, and at Temple Bar.

Two other sites have been approved and will be opened up if there is a demand for more vacation cabin lots.

Superintendent Richey points out that the whole region belongs to the tourists and the more developed the more enjoyment the traveler will have. It is a terrific job administering an area this large with 1200 miles to cover to reach all developed sites. It takes a week to visit all the present concessions.

With the potential here and the touring motorist always looking for something new, Lake Mead National Recreation Area has the most promising future of all park areas in the system.

HOOVER DAM

BY RUSSELL K. GRATER The year was 1858, and winter chill still hung in the shaded portions of the Black Canyon. The waters of the Colorado River were low, so low in fact that a small steamboat named "The Explorer," approaching the lower end of the canyon, was having considerable difficulty making headway against the swift current. On the boat, a small party of men, under the leadership of Lieutenant J. C. Ives, watched with some misgivings as the little steamer nosed into the dark-walled canyon-misgivings that grew to alarm as the boat suddenly staggered as it hit a submerged rock. Almost before anyone knew what had happened, the whole thing was over and the boat had settled onto the river bottom in shallow water with a large hole in its hull. Discouraged, but in no mood to give up, Ives and two of his party pushed on upstream in a small rowboat, leaving the rest of the crew to try to patch up the little steamer. After considerable difficulty, the small boat was worked through the canyon, emerging at the foot of present day Fortification Hill. Here the three men finally decided to turn back downstream, their decision aided a bit by finding fresh Indian tracks along the river. Ives was much impressed with the narrow, somber-hued canyon, and especially with a section a little more than a mile from its mouth. Unknown to him, he was looking at a spot that would in years to come impress thousands of other people, because this was one day to become the site for Hoover Dam. However, on this day he was preoccupied with thoughts of the abrupt termination of his river journey and with what he should do next.

We can appreciate his thoughts more easily when we read the report he submitted to Congress in which he related his views about the region. The Black Canyon, he said, "is, of course, altogether worthless. It can be approached only from the south, and after entering it there is nothing to do but leave. Ours was the first, and doubtless will be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems destined by Nature that the Colorado River along the greater portion of its long and majestic way should be forever unvisited and unmolested." Time has a habit of making statements sound foolish, even when coming from intelligent persons, and without doubt Ives would be astonished if he were to visit the area today and see the thousands of people visiting the scene he once described. Even the men who first thought of building such a structure as Hoover Dam-men who dreamed dreams far in advance of their times-never visualized the dam as it is today. They would doubtless be astounded if they could see how the product of their genius is being used. While they would recognize the familiar outlines of the dam's exterior, it is doubtful if they would fully accept the sight of thousands of visitors who swarm over and through the dam each week. The total annual visitation to the dam has reached a staggering figure. Ever since it was first opened to public use, it has been one of the nation's outstanding tourist attractions. There is something stimulating about the thought of visiting the world's highest dam, and seeing

One of the greatest power sources in the nation. While there is never a really "slack" season for visitors, some months do draw larger crowds than others. As might be expected, most people coming to see the dam arrive during the "vacation" months of June, July and August-just about as hot a period in the desert country as could be chosen. The largest single day's travel through the dam occurred on Memorial Day, May 29, 1938 when 5,510 visitors took the guided tour. Travel through the day for the year, 1954, totaled 434,074, or an average of 1189 persons per day and 132 per hour-lots of people! Now only about forty persons at a time go through with a guide, so that means a group started through about every twenty minutes between the time the first tour began at 8:00 A.M. and the last one left the top of the dam at 5:00 P.M. All of which adds up to a big job just showing the visitors what there is to see. Naturally a tour through the dam is the highlight of any visit. The tour, carried on by guides of the Bureau of Reclamation, takes about forty-five minutes to complete. Because there is so much of interest to be seen on the trip, most of the information given is necessarily restricted to the essential facts about the dam, and thus many things of unusual interest are never reviewed for the benefit of the visitor.One of the first of these is the elevator in which the visitor rides as he goes downward into the dam. Seeing the thousands of persons who annually visit the dam today, it seems a bit strange that the designers of the structure didn't quite grasp its great tourist potential. Thus, instead of putting in elevators that could move large numbers of people at a very rapid rate, elevators were installed that have a restricted capacity. In order to get a tour started, it is necessary to make two trips with the elevator, each trip taking several minutes to complete. Once the tour group is assembled inside the dam, things can move much faster.

Two things often escape the group as it moves to the huge power wings of the dam. First, there are the beautiful designs to be seen in the floor along the corridors. The designs are not simply a collection of miscellaneous lines and circles. To create these beautiful patterns, the designer studied the arts and crafts of the Indians of the Southwest. From their pottery and basketry, he chose many types of decorative art, and from these he worked out the final designs for many of the figures seen in the dam. Secondly, as the group passes along the corridors, there is seldom any notice given to the numerous small metal doors built into the walls. Now there is always the problem of how the dam is holding up under the constant stresses and strains placed upon it by the presence of Lake Mead, minor movements of a geological nature in the surrounding canyon walls, and miscellaneous other forces. To make sure just what is taking place, engineers have installed instruments at stra-

OPPOSITE PAGE

Hoover Dam is one of America's greatest engineering triumphs. Its total height is 726.4 feet from its base to its crest, making it the highest dam in the world. Its thickness varies from 660 feet at the base to 45 feet along the highway at the top. It is 1244 feet in length. Total cost of Boulder Canyon project is approximately $166,600,000.