178: “A Damn Big Dam”: Taming the Colorado River with the Hoover (or Boulder) Dam (Infrastructure pt. 1)

“I felt no distress whatever…I was perspiring freely and was as limber and helpless as a wet rag. It was an exhilarating experience.... It was then and there that I first conceived the idea of the reclamation of the desert.” This is the story of the Hoover Dam. A wild, precarious, and dangerous river, the Colorado tears across the American southwest’s otherwise arid and largely uninhabitable desert. Yet, if tamed, the Colorado could reclaim countless acres; it could provide sustenance and hydroelectricity for untold millions! But that’s the catch: “if.” From a dehydrated mirage in 1849, to the outgrowth of an overwhelmed canal in the early twentieth-century Imperial Valley, this is the unlikely tale of the dreamers; government officials; a consortium of six construction companies, blandly called “Six Companies; Frank “Hurry Up Crow; and the 21,000 workers—over 100 of whom will wind up dead—who defied the odds and pushed engineering to new heights to “make the desert bloom.” ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com https://www.htdspodcast.com/ and go deep into episode bibliographies https://www.htdspodcast.com/bibliography and book recommendations https://www.htdspodcast.com/book-recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community https://www.facebook.com/groups/257926761619618/ get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette https://www.htdspodcast.com/newsletters-1 come see a live show https://www.htdspodcast.com/tour get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium https://htds.supercast.com/ member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part ofAudacy media network. https://www.audacy.com/ Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? ContactAudacyinc.com https://audacyinc.com/contact

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Greg Jackson?

  History that doesn't suck is supported by Indeed. I'm not afraid to say this. As HTDS has grown, the business requires skills I know I don't naturally possess. If I need to hire, I think this is a job for sponsored jobs. When you sponsor your job on Indeed, you'll find the candidates with the skills you're looking for. Indeed is genuinely all you need to find quality talent. Instead of putting a post out there and praying the right people see it, Indeed sponsored jobs proactively connects you with candidates who match your precise criteria, whether that's location, software experience, or industry experience. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 0:45Greg Jackson?

  And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  There's one thing that will forever change the way you sleep, and it's the softest 100% organic cotton sheets from Bowlin Branch. You'll fall asleep faster, wrapped in the most luxurious comfort. You'll never sleep hot again with sheets that feel breathable to sleep in. You'll experience the purest softness on night one and feel your sheets get even softer with every wash. Discover the difference with 15% off your first set of sheets at bowlinbranch.com with code ODYSKY. Exclusions apply. See site for details.

• 1:37Speaker 02

  Are you looking for a football podcast that doesn't put you to sleep with a fog of analytics or insult your fandom with phony hot takes? I'm Dan Hanzus.

• 1:44Speaker 03

  And I'm Mark Sessler.

• 1:45Speaker 02

  And we're the hosts of Heed the Call, the NFL podcast you've been waiting for.

• 1:48Speaker 03

  Heed the Call covers the entire NFL, not just the same five or six teams you're sick of, delivering news, weekly power rankings, plus previews and recaps of every matchup.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  Yes, we cover your team and we do it with a touch of mirth. Because football is fun, why shouldn't your football podcast be the same?

• 2:03Speaker 03

  Follow and listen to Heed the Call NFL Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

• 2:17Greg Jackson?

  It's about 3:30 in the blistering hot afternoon, Friday, August 7, 1931. We're with well over 100 construction workers, all crammed on several barges transporting us along a short stretch of the Colorado River, about 25 miles distant from the sleepy town of Las Vegas. More specifically, we're at a point where this river straddling the Nevada-Arizona state line flows through the Black Canyon. Named for the dark hue of its towering, shadowed, volcanic, retchie-based walls, the Black Canyon is so hardened, it's like Mother Nature's concrete. That makes it the perfect site to make the daring attempt to build a gigantic dam, the

• 2:58Greg Jackson?

  tallest ever conceived by man at this point, capable of transforming the American Southwest's arid, multi-state desert into an irrigated and electrified land that can sustain life on a large scale, a land that could feed and support millions. And all these men on these barges with us, they're the ones doing the backbreaking work to make that a reality. At this point, that means blasting away rock and tunneling to temporarily divert the Colorado River. These men are about to start the swing shift doing just that. Finally, we've arrived. The barges stop at the water's edge. Wave after wave of construction workers disembark. But as they walk toward the blast site, they see a notice posted.

• 3:42Greg Jackson?

  They begin reading and... Wait, what? It says there's a reduction in pay? That's right. Their employer, a consortium of construction firms known as Six Companies, is cutting pay for several positions. Hardest hit are the muckers, that is, the men who clear out debris after a blast, and the nippers, who move heavy supplies and fill drilled-out holes with explosives. Both groups are going from $5 a day down to $4, a 20% hit. Already burning in the well over 100-degree heat, the sweat-covered men now burn with anger. They live in poorly-ventilated bunk houses, get ripped off by the company on their lunches,

• 4:25Greg Jackson?

  have such paltry access to drinking water that some have died from heat stroke. And now, Six Companies wants to use new machinery as an excuse to cut pay?

• 4:35Greg Jackson?

  At this same moment, the dirt-and-sweat-covered day crew is coming out of the tunnels. Apprised of the situation, they're just as angry. Seeing their moment, two "wobbly's," that is, workers belonging to the far-left industrial workers of the world, aka the IWW, call on their fellow workers to strike. Hundreds from both shifts answer in a chorus of agreement. That same night, 600 workers gather in the nearby Boulder City camp. They vote to strike and elect a committee to write up their demands. They want better pay, cool drinking water, an eight-hour workday inclusive of travel time, adherence to Arizona's and Nevada's mining laws, no more gouging them on lunches,

• 5:19Greg Jackson?

  and no punishment for the strikers. In short, it's not a radical wish list, and the workers carefully disavow anything having to do with the IWW. The following morning, the committee meets with the boss, Six Company Superintendent Frank Crowe. A gangly, six-foot man who religiously protects his balding head from the harsh southwest sun with a Stetson hat, Frank listens, as he always does. He's known for being tough but fair. But his response the next day only shows the tough side. Frank shuts down all work, fires all 1,400 employees, and orders them to leave the project reservation. The next few days are tense.

