Five-Thousand Men and One Dog: The Human Side to Hoover Dam Construction

Men came by the thousands from all over the country, many with families, seeking to escape the hell of the depression. For many, it would be trading one form of hell for another. But from that hell would rise one of the greatest engineering achievements of the modern era, Hoover Dam. Almost twice as big as any dam built before, Hoover Dam stands as a powerful monument to the thousands of men who risked their lives in the hell-like environment of the American Southwest to tame one of North America’s mightiest rivers.
The Las Vegas of the 1930s was a far cry from the glowing neon, glass, and steel metropolis of the 1990s. The Las Vegas of the 1930s was described as “ . . . the last frontier town in America, . . . but really dying in its boots.” It was a town dedicated to the unrelenting pursuit of pleasure. The streets were lined with salons that openly defied prohibition, gambling clubs prospered, and on Block 16, pleasures of the flesh were readily available - for a price. As wild as Las Vegas was in the early 1930s, what was about happen to its citizens would forever change the face of their town. Cont.