Another piece of history is emerging from the once deep waters near the Lake Mead Marina, KTLA sister station KLAS reported.
A WWII-era Higgins landing craft was spotted this week resting halfway out of the water, the latest sunken artifact unearthed by the drought-stricken water source. The boat has been known to many for decades and has been a popular diving site, once 185 feet below the surface of the lake.
The boat was recently photographed for a YouTube channel called “The Other Me.”
When this Higgins craft was built, used, and sunk is unclear at this time. But according to Las Vegas Scuba, the boat was used to survey the Colorado River, then sold to a marina, and then sunk. This could date the boat back to the early 1940s.
Higgins landing craft were built for the military between 1942 to 1945. New Orleans was home to Higgins Industries, a small boat company owned by entrepreneur Andrew J. Higgins. His company produced the historic landing craft used during the D-Day invasion, but also made several versions of the landing craft, including a torpedo boat.
“Andrew Higgins is the man who won the war for us,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower said during a 1964 interview. “If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel), we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.”