Lake Sahara, the centerpiece of The Lakes subdivision on the west side of the city, was excavated in the early 1980s and was completely filled in 1985.
Today, The Lakes is in the middle of the suburbs, but when it was built in the mid-’80s, it was so far out of town that Sahara Avenue had to be paved just to get to it.
For a good view of the subdivision in 1986, click here.
The Lakes subdivision is bordered by Sahara Avenue (north), Durango Drive (east), Desert Inn (south), and Hualapai Way (west) and covers two square miles.
Lake Sahara is approximately 2,000 feet long, with an average width of the main lake of around 200 feet. It also has 10 digitations that provide lakefront for houses along a dozen cul-de-sacs.
Lake Sahara covers nearly 30 acres, with three miles of shoreline, most of it privately owned by lakefront homeowners. In it, you can swim, boat, and fish; it’s stocked with bluegill, channel catfish, sunfish, and up to four-pound largemouth bass, and there are even some endangered razorback sucker fish. It also boasts freshwater turtles and ducks, up to a dozen migratory waterfowl, including the magnificent blue heron, and falcons.
Two other cool things about Lake Sahara are the yacht club and the ability to boat to Lake Town Center, the nearby shopping and dining area.
The Lakes also hosts Citicards, the credit-card division of Citibank, which located its payment-processing center there in 1990. Due to Citicards -- and the possible negative perception of mailing credit-card payments to Las Vegas, The Lakes has its own postal place name and two zip codes.
For all the demographic information you could possibly ever want or need to know, visit city-data.com/neighborhood/The-Lakes-Las-Vegas-NV.html.
Caring for the lake involves a number of processes. The following information was pieced together, mainly, from reports of the Lake Oversight Committee of The Lakes Homeowners Association that appeared in the excellent quarterly The Lakes Newsletter.
When it was completed, Lake Sahara was stocked with a fish known variously as triploid white amur and grass carp. This is a highly controlled species that requires special permits; the fish have to be certified "triploid" for an extra chromosome that prevents them from reproducing. Amur help control the lake’s aquatic vegetation.
Even so, the algae in the lake would turn the water color in the lake a greenish-brown. The lake water is as blue as it is due to harmless food coloring.
Lake Sahara has no outlet. To control the water levels, a concrete bulkhead lines the shoreline and the lake bottom is lined with a clay-like substance.
The lake maintenance crew regularly removes debris from the Lake, especially after high winds. Occasionally on calm days, dust and pollen settle on the surface, which give it a scummy appearance; the maintenance crew works its boat up and down the channels to create a large enough wake to disperse the surface deposits. Sprinklers at the ends of some of the channels also help control dust on the surface.
Keeping oxygen in the lake is a challenge. Aeration diffusers installed in various areas on the bottom of the lake help circulate the water to prevent stagnation and introduce oxygen to keep the lake healthy.
Another challenge is keeping The Lakes area as free as possible from midges, gnat-like bugs that swarm and nest in grass and bushes near the lake. Thus, many of the common areas are sprayed monthly with a liquid agent, and timed-release pellets are distributed, that attack the midge larvae.
The Lakes Newsletter is by far the best source of information on the area and the lake. You can read all the back issues at lakesassociation.com/news.
