Course of the Colorado River Lake Mead, formed by the -high Hoover Dam about southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, is the largest reservoir in the United States with a full capacity of and a water surface of nearly . However, the lake has not been full for many years due to a combination of drought and increased water usage by Colorado River Basin states. Situated in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Lake Mead is a popular recreation site – visited by almost 8 million people a year – and a critical source of water for the Las Vegas metropolitan area, Central Arizona and Southern
Steamboats of the Colorado River California, about 40 miles north of Goffs station, on the Santa Fé Railway. A mining camp, Vanderbilt was established nearby Vanderbilt Spring. The discovery of additional gold-rich veins in the fall of 1892 set off a rush to the area. A few months later gold was found at what became the placer mining camp of Murphyville, on the Arizona side of the river just twelve miles below Eldorado Canyon. Also in 1892, another gold boom occurred twenty miles east of Eldorado Canyon at White Hills in the White Hills, in Arizona Territory. Gold mines were revived in the Picacho District