President Franklin Roosevelt 75 years ago this week officially opened the Hoover Dam in a ceremony at Lake Mead Nv, 20 miles from Las Vegas. His speech was broadcast nationally by radio as an attempt to boost morale midway through the decade of the Great Depression. I was 2 weeks young.
Men came across the vast desert looking for work. 124 men died on the 4 year job, some tumbling down the steep canyon walls. The first and the last to die were a father and his son.
If someone couldn't work he was instantly replaced from a queue of job seekers. The government built a "company town", Boulder City Nv to house everyone.
Lake Mead still is the largest man made body of water in the country. Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Imperial Valley all use the water and power from this dam.
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