• 6:02Greg Jackson?

  Frank describes the strike as a wobbly, leathery affair, and disavows the complaints to the press, which readily gobbles up his words. This includes his claim of zero work accidents for the month of July, a claim that is technically true, but discounts Six Company's indirect role in deaths ranging from heat stroke to an untreated case of appendicitis. Troops at Fort Douglas in Utah are put on alert. The strike committee telegraphs Labor Secretary William Doak, seeking protection. Meanwhile, almost the whole laid-off workforce, 1,200 workers, take their checks and comply with Frank's demand, fleeing to Las Vegas. On Monday, Six Companies sends sought-off shotgun-wielding men with trucks to round up the 200 remaining strikers.

• 6:47Greg Jackson?

  But this at-gunpoint forced eviction is just barely stopped by a US deputy marshal. Phew. These holdouts are relieved and gain a bit of hope as Las Vegas-based wobblies come visit and show support. But if the strikers think the deputy is assigned to Uncle Sam ascending the cavalry, they'll soon be disappointed.

• 7:10Greg Jackson?

  It's now 8 a.m. on a cloudy and damp Tuesday morning, August 11th. The remaining strikers watch as dark sedans, two trucks, and a bus roll into their camp.

• 7:23Greg Jackson?

  A thin-lipped, bespectacled man emerges from one of the sedans. It's Walker Young, the top-ranked government officer here. He's accompanied by Assistant U.S. Attorney General George Montrose and several U.S. Marshals. He steps onto a bench so he can see the gathered mass of strikers. Walker thanks them for their thus far orderly strike, but explains that now, all save those in the hospital, have to leave the reservation. A voice rings out from the crowd. And if they refuse to move, the government will use force, will it? Walker answers. We ask you to go, and we depend upon you to go. There's been no question of force. But if we don't go, you'll make us.

• 8:07Greg Jackson?

  Yes. If you should refuse to go, we'll make you. Another angry voice hollers. Have you got a warrant to put us out? The bespectacled Reclamation Bureau engineer pauses, who then nods toward one of the marshals and replies, "Mr. Fulmer is taking care of that end of it."

• 8:28Greg Jackson?

  The meeting pauses, all watching shock as large boulders, loosened by the day's rare rain, crash down a hillside and into the Colorado River.

• 8:38Greg Jackson?

  Angry speeches follow, but the strike's committee leader, Red Williams, soon cuts it off. He says that they will leave, proving that this strike is about their rights as Americans, not violence.

• 8:52Greg Jackson?

  With heavy hearts and sympathy, the marshal and government officials load the men up and drive them down the Boulder Highway. They get off a few miles down the road and set up another camp in the rain, intent to continue their fight. But the strike won't last much longer. Who can really say no to work in the midst of the Great Depression? In another two days, work will recommence on the dam, with wages at the lower rates, as posted on the notice back on August 7.

• 9:36Greg Jackson?

  Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

• 9:57Greg Jackson?

  While Frank Crow successfully kept wages down, the workers didn't lose in every sense. Six companies promises never to cut wages again, and it doesn't. Other improvements include more water coolers and electric lighting in the camps, as well as a push to get workers and their families in proper housing within newly established Boulder City that fall. The only real loser is the IWW, or the Wobblies. Instigating players but not leaders, they nonetheless take blame for the strike and its failure to raise wages, largely discrediting the leftist union. But moving beyond the winners and losers, most important to our narrative today is how this strike highlights the dangers and scope of the project that is today's tale: the Boulder

• 10:41Greg Jackson?

  Dam Project, later known as the Hoover Dam. Regardless of its name, and we'll use both as it changes in the story's timeline, the dam at the Black Canyon is a magnificent marvel of engineering and daring. One whose story dates back to the 19th century, when Oliver Wozenkrafft first deliriously dreamed of taming the Great Colorado River. We'll start there, and then see how a canal in Southern California's new Imperial Valley leads to a far grander version of not just a canal, but a dam. The tallest dam ever conceived to this point in history. A dam that can reclaim, that is, make usable for agriculture or settlement, the American Southwest's vast desert lands.

• 11:25Greg Jackson?

  And from politicking to surveying, from excavating to tunneling, to men dangling from ropes hundreds of feet in the air and falling hundreds of feet to their deaths. We'll bear witness as 21,000 workers, both before and during the Great Depression, make this immense multi-state reclamation of land a reality by constructing the Boulder/Hover Dam. So, ready to brave the desert heat and dare to tame one of the wildest rivers on the planet with a dam wall, a dam power plant, dam intake towers, and still other incredible features? Good. Then let's start this dam story, to be clear, this story about a dam, by heading back to the 19th century. Rewind.

• 12:08Greg Jackson?

  The Colorado River is a lifeline through the dry, arid southwestern United States. Starting in the Rocky Mountains, it flows southwest to where it has long slashed into the earth to form the Grand Canyon, then zigzags west toward but not quite to Las Vegas, after which it heads south to the Gulf of California, just below the US-Mexico border. In doing so, the Colorado covers more than 1,400 miles. For countless centuries, its waters have been central to the livelihood of Native Americans. By the 16th century, early Spanish explorers knew it and drank from it. And now, in the 19th century, it also sustains American settlers and US citizens.

• 12:53Greg Jackson?

  The Colorado River is a wild and powerful aquatic artery, defiantly carving its way through America's harsh, hot desert. But one man seems to think it can be controlled.

