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 the Colorado Steam Navigation Company between Yuma and Needles. By the end of 1905 all the steamboats, "Cochan", "St. Vallier" and "Searchlight", were withdrawn down river to Yuma. Their places were taken by smaller gasoline powered boats, until they were in turn replaced by trucks. The remaining steamboats worked on irrigation projects on the lower part of the river and on repairing the 1904-1907 breach in the Alamo Canal, that directed the Colorado River into the Salton Sink and created the Salton Sea before it was repaired. The last project, the construction of the Laguna Dam ended steam navigation on