No Place Left To Launch Boats In Overton Arm

By JOE SOBRIO

The Progress

The National Park Service announced the closing of the Echo Bay launch ramp earlier this month via a brief press release. The release stated that the launch would be closed indefinitely, due to low water levels at Lake Mead.

No mention was made about any future solutions being planned to provide boat access to the northern end of the lake. Calls to the Lake Mead headquarters to find out more information were not answered.
According to the press release, the launch ramp was originally engineered to serve a minimum water level of 1060 feet above sea level. The current water level has dropped to around 1050 feet, thus instigating the closure.
The four-paragraph NPS release instructs, “Recreational boaters will still be able to access Lake Mead from Hemenway Harbor as well as access points on Lake Mohave.”
Thus, local residents will now have a 90-minute drive to launch their boats.
The closure of the ramp is likely to cause hardships for local boaters. Overton resident Jason Ham, who has been a boater onf the Lake for some years and has made a custom of taking friends and family fishing there on a monthly basis, discussed the impact of the closure.
“It is going to mean a lot less time on the lake,” he said. “If I can get two trips a year in, I will be happy. A trip to the lake will now be an entire weekend affair.”
Another local resident, Chris Kohntopp has routinely used the Echo Bay ramp. “The lake is a place for really fun memories,” Kohntopp said.
He recently purchased a boat and has become very comfortable with being on the lake regularly and spending days out there with his family. Kohntopp is uncertain whether those adventures can continue.
“I don’t know where we will go boating anymore,” Kohntopp said. “If I have to drag the boat all the way through Las Vegas to get to the Lake, perhaps southern Utah will start to look more attractive.”
Kohntopp admitted that he was unfamiliar with the boating landscape in Utah but said he was looking into it. He also talked about the possibility of just selling his boat.
“I don’t know if the lake will recover,” he said.
As families plan for their summers, the ramp closure is a huge issue. Many local families including Ham and Kohntopp have omitted the lake as a viable, realistic destination as they weigh a trip to Boulder City against a trip to Southern Utah.
What is for certain is the joyful memories on the northern end of Lake Mead will have to be on hold for now.