• 13:07Greg Jackson?

  It's an unspecified and scorching day in May 1849. We're in the Colorado desert, along the pre-Gadsden Purchase US-Mexico border, not far from the scant settlement of Yuma, what will later be known as Arizona. And Oliver Wozencraft is riding a mule across the baking sand. Why? Because this thickly-haired and bearded, mid-30s physician has heard the sirens' call of the California Gold Rush. It's a treacherous journey, foolish even. Locals warned him against attempting the four-day desert crossing at this blistering time of year. Now, selfishly, they hoped he'd stay and serve as the town's doctor, but that doesn't mean they're wrong. Still, Oliver won't listen.

• 13:52Greg Jackson?

  He didn't leave his family and medical practice in New Orleans to play it safe. That said, Oliver is now companionless. Sometime after the second person passed out, the rest of his group turned back, leaving the ever-determined doctor to continue his literal ride-or-die journey alone. But as the doctor should know, determination can't offset physical limitations. Hardly past a dry river channel of the Colorado River that only fills amid flooding, Oliver collapses. He's severely dehydrated, delirious. But in this state, the all-but-dead heat-stroke victim has a revelation. As Oliver describes it, "I felt no distress whatever.

• 14:35Greg Jackson?

  I was perspiring freely and was as limber and helpless as a wet rag. It was an exhilarating experience. It was then and there that I first conceived the idea of the reclamation of the desert." It's a beautiful sight, and nearly Oliver's last. But just in the nick of time, his companions return. Knowing he won't survive, they came back with a full water bag. They set him on a mule and bring him back to town.

• 15:08Greg Jackson?

  Undoubtedly romanticized in Oliver Wozencraft's recounting, this mirage that the gold-seeking doctor saw on the brink of death nonetheless sticks with him, and his push to harness the Colorado River and thereby reclaim the desert through irrigation gains traction. Seven years later, in 1856, US government geologist William P. Blake notes in his report to Congress on a potential transcontinental railroad that, quote, "The Colorado River is like the Nile. If a supply of water could be obtained for irrigation, it is probable that the greater part of the desert could be made to yield crops of almost any kind. By deepening the channel of the new river, a constant supply could be furnished to the

• 15:51Greg Jackson?

  interior portions of the desert." Close quote. With this ringing endorsement, Oliver, who's now in the California State Legislature, gets support from his state-level colleagues, but not the civil war-torn Congress. A bill that would make his dream come true dies in Washington DC in 1862. Oliver tries again in 1887, but this bill dies too, as does the now 73-year-old broken-hearted doctor a few months later. But just because Oliver Wozencraft is dead, doesn't mean the dream of a tamed Colorado River is. In 1882, a Michigan-born bespectacled civil engineer named Charles Robinson Rockwood

• 16:34Greg Jackson?

  answers the call of a big-time land promoter and heads to Yuma in what is now the Arizona Territory. Charles realizes that his initial plan isn't feasible, but he notices exactly what Oliver did. A canal would allow the dry land to be irrigated and reclaimed. This would bring thousands of farmers rushing to claim land along the canal route. In short, there's a fortune to be made here. Like Oliver's attempts, Charles fails initially. But after ditching his partner, who proves to be a con man, and persevering through the challenges of the panic of 1893, as well as the Spanish-American War, Charles finds

• 17:13Greg Jackson?

  a new partner in 1900: Southern California's deep-pocketed and irrigation pro, George Chaffee. Together, their California Development Company, or the CDC, undertakes this canal, and it works. On May 14, 1901, the CDC's canal opens, carrying the Colorado's waters across 60 miles of both American and Mexican turf to transform a portion of the Colorado desert's desolate lands into a Garden of Eden. The Imperial Press writes, "Water is king. Here is its kingdom." Meanwhile, settlers flock to the area to farm, just as Charles predicted. The newly lush desert is now dubbed the Imperial Valley.

• 17:58Greg Jackson?

  But alas, after three years of fairly consistent weather, the Colorado demonstrates its true force in 1904 by carrying enough sand, dirt, and clay, or silt, as it's called, to make the famously misbehaving Mississippi, or even the Nile, look tame. Silt chokes the CDC's life-giving canal. Worse, the flooding Colorado shifts course, making a waterfall near the Imperial Valley's Salt and Sea. With this shift, the Colorado threatens to carve out a mile-deep and several-mile-long canyon in Arizona and California while flooding out Yuma. Crops are dying as Charles Rockwood frantically tries to save his precious canal. This is when Theodore Roosevelt steps in.

• 18:41Greg Jackson?

  The nature and landscape preserving president, whose signature brought the Interior Department's new reclamation service to life just a couple of years ago, aggressively suggests to the Southern Pacific Railroad's CEO, E. H. Harriman, that his company should save the day. Responding to the presidential pressure to deliver, the Southern Pacific calls the timber and rock needed to divert the Colorado River back to its original path. By February of 1907, TR's plan has succeeded. Southwest's mighty river is back to its normal flow, while the Imperial Valley's undaunted farmers hold their dangerous but fertile ground.

• 19:18Greg Jackson?

  Over the next decade, the CDC's replacement, the Imperial Irrigation District, lobbies Congress to build a canal solely on American soil to ensure total control. But the Director of the Reclamation Service, Arthur Powell Davis, has a far grander idea. Not only this canal, but a dam. One that can control flooding, store water, and generate power for far more than just the Imperial Valley. Done right, this could radically change the Southwest. With Congress's blessing, the Reclamation Service launches a three-year investigation along the Nevada-Arizona border to find the right spot for such a dam. And what exactly are they looking for?

• 20:01Greg Jackson?

