Photos show historic overflow at Hoover Dam in August 1983

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - While Lake Mead’s water levels are currently the lowest it has ever been, less than 40 years ago, the lake was overflowing into the spillways at Hoover Dam.

Photos from the UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives shows the water overflow from the Arizona side of the Hoover Dam in August 1983. A flood that summer sent record flows into Lake Mead.

The spillways were designed to catch excess water from Lake Mead and keep it from flowing over the top of Hoover Dam. However, the spillways have only been filled twice, once in 1941 as a test of the system and again during the 1983 flood.

See more photos in the video above.

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