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
Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest the border of Texas and Mexico. Several Spanish explorers described this culture which was related to or derivative from the Jornada Mogollon. Between 700 and 1550 CE, the Patayan culture inhabited parts of modern-day Arizona, California and Baja California, including areas near the Colorado River Valley, nearby uplands, and north to the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. The Fremont culture inhabited sites in what is now Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from 700 to 1300 CE. Archaeologists use cultural labels such as Mogollon, Ancestral Pueblo peoples, Patayan, or Hohokam to denote cultural traditions within the prehistoric American