  As historian Joseph Stevens puts it, "There are three key considerations." Quote, "The geological and topographical nature of the site, the water and silt's storage capacity of the reservoir that would be created, and the location of the site in relation to a railhead that could serve as a base for the construction activities and in relation to markets for the hydroelectric power." Close quote. In 1921, one of the Reclamation Service's most capable engineers, a Mr. Walker Young -- yes, the very same whom we met in this episode's opening -- heads out with a team of 58 men to assess two canyons: Boulder Canyon and, just a bit farther downstream, Black Canyon.

• 20:46Greg Jackson?

  The surveyors work between 2:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. They do so to enjoy the cooler average summer temperature of 107 degrees. In the shade at least, the temperature directly under the sun reaches 128 degrees. The team soon determines that the Black Canyon's topography is more suitable for a dam. The canyon's volcanic breccia base is ideal, and its fault lines, which show zero evidence of recent movement, will require minimal attention. One spot in particular where the canyon walls are between 290 and 370 feet apart before slowly widening as it goes up is perfect. As Walker Young puts it, "The Lord left the dam site there. It was only up to man to discover it and use it."

• 21:29Greg Jackson?

  The following year, 1922, as Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, or the great engineer, as the famous former mining engineer is also known, helps the seven western states that rely on the Colorado River compromise on a system for divvying up water shares. The Reclamation Service publishes its findings. This is the Fall Davis Report. It recommends constructing a dam “at or near Boulder Canyon.” Yes, you heard that right. Even though Walker Young and others prefer Black Canyon, did not entirely up-to-date report, called for Boulder Canyon. As such, when California Senator Hiram Johnson and its 11th District Congressman from Imperial

• 22:14Greg Jackson?

  Valley, Phil Swing, proposed legislation for it in 1923, they call it the Boulder Canyon Project Act, even though the better and selected site will be in Black Canyon. And that’s how the Black Canyon’s dam became Boulder Dam. After much pushback from wealthy landowners, who worried that the proposed project will damage their agricultural pursuits, and eastern legislators, who don’t want to give westerners that much federal funding, the Swing-Johnson Bill finally reaches the Senate floor in February 1927. In late May of 1928, the fourth iteration of the Swing-Johnson Bill passes in the House. Arizona filibusters, to no one’s surprise, and blocks the Senate until December 14th.

• 22:59Greg Jackson?

  But a week later, President Silent Cal Coolidge signs the bill “for the purpose of controlling the floods, improving navigation, and regulating the flow of the Colorado.” Yeah, this is happening. While all of this is going on in Congress, Chief Engineer Raymond Walter and Chief Design Engineer Jack Savage at the Bureau of Reclamation, as the Reclamation Service is now known, are working to find the best dam design for the Black Canyon. Of their 32 ideas, an arched gravity dam is the winner. This means that the massive dam wall will curve upstream, thereby pressing the flowing

• 23:41Greg Jackson?

  waters force against the canyon walls, and in the process, make the canyon itself the abutments of the dam. Think of it this way: if the dam were books on a shelf, the canyon walls are now bookends. It’s genius. Ultimately, this curving concrete monolith will be 727 feet in height, as tall as a 60-story skyscraper. At the top, its curved crest will be 1,282 feet long and 45 feet thick, wide enough for a Nevada-Arizona connecting highway. And the dam wall will get thicker as it goes down, reaching a thickness of 660 feet at the bedrock.

• 24:22Greg Jackson?

  The base of the dam will be between the transverse fault lines on the canyon floor. All of this will bear the compressive stress of up to 40 tons per square foot. And we'll get to other details, including other features, like the towers, tunnels, spillways, and power plant, in a bit. But suffice it to say for now that this proposal is a modern wonder of the world, a true feat of genius in engineering and architecture, just waiting to happen. But as we learned in episode 170, the stock market crashes in 1929. Nonetheless, former Commerce Secretary turned US President Herbert Hoover pushes ahead with construction.

• 25:02Greg Jackson?

  One year later, on September 17, 1930, Nevada Governor Fred Balzer and Interior Secretary Ray Wilbur stand before a crowd of spectators at Boulder Junction, or Bracken, just south of Las Vegas, where they ceremoniously lay the first ties in rails to connect the as-of-yet-not-so-sinful city of 5,000 souls and Black Canyon. Standing in the 103-degree heat, sweating buckets in his three-piece suit, Secretary Wilbur drives a spike of Nevada silver into the railway. Afterward, he looks at the spectators and photographers and declares, "I have the honor to name this greatest project of all time, the Hoover Dam."

• 25:49Greg Jackson?

  What? This is the first time the public has ever heard Hoover, not Boulder Dam. And while the president is yet to fall to his future level of disfavor, who names a project after a current seated president, much less before the project has actually been built? Well, over the course of this project, both the name derived from the wrong canyon and the one honoring the soon-to-be one-term president will bounce back and forth. But be it Boulder Dam or Hoover Dam, its name is a question for another day. Right now, the more pressing issue is this: Can Great Depression-hit Uncle Sam find a company capable of building this colossus in the American Southwest's desert? And at the right price point,

• 26:34Greg Jackson?

  let the bidding begin.

• 26:40Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is sponsored by Cash App. Benjamin Franklin usually gets credit for the expression, "A penny saved is a penny earned." What he actually wrote in Poor Richard's Almanac was clunkier. "A penny saved is two pence clear." Either way, the lesson holds up. Getting a teenager to believe it? That's its own historical campaign. My wife and I have been using Cash App to teach our teenagers how to manage money through the Cash App card for teens aged 13 to 17. It gives them real financial independence while we manage their activity directly from our own account. Every transaction triggers a real-time notification for you to see, empowering your teen to practice independence while giving you peace of mind by keeping track of their spending.

• 27:23Greg Jackson?

