Willow Beach Gauging Station
The historic gauging station sites are located approximately two miles upstream from Willow Beach.
"The legendary Colorado River begins in the snow capped Rockies of Wyoming and Colorado and travels 1,400 miles through the green lands and arid deserts of seven states before reaching the Gulf of California.
Man sought for decades to harness the power of this mighty river. Their dreams became a reality with the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935. In order to measure the impact of this massive engineering project several measuring stations were built.
You are standing at the house site of a river gauger who operated one such station. Constructed by the United States Geological Survey, the stone foundations are all that remain of his one bedroom house and garage.
Each day, the gauger would walk along the stone-marked trail to the cable carts where he would pull himself out over the river to take measurements, these were then computed to establish the volume of water, the rate of flow and the silt content.
Tamed by a series of dams, the enormous energy of the Colorado River has been captured for use by man. The roaring rapids that existed when the river gauger lived here now lie hidden beneath Lake Mohave."
(National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior)
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Located in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.