A Disturbing Truth is Revealed from Staggeringly Low Water Levels of Lake Mead

On the surface, lake mead is a place of pristine beauty and a testament to human ingenuity and engineering. However, in recent years, due to ongoing drought, the lake has had a startlingly low watermark.

Visitors to the lake will immediately notice the drop in water over time with their naked eyes. The massive reservoir can hold more than nine trillion gallons of water. The minerals left behind on the rocks by the water show how high the water was just a few decades ago.

The water levels are now lower than 1,075 feet. In the 2000s, the water declined slowly. In the following decade, the watermarks became wider and wider. Today they are at their lowest levels. These levels would be bad enough—but considering the trend—this is simply a disaster.

Dark secrets had always dwelled at the lake’s deepest fathoms. But the prosperously high water levels kept these nightmares from the waking eye. The high water line obscured long-forgotten sins. But all that lake water suddenly began to boil away. 

The find made on May 1 would shock the community, but it would be the first in a long line of such discoveries. Just like the receding water levels, understanding the cause of such a tragedy would first put anyone into shock, then denial.

The lake receives its primary inflow from the Colorado River, and it also sends its water back out the same way. Its ability to reserve water is essential to the consistent working of the Colorado River. 

The lake isn’t a natural creation—it was created artificially by American builders and engineers. Its creation was not universally welcomed. In fact, the formation of Lake Mead was highly controversial in its day.

The area on which Lake Mead now sits was once teaming fresh with game and vegetation. Archeologists explored a nearby cave containing the remains of large animals. Horses, bighorn sheep, ground sloths, and even camel remains were found nearby the lake.

Because Native American history—having been passed down orally generation by generation—has been lost, so we do not know much about how people in the land below Mead lived. What we know is that these people got by through various modes of life.

The rich histories of the people who roamed this now-sunken landscape have been forgotten, largely because those who carried the stories were put underground, either through disease or by rifle. These European settlers then began laying tracks—not just ones made by a boot.

The area was changed forever following the construction of the Hoover Dam. The U.S. government estimated that as well as being a fast way to irrigate the surrounding area, the Colorado river could be harnessed to generate an enormous amount of electricity.

Once again, settlers in the area were forced to move. This time, it was the community of St. Thomas who were forced to evacuate once the water came rushing in. As the water settled, Lake Mead was born. The site became a vacation spot for families across the nation.

This fun little spot came at the cost of the indigenous people and their culture, not to mention a town as well. Additionally, the wildlife—the animals, plants, and other important components of the ecosystem—was lost as well. The lake began with the washing away of lives.

Among the indigenous people’s debris, another ruin litters the landscape by Lake Mead: the settler town of St. Thomas. This town was forced into an evacuation when the dam redirected the water through their homes. 

Lake Mead’s water source can be traced all the way up to the snow on mountain tops, although it is also topped up by distant rainfall. The white chalky rock face painted a natural watermark in mineral residue when the water was at its height.

While the drop in water is undeniable, some people have come up with their own explanation—or rather, ways to ignore the problem. The argument goes that the lake was designed to go up and down. A period of low water will be followed by a period of high water.

The scientific community has resoundingly concluded that phenomena like the drying up of Lake Mead are the direct result of human-led climate change. Worrying, this wasting away of water is only the start of the problem.

Marinas that formally dotted the edge of the lake have had to close down or settle further down the shore. The Las Vegas ramp was moved as early as 2002, and the official Lake Mead Marina was relocated in 2008. From July 2022 to the start of 2023, water levels had receded by 12 feet.

By the end of each passing year, the shoreline grew much further than the original estimate—meaning that the researchers studying the water loss have been conservative with their figures. Worryingly, the problem could turn out worse than anyone currently realizes.

The loss of Lake Mead won’t just be a catastrophe for the local community—it will affect the whole nation. Displaced people will have no choice but to move to other areas. In short, the next decade will be tumultuous if we as a nation do not take steps to mitigate the problem.

