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... after than on land in the jurisdiction of the state of Nevada. Joseph Stevens argues in Hoover Dam: An American Adventure, that the decision to provide living arrangements for the dam workers was not only an attempt to protect health and welfare, but also to shield this very public project from the dangers that lay in an unstable workforce. A breakdown in the workforce would inevitably lead to bad publicity for the project, with the possibility of having to import a "foreign tropical labor" pool which was apparently dreaded by all. The presence, Stevens writes, of large numbers of blacks in Black Canyon, with its implied confession that within the continental United States a task had been found too difficult for white American physique and morale to perform' was unthinkable, and so the blueprint for a modern community that would keep 3000 or more Americans, mainly of the native or northern European stocks contented and healthy' was approved. " (Hoover Dam: An American Adventure) The other advantage was financial. No rent could be charged in shantytowns, but Six Companies stood to collect a good profit from their workers living in company-owned housing.
A Denver architect S. R. DeBoer was given the task of designing Boulder City, the town was to be called. Unfortunately, De Boers ideas of making the town into a desert oasis were considered ridiculous.
Given the existing conditions, the majority was in favor of a more Levittown approach: build quickly, sensibly, and rectangular, and leave the landscaping for others to worry about. The town was thrown into place with construction continuing through the spring of 1932. Eight large dormitories and a dining hall for the single men, and rows upon rows of individual houses for families were put into place, as well as the Six Companies and Bureau of Reclamation offices. The blistering summer of 1931 and the visual desolation of the desert town caused those in power to realize that DeBoer had not been so wrong to purpose of grass, trees and shrubbery running throughout the town. The decision to in the aptly-named landscaper William Weed to create the garden city was certainly a political decision. With Hoover up for re-election and strike threats from workers conditions on the job, it would be something of a publicity faux-pas to display a model town that amounted to cottages, cactus and a few dusty streets.
Weed did well. By the spring of 1932 his landscaping efforts came to fruition, and Boulder City had lawns, parks that were more than dust lots, and trees that shaded its inhabitants from the Somewhat to the surprise of the government and Six Companies, Boulder City forged itself into a community. Churches were built in off hours, and to deal with the "unexpected fecundity" of the workers' families, schools which had been entirely forgotten in the original plan were added to open in the fall of 1932. A newspaper, the Boulder City Journal, sprang up, and a library was opened, funded by Six Companies.
all seemed quite fitting with a model community. What was different was the form of government. In what was to be, supposedly, the most American of towns, a community modern pioneers, braving the elements, taking on the monumental tasks for the good of the country, democracy was non-existent. The town's government lay in the hands of a city manager, selected by Six Companies; during the dam construction, the city manager was a "banker-businessman-bureaucrat" named Sims Ely. Ely was initially charged with creating a business district for Boulder City, which he did, awarding the few permits through a rigid selection process. A successful applicant would pass Ely's requirements for character, personality, age, physical condition, financial fitness and past experience.
Once the stores were opened, Ely fixed prices so that no conspiring for high prices occur between the owners. However, the real competition in town for the independent store owners was the Six Companies Company store; the only store in town that offered everything under one roof, it also was the only place that dam workers could spend the scrip in which they were sometimes paid. Scrip payments were made illegal in 1933, but until then, many felt that fair competition had been completely undermined. Ely, as the "local autocrat", also took it upon himself to create the kind of wholesome living environment he felt was necessary for Boulder City. Every effort was made, and it generally succeeded, to keep the evils of Las Vegas out of town.
Bootlegging and prostitution made few inroads on the local environment. Any worker caught with or intoxicated was summarily fired and escorted out of town. This continued after Prohibition had been repealed in 1933 until the end of the Hoover Dam project. Interestingly, Ely's bulldog "sheriff", Bud Bell, ran the local gambling ring in the mess hall with Ely's knowledge, although gambling was explicitly illegal in Boulder City. Ely also acted as town magistrate, granting divorces, jailing troublemakers, awarding custody of children, and apparently attempting to instill a formal dress code the town's citizens.
Perhaps most disturbing is the anti-labor activity that was promulgated openly, particularly in the early years. Any suspicion of union activity was grounds for termination and removal from the town. However, residents did not complain. If there was any resentment of this twisting of the rules, the forcible of hundreds of workers, and the creation of a police-state atmosphere, it was not expressed loudly. Labor Commissioner Leonard Blood's list of applicants for jobs at Hoover Dam, numbering twenty-two thousand at the close of 1932, cast a long shadow and it was evident that from the outside looking in, Boulder City, where everyone had a job, a full stomach, and a roof overhead, appeared to be the model town the government said it was, whatever the reality. But the reality was the rest of the was struggling to get back on the feet in the work force, while Boulder City was the Because of the construction Hoover Dam, the Colorado was controlled for the first time in history.
Farmers received a dependable supply of water in Nevada, California and Arizona. The major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and a dozen other towns and cities were given an inexpensive source of electricity, permitting population growth and industrial development. The Hoover Dam became an icon of the Depression-era and spoke directly and profoundly to the American people who were afraid and unsure. The mammoth structure silently addressed the power of technology, the hope for the future, and the ability of man to change the natural course of things. As its physical image rose from the desert in the 1930 s it offered a alternative narrative to the that of the Great Depression. Bibliography: 1.
Stevens, Joseph. Hoover Dam: An American Adventure. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. 2. U. S.
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. The Story of Hoover Dam. U. S.
Government Printing Office, 1966 3. Hoover Dam Virtual Visitor Center, web
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