Lake Mead

Lake Mead is a reservoir that serves as the primary source of pure non-irradiated water to the Mojave Wasteland.

Background
Lake Mead was named after Elwood Mead (1858–1936), who was the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1924 to 1936 during the planning and construction of the Boulder Canyon Project that created the dam and lake. Lake Mead was established as the Boulder Dam Recreation Area in 1936, administrated by the National Park Service. It was then changed to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in 1964, this time including Lake Mohave and the Shivwits Plateau under its jurisdiction.

Layout
The lake bed is mostly sand and rocks with the odd bit of seaweed here and there. There are fish in the lake as well, although they can't be interacted with.

On the northern area of the lake bed rests a crashed B-29 airplane, which the Courier is asked to bring up to the surface during the quest Volare!. There is also an underwater cave immediately to the southeast of the B-29, which is called the Lake Mead cave; its sole entrance is located in the rock face below the northwest side of a partially-sunken ship, which resembles a red tugboat with some gore bags spilling out of a hole in the hull.

Floating atop the middle of the lake to the west of the B-29 is a lakelurk-infested scavenger platform. To the south of the platform lies a sunken, half-buried ship that contains a single bottle of hydra, and the unmarked location sunken sarsaparilla supplies can be found a ways to the west.

At the extreme northeastern edge of the lake, southeast of Camp Guardian and south of Guardian Peak, is the underwater entrance to Camp Guardian caves.

Appearances
Lake Mead appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Howard Hughes, on whom character Robert House is based, also crashed a Sikorsky S-43 aircraft into Lake Mead on May 17, 1943.
 * Lake Mead is based on the real world equivalent lake that was created by the construction of the Hoover Dam. Lake Mead lies on the Colorado River, about 24 mi (39 km) from the Las Vegas Strip.
 * The crashed B-29 is a reference to a real airplane, a modified Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, that crashed into the waters of Lake Mead while performing atmospheric research on July 21, 1948.

Bugs

 * There are a few hollow, floating, underwater rocks south-east of the Boulder Beach Campground docks.
 * Just south-east of the hollow, floating, underwater rocks lies an underwater rock face with a "hole" in it big enough for the player to swim in and out thus putting the player inside some rocks.
 * There is yet another "hole" if the shoreline is followed south.
 * When fast traveling to Lake Mead cave, you can often see the crashed B-29 floating off in the distance by the dock. However, when you approach it, it's gone.
 * The game may frequently freeze and/or crash when the player is exploring the lake.