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Home | Protected Area | Lake Mead National Recreation Area
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Lake Mead National Recreation Area is located in southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona. The centerpieces of the National Recreation Area are its two large reservoirs: Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. These lakes cater to boaters, swimmers, sunbathers, and fishermen while the surrounding desert rewards hikers, wildlife photographers, and roadside sightseers. Three of America's four desert ecosystems - the Mojave desert, the Great Basin desert, and the Sonoran Desert - meet in Lake Mead NRA. As a result, this seemingly barren area contains a surprising variety of plants and animals, some of which may be found nowhere else in the world. Originally called Boulder Dam Recreation Area, it was managed under a cooperative agreement between the National Park Service and the Bureau of Reclamation dating from October 13, 1936. The name was changed to Lake Mead National Recreation Area on August 11, 1947. On October 8, 1964, Congress passed enabling legislation (Public Law 88-639) officially creating Lake Mead National Recreation Area as a park in the national park system. The law directs the Secretary of the Interior to administer the area "...for general purposes of public recreation, benefit, and use, and in a manner that will preserve, develop, and enhance, so far as practicable, the recreation potential, and in a manner that will preserve the scenic, historic, scientific, and other important features of the area..." About 20,000 acres (81 km2) of the recreation area are managed separately under theGrand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, proclaimed in 2000. Water covers about 186,000 acres (756 km2) of the recreation area. The Hoover Dam, which was completed in 1935 creating Lake Mead, is located within Lake Mead NRA. Tours of the dam and the Hoover Dam Visitor Center are managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. |