  It's never too early for your kids to start saving. Small steps today can build strong habits tomorrow. A Benjamin saved is, after all, 100 bucks. That's a lesson my teenagers understand. Right now, new Cash App customers can earn $10 if they use FAMILY10 in their profile at signup and send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Download Cash App today and open a managed account for your teen.

• 27:51Speaker 04

  Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and the Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa USA, Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton Prepaid Card, Sutton Debit Flex Card, and Bancorp Debit Flex Card. Savings provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures.

• 28:16Speaker 05

  Greetings from Breeze Airways, your hometown carrier for non-stop flights from Richmond to Sarasota, Bradenton, and more. Your getaway to Florida's west coast is closer than you think. Breeze makes it easy to snag a getaway with non-stop flights, flexible change policies, and a seriously nice onboard experience. Enjoy premium seating with Breeze Ascent, plus high-speed Wi-Fi and tasty snacks. Book today at flybreeze.com. Breeze Airways. Seriously nice. In partnership with Visit Sarasota.

• 28:46Speaker 06

  Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability, and it starts with a great deal on an off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra. Two of Toyota's longest-lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. Built on a reputation for quality and reliability, Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota. Let's go places.

• 29:27Greg Jackson?

  On March 4, 1931, Chief Engineer Raymond Walter is at the Denver office of the Bureau of Reclamation, tearing open envelopes containing bids. Only five entities in the nation even dared to try. The first two lack the required $2 million bond, and one bid is at $200 million. Ray and his fellow engineers burst into laughter at that figure. And yes, engineers can laugh. The third bid is 53.9 million. Still too high. The fourth is 58.6 million. Ridiculous. Finally, Ray opens the fifth, submitted by a conglomerate called Six Companies.

• 30:08Greg Jackson?

  It's at 48,890,955 dollars. What? That's only 24 grand over the Bureau's own estimates. We have our winner. Historian Michael Hiltzik characterizes Six Companies as a "unwieldy contracting consortium." It's made up of, you guessed it, six firms. San Francisco's WA Bechtel and Oakland's Henry J. Kaiser hold a joint 30%. The Utah Construction Company out of Ogden has 20%. McDonald & Con Company out of Los Angeles is also at 20%. Pacific Bridge Company out of Portland, Oregon makes up 10% and Morrison & Knudsen

• 30:53Greg Jackson?

  Company out of Boise, Idaho is the last 10%. Officially, the consortium is created because it's the only way to finance the bond. Unofficially, though, to quote Hiltzik again, "Six Companies was a corporate device designed to put Frank Crowe to work." Francis, or rather Frank Crowe, whom we also met in this episode's opening, is Six Companies' Superintendent of Construction. Gangly, long-limbed, blue-eyed, balding, and Canadian-born, Frank has worked on six dams previously. He's an energetic, hands-on, in-the-trenches leader, but painfully demanding. Yet, for all his experience and skill, this project will be unlike any other, even for

• 31:37Greg Jackson?

  Frank. The deal is signed on March 11th. Even with the lowest bid, this nearly $49 million deal is the federal government's largest single-construction contract ever. Interior Secretary Ray Wilber remarks that, "It is a satisfaction to see this great contract get underway. The Colorado River, instead of being a menace, will now be a great benefit." Six Companies Vice President Will Wattis concurs, to quote him, "Now, this dam is just a dam, but it's a damn-big dam." Very true. A damn-big dam it will be. The contract consists of five key features. Those are: One, river diversion.

• 32:22Greg Jackson?

  This will require four tunnels through the Black Canyon's walls. Each tunnel will be fifty-six feet in diameter, lined with concrete, and approximately four thousand feet long. These tunnels will carry the mighty Colorado's waters, leaving the segment of the canyon where the dam will be built, empty. Additionally, temporary coffer dams, that is, enclosing walls across the canyon floor, will ensure the work site remains dry as the foundation is laid for the dam wall and power plant. Two, that concrete arch-gravity dam I described earlier. Again, the wall will be seven-hundred-twenty-seven feet in height, while the arch will be one-thousand-one-hundred-eighty feet long. The radius of curvature will be five-hundred feet.

• 33:06Greg Jackson?

  Once it's in place, the river will form a lake, known initially as Boulder Dam Lake, but later renamed as Lake Mead in honor of the Bureau of Reclamation's Commissioner, Elwood Mead. Three, two spillways. Like the overflow hole on your bathtub, they're a precaution against an overflowing Colorado spilling over the dam wall. But they'll be a tad bigger than your tub's overflow. Each of the two spillways, one on either side of the dam, will be fifty feet in diameter and six-hundred feet deep. Connected to two of the former diversion tunnels, each will be able to handle two-hundred-thousand cubic feet per second of water. These two spillways combined could swallow the entire flow of Niagara Falls twice over.

• 33:51Greg Jackson?

  Four, the outlet works. This is how the controlled water will reach the other side of the dam and continue downstream. There will be four, three-hundred-ninety-five-foot-tall intake towers, two on each side of the dam. The Colorado rivers, or "Lake Mead's" waters, will enter them, then flow down massive tunnels and pin-stocks to reach the other side of the dam wall. The water will either exit through the power plant's giant hydroelectricity-producing turbines, or, if in excess, through needle-valve outlets protected by stony gates. Altogether, this means the river's flow can both produce electricity and be controlled, much as you control the flow of water coming out of your faucet.

• 34:34Greg Jackson?

  Five, the U-shaped power plant. It'll be made of concrete and structural steel, and located at the bottom of the dam wall on the downstream side, obviously, where its turbines will welcome that flowing, regulated, electricity-producing water back into the Colorado River. I know. A huge undertaking. And yet, six companies has to hustle. They have a 2,565-day deadline, effectively seven years, to complete the project. They have internal deadlines, too. Heavily fined if missed. It's a dynamic that will lead to Frank Crow's new nickname: Hurry Up Crow, and incentivize speed over safety.

