Apparent human remains found at Lake Mead as water levels hit record low

Drought exposes submerged objects across the US West and Europe

Apparent human remains, including a jaw with teeth still attached, have been recovered from Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, as the ongoing drought drops water levels to record lows across western states.

The National Park Service said it received reports of apparent skeletal remains at Boulder Beach on Lake Mead, Nevada, on August 16. “National Park Service rangers and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department responded to the scene,” the service said in a statement seen by the BBC’s US partner CBS. The service added that the incident “remains under investigation, and no additional information is available at this time.”

The discovery was made by visitors to the reservoir. Dianelis Molina Cruz told CBS affiliate KLAS: “My friend was playing with the rocks in the lake, and then he grabbed the jaw. And when he looked, he saw the teeth and everything.” Her friend, Noel De Leon, linked the find to the falling water levels. “The water looks very low compared to where it should be,” he said. “As the water goes down, the skeletons come up.”

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by capacity, formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The US Bureau of Reclamation said the reservoir’s water level dropped to 1,040 feet (316 meters) above sea level last week — considerably below the previous record low set in July 2022. Water levels at the reservoir have been declining since 2000. The reservoir supplies water to about 20 million people in Arizona, California, Nevada and into Mexico, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

The reservoir sits in Clark County, Nevada, most of which is in moderate drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. Scientists say the worsening drought is being driven by climate change.

Persistent hot summer weather has dropped water levels in rivers and lakes in several countries, leading to similar discoveries elsewhere. In Hungary, the bodies of two World War Two German soldiers were recovered from the Danube River in Budapest earlier this month, along with a largely intact German army Wehrmacht motorcycle. Other WWII remnants have appeared in the Danube recently, including a broken-up hull near Prahovo in Serbia. In the UK, low water levels at a Rutland reservoir uncovered the remains of the village of Nether Hambleton, demolished and flooded to create the reservoir.

The discovery follows a record-low reading at Lake Mead reported earlier this month. As MSI previously reported, the Bureau of Reclamation recorded Lake Mead at 1,040.5 feet on August 7 — surpassing the prior record of 1,040.58 feet set on July 28, 2022, and reaching the lowest elevation since tracking began in 1930. The continued drop since then has exposed material previously submerged.