Page 81 - 2005 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e !

Featured Article
The Hoover Dam Adventure ................1
Special
Red Rock Confidential ..........................7
Departments
News & Notes.......................................2
Programs & Hikes.................................4
November 2005 Desk Schedule.....................................6

Bulletin Board.......................................8

COURAGE, CORRUPTION, CONTROVERSY, CAN-DO

AND MUCH MORE . . . THE HOOVER DAM ADVENTURE.

by Chuck Kleber huge agricultural lands would get most than the government.
of the water, followed by Nevada and The heat was so blinding, merely
t was an adventure . . . of sorts, Arizona with an equal share. touching rocks could risk a burn—and
a projected engineering marvel On December 21, 1928, President there was no real center of civilization
Ithat would revolutionize life in Calvin Coolidge signed the bill, ap- at hand to support the undertaking. Las
Southern Nevada, Southern Califor- proving the Boulder Canyon Project. Vegas was little more than a whistle
nia and Arizona. An enormous dam It started with $250,000 for research stop for the railroad. Enter Boulder
on the Colorado River was a task of and feasibility studies. Thousands of City—a place yet to be built to serve
fearsome proportions, and there were workers would be needed in Black as an operational headquarters and
ominous assessments from engineers Rock Canyon, along with heavy as a town where dam workers would
and surveyors like Edmund Wilson, equipment, in live. But dam
who observed, “ . . . the whole land- an environment c o n s t r u c -
scape an infernal desert; hard blue that could hard- tion began in
and black hills, full of metal, that ly be worse. 1931, before
look as if you could ring them with a Although it Boulder City
hammer.” Still, the potential rewards should have was built. The
demanded action. been called first workers

As so often happens in history, Black Rock simply lived
great undertakings are often spurred Canyon Dam, at the site in
by disasters. So it was in 1905, when early planners t e m p o r a r y
a rampaging Colorado River burst had opted to camps like
irrigation canals, swept away homes build at Boul- R a g t o w n ,
and railroad tracks and poured water der Canyon suffering the
into the Salton Sea, vastly increasing before decid- Water fl owing into diversion tunnels-November 13, 1932 hell of primi-
its size. The need to control the river ing it was not tive living
and apportion its huge water supply the best location. The name stuck. conditions, deadly heat over 120
prompted a conference in 1922, ar- The project had been awarded to the degrees at times—and without a true
ranged by Secretary of Commerce so-called “Six Companies,” after their understanding of the critical need to
Herbert Hoover. Nevada, California low bid of $48,890,955 was accepted. drink great quantities of water. With
and Arizona had the prime interest, al- Six years earlier, the Reclamation Ser- little refrigeration to preserve food
though several other states and Mexico vice (later the Bureau of Reclamation), there was much illness, and there
were invited. In the end, it was decided decided that such undertakings should
that fast-growing California with its be handled by private enterprise rather
Hoover Dam, continued on page 6