• 35:17Greg Jackson?

  Let's keep that dangerous dynamic in mind. Speaking of speed, the Hoover administration wants the work starting ASAP. Amid the Great Depression, they see this as fast employment. A good thought, but that pushes the Boulder Canyon project to begin six months early and without proper infrastructure, like transportation or living facilities. That's a problem. As Frank arrives in Las Vegas, Nevada, the base of operations before proper quarters can be built, closer to the Black Canyon, he finds thousands of men inquiring in person and via the post about work. Given the lack of accommodations, a shanty town, a Hooverville of sorts, emerges on the outskirts of Vegas.

• 36:01Greg Jackson?

  The most famous of these is called Rag Town. Journalists are appalled by the contrast between what they thought the dam site would look like and reality. Frank has his hands full. He begins surveying the topography and shanty towns, knowing that he somehow has to figure out housing for his soon-to-be thousands of workers and their families, all while actually starting the dam. Sounds like Frank Hurry Up Crow has no time to waste. In April 1931, work on the project and the seven-year clock both officially begin. On the housing side, Frank has a new town called Boulder City under construction. It's only eight miles away from the worksite, far closer than 25-mile-distant Las Vegas.

• 36:44Greg Jackson?

  But that will take a while, and with Ragtown's population of 1,400, he also has six companies' river camp getting slapped together. Its initial bunkhouses will accommodate 480 men. Meanwhile, the men are excavating, preparing the way for roads and railroads alike. As they do, the blast of dynamite rings from the canyon at all hours. But just as we learned while constructing the Transcontinental Railroad in Episodes 83 through 85, dynamite is a dangerous business.

• 37:18Greg Jackson?

  It's late in the afternoon, May 8, 1931. Workmen are laying track for a construction railroad halfway up a black canyon cliff. As usual, the team prepares then sets off 30 blasts of dynamite.

• 37:33Greg Jackson?

  And as expected, the blast sends loose boulders, sand, and other bits of earth careening down the cliff. Unfortunately, another crew working at the cliff's bottom didn't hear the blast signal. Watching this in real time, John Page notes that they had given "no warning and no chance to get cover."

• 37:54Greg Jackson?

  P.L. Lesey doesn't even have time to look up as the boulders keep crashing down, sending him flying 50 feet. Herman Schmitz suffers a fractured skull and all but loses one ear. With no first aid or medical tent, the injured men are rushed to the Las Vegas Hospital in a flat, tired ambulance. Miraculously, both survive. But this is only one of many accidents, and death is not far. Ten days later, a rockfall crushes Andrew Lane and Harry Lane to death. When finally recovered, their bodies are barely recognizable.

• 38:33Greg Jackson?

  As the searing month of May gives way to blazing hot June, the second big stage of construction begins. Excavating those four river-diverting tunnels that will temporarily reroute the Colorado River through the Black Canyon's walls for the next several years. Again, each will measure fifty-six feet in diameter and four thousand feet in length. They'll also be lined with three-foot-thick concrete, and this will allow the workers to build the curving dam's foundation on the empty canyon's bedrock. This enormous task must be completed by October 1st, 1933, or Six Company starts paying a three-thousand-dollar-per-day fine. Yikes. Hence, Frank Hurry-Up Crow continuing to push the men. Of course, we know from the opening of this episode

• 39:18Greg Jackson?

  that a week is soon lost to a strike. But even so, the pace is nothing short of extraordinary. Reclamation Commissioner Elwood Need is impressed as he reports that: "Those western dirt-moving fools are building highways, starting tunnels, and laying railroads all at once, but without any mix-ups." By early 1932, all four tunnels are in progress. Twelve-hundred to fifteen-hundred men are involved in tunneling at any given time. And yet, the work remains risky.

• 39:53Greg Jackson?

  It's an unspecified day, late 1931 or early 1932, and a tunnel crew is starting its shift in the Black Canyon's walls. The men walk through puddles of water alongside jagged edges of earth under the bluish-white glow of flickering electric lights. Breathing in, they smell truck exhaust mixed with recently exploded dynamite. Reaching the end of their tunnel, they're met with a rig illuminated by fifteen-hundred-watt bulbs and overwhelming noise. The tunnel vibrates as men use ten-to-twelve-foot drill steel to slowly chip away at the andesite breccia, that is, the type of igneous rock in the area. Unable to hear a word down here, miners signal to nearby nippers

• 40:37Greg Jackson?

  to replace dulling drill steel on their massive drilling machines, called jumbos. The nippers move fast. Everyone is in constant competition to finish their task first. Finally, the drilling pauses as dynamite cartridges are loaded and tamped down with powder sticks. This is done under floodlights, not the jumbo's lights. The reason for that is to ensure the electrically ignited primers do not go off prematurely. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope the electricians are doing their jobs correctly. One error here and the whole crew is dead. It's a little terrifying. One anonymous miner notes. "I've been a miner all my life and I've never seen conditions so bad."

• 41:20Greg Jackson?

  Everyone vacates the tunnel. The ground reverberates as the dynamite explodes. Safety miners, often veterans, stream into the smoky, dusty tunnel to inspect the blast site. They give the all-clear, and with that, tractors and electric shovels move in to remove the loose dirt. Phew, everything is gone according to plan. Workers breathe a sigh of relief. And then, they get started on the four-and-a-half-hour process of drilling, blasting, and mucking all over again. Between high-voltage electric lines near water, dynamite, cavins, and carbon monoxide

• 42:02Greg Jackson?

  poisoning, it's fair to say that both accidents and deaths are not a question of if, but when, and the state of Nevada is aware and concerned. State Mine Inspector A.J. Stinson orders six companies to stop using gas-based trucks in the tunnels on November 7, 1931. Six companies respond by suing A.J. Over the next year, six companies' lawyers and the U.S. Attorney's Office argue that Nevada doesn't have jurisdiction. Ultimately, a panel of federal judges sides with six companies as the work continues at its fast first and safety second pace. But as that court case rages, January 1932 proves a peak month for tunneling.

