By Becky Maxedon

As water levels in lakes and reservoirs across the West drop dramatically, what some could say are archaeological artifacts from days gone by are rising in the mud left behind.

Artifacts heck! Towns that were flooded to make way for progress are reappearing. But one artifact in Lake Mead recently made its presence known – an artifact very near and dear to one Lake Havasu City resident revealed itself.

There aren’t many who get to return to the scene of an accident that could have changed the rest of their life, but Steve Buckalew, an 82-year-old retired firefighter, just had that experience – up close and personal.

When Buckalew was a high school student in Torrance, Calif., he began his love of fast boats and started building his own in 1955.

He got a set of plans from Glen-L Marine and he was off and running.

Virginia and Steve Buckalew. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Buckalew’s wife Virginia Buckalew, said she and Steve had their first date on that very boat.

But it couldn’t be just a boat – it had to be a fast boat. Throughout his boat-building career, Buckalew was always looking for a faster boat.

Over the years, he experimented with many motors from Mercury to Evinrude. Trips east to the Parker Enduro and other boat-racing events occupied his time off from firefighting in Torrance.

“Evinrude came out with a 235 horsepower motor, and I bought one. That would have been about 1976 or ’77 and that made me faster than anyone,” Buckalew said.

“I told my wife, ‘This boat is going to get me in trouble.’” It was faster than Buckalew had ever had. The vessel was christened the “Quick Screw.”

Steve Buckalew in the same boat that was sunk in Lake Mead during a race. Photo courtesy Steve Buckalew

In 1977, he towed the boat from Parker up to Lake Mead to watch a water skiing marathon – a 75-mile race.

One team’s boat was unable to go, and he was asked if he could use his boat for the race. He agreed and they prepared the boat to pull a skier and they started the race.

“We were doing about 70 mph pulling the skier and we were passing the slower boats – the kids and novice skiers. We pulled up on a big boat with a big wake. My boat didn’t like a lot of water on the chime, so I was trying to slide over the wake,” Buckalew said.

“I turned to the right and in the blink of an eye, I was in the water under the boat. The skier was on a 200-foot rope and I saw the rope going by and it kept going and going and finally the skier came by and asked if we were OK,” he said.

To his great relief, everyone was OK. It was the boat that wasn’t.

“It didn’t take long for it to go down and I wanted to get a buoy out there so I could come back and get the motor and the prop,” he said.

Sadly, upon his return, the buoy was nowhere to be found and he counted it as a total loss. He thought perhaps someone had made off with the valuable parts that were retrievable.

Fast forward 46 years and Lake Mead has receded so low that many of its sunken secrets are revealed and the Quick Screw has been exposed.

“A friend’s son saw a Facebook post recently by News 8 Las Vegas looking for Steve Buckalew, the owner of the boat Quick Screw. He then contacted us saying the boat has been found,” Virginia Buckalew said.

A couple weeks later, the Buckalew’s went to Lake Mead to see their boat once again.

Steve Buckalew checks out the boat that he had lost back in 1977 after it was recently uncovered by Lake Mead’s receding waters. Photo courtesy Virginia Buckalew

“All I can tell you is that he should have died in that boat,” Virginia Buckalew said. “We thought the damage had happened on the right side of the boat, but it was the left side, where he was driving.”

“When I saw the boat …” Buckalew had no words.

“I had protective gear from my neck all the way down to my upper legs,” he said.

“I looked at it. How did I survive? By the grace of God. I could have been knocked out and drowned – no doubt,” he said.

“It’s all there. The motor, the prop, everything.”

Steve Buckalew’s boat “Quick Screw” Photo courtesy Virginia Buckalew

Lake Mead has receded about 182 feet below the water level the day of the wreck.

“It’s just unbelievable. I was a lucky guy. I was blown away by seeing this.”

The future of the boat is out of the Buckalew’s purview at this point and they have to speculate no more about its condition.

After retiring, the couple relocated to Lake Havasu City in 1993, where they remain today.

And for the time being, Quick Screw remains at home, exposed in Lake Mead.

Steve Buckalew sees his boat for the first time since it sunk in 1977. Photo courtesy Virginia Buckalew