September 27, 2026
The Hoover Dam was built between 1931 and 1936. It remains one of the world’s great engineering feats. Such a large concrete structure had never been built before and some of the techniques used were unproven. Nevertheless, the dam was completed two years ahead of schedule. It was not without cost, however, as at least 94 and perhaps as many as 110 men died during its construction, due to the brutal heat and extreme danger. Facing such inhumane and dangerous conditions, the workers attempted to strike on a couple of occasions, but as the country was in the middle of the Great Depression, there was no shortage of replacement workers and the strikes quickly failed.
The dam sits across the Colorado River which divides Arizona from Nevada. It is not just only an engineering wonder but also has beautiful Art Deco touches.
There are clocks on two of the turbine intake towers, one showing Nevada and one showing Arizona time. Interestingly, they are an hour apart because Arizona is one of only two American states that have not adopted daylight saving time (the other is Hawaii).
The dam created Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States in terms of water capacity. The lake is named after Elwood Mead, who was the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during the building of the dam. It provides water to Arizona, California, and Nevada as well as some of Mexico. Due to increased water demand and drought, the lake is currently only about a quarter of its capacity. In fact, the last time the dam had to divert water through its spillover channels was back in 1983. In some of the above photos, it is easy to see how high the water once was by looking at the clear line between the white rock that was once below water level and the dark rock above.
Lake Mead is also a prime boating spot for the residents of nearby Las Vegas. We dropped by the lake and admired the view as the sun was starting to set , but soon were forced to take cover from a dust storm that seemed to come out of nowhere.