• 42:43Greg Jackson?

  With their ranks swelling, six companies seize 16,000 cubic yards of rock taken away per day, and on January 26, a record 256 linear feet is cleared in 24 hours. To put that in contrast, the Central Pacific sledgehammer-swinging tunnelers who tore through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the name of the Transcontinental Railroad back in episode 85 initially averaged 10 inches per day. Yeah, tunneling technology has improved remarkably since 1865.

• 43:14Greg Jackson?

  The following month, February 1832, flash floods slowed the work considerably. One of the tunnellers, named Neil Holmes, will later recall that, "There was so much mud, you'd wander in there and it would be three and four feet deep in the bottom of them tunnels, so that you couldn't pump that much out. So they had to get all the sand and muck and rock in there to absorb that, and then haul it out with shovels." Nonetheless, the tunneling continues. But it's not just tunneling. Other things are happening with the dam project in 1932. Railroads linking the concrete plant to the dam site are finished.

• 43:56Greg Jackson?

  Boulder City is just that, a real city with homes, shops, schools, libraries, fraternal organizations, and churches. Specifically, there are Episcopal, Latter-day Saint, aka Mormon, and Catholic congregations. And of course, thousands of residents. Yes, things are looking up for the Boulder Canyon Project's now over 3,000 workers. But nothing out here in the desert is quite as up as the gravity-defying high scalers.

• 44:29Greg Jackson?

  It's an unspecified day, likely in 1932, and the high scalers, as they're known, are dangling on ropes off the edge of the massive cavern walls that will become the Hoover Dam. Generally Native Americans, circus performers, or others used to heights or otherwise possessing nerves of steel, they're clearing debris from the canyon walls while hanging hundreds of feet in the air. In doing so, they're removing rocks that could otherwise fall and kill a man when work begins on the canyon floor. These loose rocks also have to go to make sure the dam wall seals properly. But you know, I can't explain their work better than high scaler Joe Kine can. I'll just let him tell you.

• 45:09Greg Jackson?

  We tied our rope to a steel in the ground at the top of the canyon wall. We tied our safety belts and our bosun chair on that. We had inch ropes. We had good ropes. They didn't break. That was never any worry. And then, as they got frayed and unraveled out, they dropped them down on the ground and burned them. We had an extra rope to tie the jackhammer on, and we tied our steel on too. We dropped ourselves over. Then, we slid down to where we wanted to work. Whether it was close or way down. We could move back and forth pretty good with our ropes. Then, if you had to go up a little bit, you put a twist around your foot with the rope and slid up.

• 45:53Greg Jackson?

  We could sneak up pretty slow with that, but we very seldom had to go up. We used to climb out before the cableways were put up. Once the cableways got up, they'd go back and forth, and they could pick us up and move up and down in all ways. Then we had a big cable ladder too that we could go out on. We didn't have expert powdermen. We'd done the whole business ourselves. Drilled, loaded the holes and shot, and barred down. Whatever was loose, we'd stick a bar behind it and pry it off and let it drop down. The engineers would mark it how far back we wanted to go.

• 46:33Greg Jackson?

  Joe loves this job. It pays $5.60 per day, and he feels it's one of the safest on the site. Nonetheless, it is in fact quite dangerous. Back in September 1931, poor Jack Salty Russell fell 400 feet to his death, leaving his remains smeared across the Black Canyon's Arizona wall. Such are the risks as the high scalers ultimately remove almost 1 million cubic yards of rock. But whether a mucker, a nipper, a miner, or a high scaler, or something else, 1932 brings another issue to these workmen: the presidential election. Now, as we know from episode 173, Herbert Hoover's reelection looks grim. That concerns six companies' leaders.

• 47:18Greg Jackson?

  The Hoover administration has been good to them. Bert went to bat this year when Congress wanted to slash their funds from 10 million to 6 million. Democratic challenger Franklin Delano Roosevelt doesn't look like an upgrade. So, the Big Six push a company-sponsored campaign in Boulder City to reelect the current namesake of their project. Now, neither Six Companies nor Uncle Sam want to concede on any jurisdiction claims over the Boulder Canyon Project's Federal Reserve to the state of Nevada, and they fear that allowing the state to handle elections will do that, thereby opening the door to crackdowns on safety regulations. But, from a PR standpoint, they have to let the workers vote.

• 47:58Greg Jackson?

  So, Clark County, Nevada, gets to open a voting office in Boulder City, and despite Six Companies' clear political support of Bert Hoover, 78% of Boulder City residents vote for FDR. Following his crushing defeat, Bert visits the dam on November 12, 1932. The great engineer, his wife Lou, Interior Secretary Ray Wilbur, and other big shots enjoy a two-and-a-half-hour tour led by none other than Frank Crow. Two days later, on November 14, the Colorado River is officially rerouted into the tunnels, and the first large phase of the Hoover Dam project is complete, nearly a year before its deadline.

• 48:39Greg Jackson?

  As water pours into tunnel number four, an anonymous worker shouts into the void, "She's taking it, boys, she's taking it!" And as she does, men and machines have already started to dredge the Black Canyon's floor. They're building the first of two massive earthen walls across the whole width of the canyon. This one upstream of the work site, which will make sure everything stays dry even if a spring or winter flood proves too much for the four river-diverting canyon-wall tunnels. That's right, they've started the first of the two temporary copper dams. A few months pass. By February 1933, the first Cofford Dam is built, the second Cofford Dam downstream is underway, and the high scalers have finished their work.

• 49:24Greg Jackson?

