Hoover Dam

The original name of the dam was Boulder Dam, because it was going to be built in Boulder canyon. After the planners saw that the Black Canyon was more suitable, they decided to build it there, but the name Canyon Dam stuck with it. In 1930 when construction was beginning, Interior Secretary Ray Wilbur said he would name it Hoover Dam, after the president Herbert Hoover. Many people were upset at naming it this, and argued to keep it as Boulder Dam. In 1933, the new Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, said it would be named Boulder Dam, as originally planned. This name lasted until 1947, when a joint resolution of Congress permanently named it the Hoover Dam.

Some trivia gleaned from the normal tour:

• When the dam was first built, there were theories bandied about that the enormous concentration of concrete in one spot would throw the earth off its axis. If this happened, some of the smaller countries were planning to sue for reparations in the World Court.
• About 20 years ago, the administrator of the dam decided he didn't like the bats that lived there, so he had them exterminated. Needless to say, it is now plagued by insects. Attempts are being made to bring the bats back.
• Although Las Vegas is only a 45 minute drive away from the dam (and half the time is spent on slow roads), it only gets about 2% of the dam's power output. This is because, when the dam was built and power was being assigned, the city only had a population of 6,000, and the mayor saw no reason for the population to increase by any significant amount.
• The dam was originally expected to have a service life of 1,500 years. Now that other dams upstream of the Hoover Dam keep silt from accumulating under the dam, the expected lifetime has doubled to 3,000 years.
• Watching specials on The History Channel, you will hear that about 100 people died during work on the dam. The number is actually over 400, but because the government listed Carbon Monoxide poisoning and Black Lung as unrelated diseases, most of these deaths were not listed as occupation-related.
• At the top of the Dam, there is a star map that gives the appearance of the sky at the time that the dam was completed, as well as a description of the earth's axial wobble, so that archaeologists of the distant future might be able to fix the time that the dam was built.
• The Hoover Dam is the only Federal Public Works project that has (directly) paid for itself.