Scenic drive through downtown Boulder City, NV.

No music and no talking for a relaxing ASMR, road trip feel.

A brief history of Boulder City, Nevada – Home of Hoover Dam

The Boulder Canyon Project Act, authorizing the building of Hoover Dam and the creation of Boulder City was signed by President Calvin Coolidge on December 21, 1928.

The contract to build the dam was awarded to Six Companies, Inc. (a company composed of six separate construction companies) on March 11, 1931.

Boulder City, built to house the workers who came to work on the dam, holds national significance as the first fully developed experiment in new town planning in the 20th Century.

The townsite was on federally owned land and title to all land was retained by the federal government under the Bureau of Reclamation.

Boulder City was built as the “Boulder Canyon Project Federal Reservation” and federal rangers maintained law and order on the reservation.

Housing in Boulder City was built during 1931 and 1932 by the Bureau of Reclamation for its department heads, engineers, and employees and by Six Companies, Inc. for its executives and the workers on the dam.

Beginning in 1931 permits began to be issued by Sims Ely, the City Manager, for commercial buildings in the city. By 1932 the view north on Nevada Way toward the Bureau of Reclamation Building on the hill looked much as it does today.

The dam was completed in 1936, 22 months ahead of schedule because of the management skills of Frank T. Crowe, one of the most competent construction engineers to work in Reclamation.

When the dam was completed, the Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light (now the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) and California Edison Company were contracted to distribute power to southern Nevada and southern California.

In 1958, Congress approved the Boulder City Act and after 29 years of federal control, the Bureau of Reclamation transferred ownership of approximately 33 square miles to Boulder City’s new government, retaining only those facilities necessary for the operation and maintenance of Hoover Dam. Boulder City was incorporated in January 1960.

The citizens of Boulder City have enacted various charter amendments to keep growth contained, striving to maintain the small-town charm of the city. The citizens adopted a ballot initiative in 1979 for growth control and another in 1997 to restrict how city land can be sold, as most of the vacant land is owned by the city. The city’s territory increased in 1995 with the acquisition of an additional approximate 167 square miles of former federal land and again in 2008 with the annexation of 6.5 square miles of federal land, bringing the total area within the city’s limits to approximately 207 square miles, most of which is owned by the city, undeveloped and restricted to stay that way.

The Boulder City Historic District was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. At that time the district encompassed 514 buildings and structures, most of which were constructed between 1931 and 1942, corresponding to the initial construction and operations phase of the city’s history. (source: flybouldercity.com)

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