As you probably suspected, Lake Sahara is a man-made body of water ("thirty acres of water right in your own back yard," boasts the promotional literature). Stocked with fish, including catfish and large-mouth bass, it forms the centerpiece of the West Sahara Community Association.
This master-planned community occupies roughly a giant square of western Las Vegas, bounded on the west by Fort Apache Road and on the east by Durango Drive. Sahara Avenue and Desert Inn Road form the northern and southern boundaries, respectively. Lake Sahara runs north-south within these confines, with several lochs branching out into the community, which was developed in the early 1980s.
There are only 300 homes within the Lake Sahara community, divided into seven "villages." There’s even a shopping plaza designed to cater to the needs of Lake Sahara residents (including Doggie Oasis Day Care) without them having to leave the cozy confines of the community association. There’s an annual boat parade and a communal Christmas tree in Lakes North Park. As for the lake itself, evaporation has recently been minimized by the installation of two, alien-looking ‘spreader stations’ which dispense WaterSavr, a thin coating over the lake water’s surface that’s intended to decrease the effects of heat and sun.
The community association boasts that Lake Sahara is "the only place in Las Vegas where you can own your own shoreline on a private lake" and provides a home to the rare razorback sucker fish. Sightings of turtles, cormorants, and even falcons are reported. Housing styles veer eclectically from modern to faux Tudor, not to mention an enormous, Romanesque mansion. In short, it sounds like quite the place to live … if you can afford it (and not to be confused with Lake Sahara Apartments, on the east side of town, which is an altogether different kettle of fish.)
