Lake Mead may be America’s most dangerous national park as the bodies continue to pile up through the 2024 summer season.
Some 300 drownings have taken place at Lake Mead in the last century, and it’s one of the top causes of deaths at the park in the last two years, according to The Sun. Car crashes also rank as one of the main deadly catastrophes. And 2024 looks like it’ll be another year of record-breaking mortality for park-goers.
In 2023, a total of 29 people died at the Nevada-based national park. In 2022, that number was 21 and included four bodies, one of which police ruled died by a homicide that took place at some point in the early 1980s. These figures are notably higher than the average 18 deaths at Lake Mead.
BOULDER CITY, NV – AUGUST 14: Lake Mead, the country’s largest man-made water reservoir, formed by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, has marginally stabilized the lake, now at approximately 47% capacity as viewed from Boulder Beach on August 14, 2023 near Boulder City, Nevada. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
A “bathtub ring”, a white band of mineral deposits showing previous water levels, is seen as boatseller Jason Davis navigates his boat at sunset on June 28, 2022 on Lake Mead along the Colorado River in Boulder City, Nevada. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
A rusted metal barrel, near the location of where a different barrel was found containing a human body, sits exposed on shore during low water levels due to the western drought at the Lake Mead Marina on the Colorado River in Boulder City, Nevada on May 5, 2022. A worsening drought has revealed a four-decade-old body dumped in Lake Mead, police said May 2, 2022, warning that falling water levels would lead to the uncovering of more corpses. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
In total, some 317 deaths related to Lake Mead occurred between 2007 and 2014. And 19 people have already died in the park since the start of 2024, according to The Sun. (RELATED: Body In Barrel Found In Lake Mead)
The unique climate at Lake Mead makes it a pretty dangerous environment. High winds apparently lash off the water, creating waves and currents that can pack a punch for swimmers. “You think you’re jumping out of your boat for a quick swim and you’re going to swim back to your boat,” National Park Service public information officer John Haynes told KTNV. “But because of high winds, all of a sudden, your boat is drifting away and you’re stuck in the middle of the lake.”
And if this wasn’t scary enough, Lake Mead also contains brain-eating amoebas in its hot springs. So, enjoy your summer vacation in Lake Mead, no one?
