NV-4
Parks & Nature Trail
The Nevada-4th has been represented by Freshman Representative Cresent Hardy since January of this year.
Cities & Towns in the Nevada-4th include:
- North Las Vegas
- Tonopah
- Ely
The “Bathtub Ring” showing where the high water mark of Lake Mead was in 1983
Full disclosure. The thrust of this district profile is not what I thought it would be when I planned the publication schedule for the Project to Find America. I made the Nevada-4th the second stop on the Parks and Nature Trail based on a day nearly 25 years ago when we went here after a baseball game in Las Vegas, because it was a close place to camp, and found one of the most spectacular lakes I’ve ever seen. By most accounts, Lake Mead is still spectacular. The Lake Mead National Recreation Area was, in fact, the 6th most visited unit in the National Park system in 2014. But it’s not quite the lake I visited in the spring of 1991, there is about 10o feet less of it.
That doesn’t sound like a lot but every foot of decrease in water elevation exposes another 30 feet of shoreline, that is more than a half mile all the way around the lake. Mired in a drought for more than a decade, Lake Mead, which was formed and controlled by the Hoover Dam, set another record low this month for its lake level and it is down more than 150 feet since the high water record in 1983.
This is very serious business in the Las Vegas valley, which gets about 90 percent of its water from the lake, there is more on the impact of this in the video below and what local authorities are doing about it. In the meantime, it is still a beautiful lake as the link above points out and strangely, the lowering water level has had a bit of a silver lining. With water declining, the lake had given up some of her secrets, including the wreckage of a B-29 Bomber that crashed in 1948.
One Great Day in the Nevada-4th
A note about this section. One day isn’t long enough to spend in any district – it’s not nearly long enough to really understand the place and everything that makes it unique. But time for both real and virtual expeditions is often limited so I’ve chosen a day to try to encapsulate what the district is like. If you go…and have longer to spend, you should.
Furthermore, these are just the things my family and I would find interesting, many of which I’ve never been to – you probably would find and suggest others. If you want more information on the specifics of each stop please follow the links
8:30 am: Echo Bay – Lake Mead National Rec Area. A firsthand look at the lowest lake levels in history
10:30 am: Double Negative – One of the originals of Land Art and a precursor to a project very much in today’s news (see bottom link below)
11 am: Overton – Valley of Fire State Park – Petroglyphs, Red Rocks and 150-million-year old sand dunes
1:30 pm: Rachel – Area 51- The Extraterrestrial Highway and The Little A’LE’Inn
4:30 pm: Ely – Nevada Northern Railway. A nod to Nevada’s mining past…and present.
7:00 pm: Hotel Nevada & Gambling Hall – Built in 1929 – when in Rome…
What Matters Here?
We are trying something new here. The Project to Find Americas goes to YouTube. Let us know what you think!
Ten Links
http://lasvegassun.com/news/topics/water/
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/New-straw-to-draw-water-from-Nevada-s-6368863.php
https://hardy.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/hardy-supports-bill-clearly-define-waters-us
http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/8625716-74/epa-rule-corps#axzz3fQ81XJPo
http://www.c-span.org/video/?325799-3/us-house-debate-regulatory-integrity-protection-act
http://www2.epa.gov/cleanwaterrule/what-clean-water-rule-does
https://hardy.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/hardy-introduces-land-act
What do you think? Do you live in the Nevada 4th? Have we got it right or are there other more pressing issues that will make a difference to you in the next election cycle? If you live elsewhere, do you see commonalities with your district?
Next Up:
The Commerce & Industry Trail continues in MO-7 Friday
The Parks & Nature Trail moves up the Colorado River to the Utah-2nd next week