Boulder Dam

The Event Construction of a large, multipurpose dam on the Colorado River

Also known as Hoover Dam

Dates Built 1931-1936

Place near Boulder City, Nevada

Boulder Dam, later known as Hoover Dam, was a primary facilitator of the development of the Southwest, particularly Southern California, but was also a central force in ameliorating the economic impact of the Great Depression.

The development of the semiarid Southwest was aided by the construction of numerous large dams, such as Arizona’s Roosevelt Dam, completed in 1911. In 1922, two California congressmen, Senator Hiram Warren Johnson and Representative Philip D. Swing, introduced legislation for the construction of a dam in Boulder Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border. It received the support of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover but failed to pass into law. It finally passed in 1928 and was signed on December 28, by President Calvin Coolidge.

Construction did not begin until 1931, when Hoover was president. The previous year, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur formally designated the dam as “Hoover Dam,” a first for an incumbent president. By then, the Great Depression was well underway, and the project was considered to be a jobs-creation endeavor.

A new town, Boulder City, Nevada, was constructed for the many workers and soon became the third largest city in Nevada. For geological reasons the dam’s site was changed from Boulder Canyon to Black Canyon, eight miles farther down the Colorado River. With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and the creation of the New Deal, activity on the dam increased as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided $38 million in funds. Construction concluded in 1936, two years ahead of the predicted date. More than fifty-two hundred workers were employed by the federal government on the project, and more than one hundred died during the construction. When finished, the dam was the world’s largest concrete facility; it rises 726 feet above the Colorado River and is 1,244 feet long. The construction cost was $49 million.

Initially, the dam was to be in an unadorned architectural style. However, in the end, it had an Art Deco style, with Native American motifs in the walls and the floors. Two million horsepower of electricity were produced by the dam’s turbines and generators, and the Boulder Power Transmission System, built by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power at a cost of $23 million, brought electricity 270 miles to Los Angeles. The Metropolitan Water District constructed the Colorado River Aqueduct, at a cost of $220 million, which brought water to Southern California. The All-American Canal provided water to the lower Colorado River basin to the Coachella and Imperial valleys.

Johnson and Hoover, both California Republicans, were bitter political foes, and when Harold Ickes, a Johnson ally, was named secretary of the interior under Roosevelt, the Hoover Dam was renamed Boulder Dam in 1933. In 1947, after World War II, Congress voted unanimously to rename it Hoover Dam.

Encouraged by the federal government, Boulder Dam became a major tourist destination. In 1937, Ickes’s WPA established the United States Travel Bureau to boost recreational travel. During the construction of the dam, viewing platforms were provided so that spectators could watch the transformation of the river and the desert. The waters behind the dam formed Lake Mead, named for Elwood Mead, who was head of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during the dam’s construction. The location was designated the Boulder Dam National Recreation Area in 1936 under the National Park Service. This was done to bring tourists to the site for recreation. Campsites and cabins were constructed, and boating, fishing, and swimming facilities were provided. The 1930’s was the era of the automobile, and the Boulder Dam Service Bureau provided free maps. It also showed a free film that chronicled the construction of the dam.

Impact

Hoover Dam is not only a great American icon of construction and engineering but also a symbol of the American ability to transform challenging environments. However, with the rise of the environmental movement, by the 1980’s, the dam and its associated projects were criticized as encouraging too much population growth and development, far beyond the capacity of the natural environment of the semidesert Southwest.

Bibliography

Duchemin, Michael. “Water, Power, and Tourism: Hoover Dam and the Making of the New West.” California History 86, no. 4 (Fall, 2009).

Dunar, Andrew J. Building Hoover Dam: An Oral History of the Great Depression. New York: Twayne, 1993.

Hiltzik, Michael A. Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century. New York: Free Press, 2010.