This ancient-looking barrel washed up on shore in the summer of 2022, May 1st. A tourist walking around the ever-shrinking shoreline stumbled upon it amongst the rocks. It was rusted up and covered in holes and cracks. They thought it was so large it could fit a person inside. 

It seems that they had been condemned to the bottom of the lake long ago. Naturally, the tourist called the police. But how did this person end up in a barrel at the bottom of Lake Mead? Obviously, there had been foul play.

If this chilling turn of events wasn’t enough, the authorities put out an ominous press statement warning the public that this find would not be the last. Speaking to the press, homicide lieutenant Ray Spencer went on record saying that the low water levels would likely uncover more like this.

Of course, the officer’s hunch, informed by years of experience, proved correct. Another call came within a week of the first. In the early hours of Saturday morning, the National Park Service rangers received a distress call from someone walking around the lake.

Soon, a pack of park rangers was parking up near the water. After taking care of the caller, they went to look at the discovery. This time, it wasn’t a body—it was a collection of human-sized bones which they later verified to be 100% human.

Two people had called the National Park Service rangers that morning. These two sisters, Lindsey Melvin  and Lynette Melvin, had been out on Lake Mead on paddle boards, skimming the water’s surface. After an invigorating swim, they floated by a sandbar.

At first, they simply thought they were looking at the interesting remains of a large animal, a bighorn sheep, perhaps. As they paddled in closer, they soon realized that they were not looking at a wild animal’s bones: this had been a human being. 

The sisters spoke to several news outlets about their shocking discovery. They told ABC News that they only hoped that the family of the person they found could finally get some answers about their missing relative and that their soul could finally rest. 

The sisters were Vegas locals and, as such, had been raised with stories of gangsters. They heard that a mob member would whack someone—perhaps for failure to repay a debt, for speaking out of turn, or for any number of reasons. 

One expert, Geoff Schumacher of the Las Vegas Mob Museum, was about to back up this “Mob connection” theory. He commented that there had “certainly” been people to have “gone missing in this area over the years” and that they could very well have been victims of the Mob.

Perhaps the Mob has never been found out for using barrels in their dark undertakings. Could this simply be an uncovering of Mob-led barrel coverups? One piece of evidence from the first body points in that direction: the clothes on the body.

The authorities were reasonably sure that the barrel had something to do with the Mob. That’s one. As for the other, there was a possible connection—if unusual. A man named Todd Kolod read about the findings in the news. He was shocked. After picking apart some of the details of the story, he knew he had to get involved in the case.

According to Todd, more than 60 years ago, his father, Daniel, had been out boating on Lake Mead and had fallen into the water. Although they searched, they never found his remains. This might just seem like an accident, but there’s a twist. Daniel was part of the Mob.

Todd was only a toddler at the time—just three years old—when his father disappeared. But this tale has another quirk: his father hadn’t been fishing out there alone. He had been out on the boat with a friend of his—the only witness. According to this friend, the boat had capsized.

These aren’t the first remains found in Lake Mead. In 2011, 11 years earlier, a man was found floating near the shore at Callville Bay. This case differed from those found in 2022 in that the authorities found no evidence of foul play. 

Lake Mead proves to have a hand in the darker parts of American history. But the lake had more to share. For example, parts of the lake are bone dry, revealing a bare, cracked lakebed. On this bed lies gifts from the past—long-forgotten artifacts of an era gone by.

This ancient vessel turned up from its resting place deep at the bottom of the lake. It had been resting around 185 underwater. Since the continuous droughts had boiled the water of the lake away, it found itself sticking out above the surface.

The vessel was called a “Higgins landing craft.” Many of these were produced from 1942 to 1945 to help the Allies combat the Axis powers. If this had been a prototype or even just used as a training vessel, it wouldn’t be the first test vehicle to land in the lake.

As for the Higgins landing craft, it could have seen action in Europe, or it could simply have been shipped out to Nevada. One thing is for sure—it was sent down the Colorado River for a survey mission, but this was long after the conflict had ended. 

Ancient boats, grizzly remains—who knows what else will appear given enough time and enough carbon in the air? If you happen to go to Lake Mead in the future, be wary of dredging up some dark portion of history.