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Lost Military · Protected dive

The Lake Mead B-29

Crashed 1948 · found 2001, Overton Arm, Lake Mead, Nevada
PROTECTED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Lake Mead B-29: still unexplained.

A WWII Superfortress on a secret mission, intact on the lakebed

The law of this ground: Lake Mead NRA (NPS), on the National Register, diving only under permitted, guided programs.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
A WWII Superfortress on a secret mission, intact on the lakebed
The account

In 1948 a B-29 Superfortress skimmed too low over a glassy Lake Mead on a secret high-altitude research flight, clipped the water at 230 mph, and sank, the crew all swam clear. For half a century no one knew exactly where. A dive team found her in 2001, remarkably whole, in the Overton Arm; the falling lake has since brought her from 200 feet up toward 100. She's on the National Register now, look, don't touch.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • The site is documented at Overton Arm, Lake Mead, Nevada; the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Lake Mead NRA (NPS), on the National Register, diving only under permitted, guided programs.
  • What is there: A WWII Superfortress on a secret mission, intact on the lakebed.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • The site is documented at Overton Arm, Lake Mead, Nevada; the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Lake Mead NRA (NPS), on the National Register, diving only under permitted, guided programs.
  • What is there: A WWII Superfortress on a secret mission, intact on the lakebed.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 36.420°, -114.390° (approx.) View on the Map