A World War II-era vessel is the latest relic to surface from Lake Mead’s watery grave as the reservoir shrinks to historic levels.
The Higgins landing craft has emerged sideways in the fast-receding water, located less than a mile from Lake Mead Marina and Hemingway Harbor. It once lay 185 feet below the surface, according to The Associated Press.
It’s the latest discovery at the mysterious lake where two sets of human remains were found and sunken boats have come to light.
The exact origin of the boat at the park is a mystery, according to park officials.
“It is possible 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,” officials with the Lake Mead National Recreation Area told NBC News.
“Whether it sank by accident or was intentionally sunk to get rid of a vessel no longer of use remains unclear,” the National Park Service said.
Lake Mead has a number of “distant cousins to the Higgins Boat” in use daily at the lake doing tasks like firefighting and servicing remote campsites and beaches, according to the park service.
D. J. Jenner of Las Vegas Scuba, a company that conducts tour dives in Lake Mead and has led tours of the Higgins boat in the past, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the vessel was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago. It was sold to a marina and later used as an anchor for a breakwater in the sediment, Jenner said.
The company has shared scuba dive footage of the Higgins boat when it was fully submerged years ago on their Facebook page.
The park service said it started to dive at the Higgins boat site in 2006.
The craft is made of plywood and such types were not produced after 1945, according to park officials. The Higgins vessel has its engine removed and has modifications to open up the space between the two machine gun positions toward the stern, the park service said.
The boat, named after its manufacturer, Andrew Jackson Higgins, is known as a landing craft vehicle and personnel, or LCVP, and was used in World War II for amphibious beach landings, according to the National WW II Museum in New Orleans.
It “changed the way the war was fought,” allowing infantry and small vehicles to easily exit through a front ramp and giving armies “more options in choosing their attack points,” according to the museum. Previously, navies had to attack heavily defended ports.
As water levels continue to decline at Lake Mead, more details about the Higgins boat may come to light.
“Lake Mead hopes everyone has the opportunity to learn about its history and ask that as visitors enjoy the site, they leave it as they found it to avoid damaging the boat,” the park service said in a statement.
Lake Mead, the largest human-made reservoir in the U.S., has hit unprecedented lows due to persistent drought conditions, climate change and increased water demands in the southwestern U.S.
The water level measured 1,042 feet above sea level early Tuesday, less than 150 feet away from dead pool status — when the reservoir dips below 895 feet and water cannot flow downstream from the Hoover Dam.
If that happens, it will carry enormous consequences for millions of people across Arizona, California, Nevada and parts of Mexico. Experts say that’s a possibility still years away.
In April, water levels reached below an intake valve that began supplying Nevada customers in 1971.