  That month is also when President-elect Franklin Roosevelt names his new Secretary of the Interior, the Chicago-born, reform-minded liberal Harold L. Ickes. Anxiously, six companies braces to see what Harold's leadership will mean for the Boulder Dam project.

• 49:45Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is sponsored by Square. In 1883, a small business owner in Dayton, Ohio, James Ritty patented the first mechanical cash register. As the legend goes, while traveling to Europe a few years earlier, he grew fascinated by a device measuring the propeller's revolutions onboard. Watching the mechanism in action, Ritty considered whether a similar device could record cash transactions. Logging every sale mechanically would allow both the owner and the patron to review and verify each transaction. Small businesses have come a long way since then, and in fact, History That Doesn't Suck uses Square at the merch table for our live shows.

• 50:24Greg Jackson?

  No clunky cash register, just a small, iconic Square Tap and Pay device and a smartphone. Square keeps innovating with new tools, so businesses spend less time managing the day-to-day and more time growing. Their AI turns your sales data into answers you can actually use: what's selling, where you might be losing time or money. If you're ready to sell smarter, run faster, and stress less, right now, you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at square.com/go/htds. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash H-T-D-S. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. HTDS is sponsored by BetterHelp.

• 51:09Greg Jackson?

  Thanksgiving looks different for everyone. For some, it's travel, turkey, family and football. For others, it's just another Thursday. Whatever your tradition or none at all, I think it's worth pausing to make a little room for gratitude in our busy lives. And maybe giving ourselves permission to rewrite a few of the holiday rules that may actually add to your stress. If the season's expectations and emotions are weighing on you, talking it through with a professional can help. BetterHelp therapists are licensed, experienced professionals with at least three years and 1,000 hours of hands-on experience. A short questionnaire helps BetterHelp match you with a therapist who fits your needs and preferences. And if you're not happy with your match, you can switch to a different therapist at any time.

• 51:54Greg Jackson?

  BetterHelp is now in-network with more than 125 health plans, with many copays as low as $15 for eligible members. And if you don't have eligible insurance or live outside the US, you can still get 10% off your first month. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com/htds. That's better H E L P dot com slash h t d s. History That Doesn't Suck is sponsored by Quince. Quince makes high-quality staples from premium materials. My wardrobe now has Quince linen shirts for summer, commuter pants for year-round comfort, and of course, my Mongolian cashmere shawl collar cardigan, which is perfect for crisp fall weather.

• 52:38Greg Jackson?

  And increasingly, Quince is taking over my wife's wardrobe. Just last night, she opened up her latest order and showed me a beautifully crafted sweater. She was thrilled to see it was every bit as professional and sharp as it looked online. More than that, it's durable, yet soft. She was thrilled. Everything is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands because Quince works directly with ethical factories to cut out the middlemen. And it's not just clothes. Fine jewelry, leather bags, hotel-quality bedding, chef-grade cookware, and five-star luggage. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too.

• 53:24Greg Jackson?

  And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was History That Doesn't Suck. It's the best way to support the show.

• 53:39Greg Jackson?

  In April 1933, inspectors proclaim both of the two massive, hundreds-of-wide-feet earthen-wall coffer dams: one upstream of the work site, the other downstream. Satisfactory. Come hell or high water, this area will remain bone-dry. Meanwhile, the workmen have been using dynamite, steel-jawed dragline buckets, and other tools of the trade excavating the V-shaped canyon. Ultimately, they remove more than 500,000 cubic yards of silt in preparation for the dams and the power plant's foundation. But as they remove silt and add filler, the new Interior Secretary of the Roosevelt Administration is ready to enter the scene.

• 54:21Greg Jackson?

  On May 8, 1933, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes makes his first move vis-à-vis the Hoover Dam. He renames it, or rather restores its old name: the Boulder Dam. According to Harold, "The name Boulder Dam is a fine, rugged, and individual name. The men who pioneered this project knew it by this name. These men, together with practically all who have any firsthand knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the building of this dam, want it called the Boulder Dam and have keenly resented the attempt to change its name." Honest Harold, as he comes to be known, argues that the Coolidge Administration, not the Hoover Administration, is responsible for much of the dam's progress.

• 55:04Greg Jackson?

  Hmm, sorry Honest Harold, but that's not true. Fact is, Harold simply wants Herbert Hoover's name off of this project that FDR is about to inherit. Ah, politics. Back in Washington, Harold is both mitigating worries over another teapot dome scandal (you want to revisit episode 155 if that doesn't ring a bell) and pestering six companies to begin paying their workers in dollars, not company script. Six companies' leaders aren't liking this new Interior Secretary, but in truth, Harold very much wants the Boulder Dam project to succeed. He's just not going to wink at seedy, sordid practices. That includes fighting six companies' proclivity for racial discrimination.

• 55:46Greg Jackson?

  The new Interior Secretary is none too pleased to find that Six Companies has historically avoided hiring black workers. The federal government's original contract with the Big Six stipulated that US citizens were to be given preference in hiring. Yet, this large group of citizens is largely left out, representing less than 1% of the total workforce. Six Companies president Warren Bechtel says he “never heard of any refusal to employ colored people.” That's interesting, though, considering that black organizations have been protesting the absence of black workers since day one. Harold can't do much on this point, due to the restrictive language of Six Companies' contract, but he attains a small if meaningful victory within this Jim Crow era.

• 56:30Greg Jackson?

  He convinces the Big Six to allow black workers to live in Boulder City. As Six Companies carries on under the bespectacled and scrupulous eyes of Harold Ickes, comes to a legal settlement with Nevada on taxes, and loses its president Warren Bechtel, who, while visiting a dam site in the USSR, suffers an unfortunate and early death, ultimately elevating his son Steve and consortium VP Will Wattis to fill his shoes. The excavating is finally completed. On June 6, 1933, a steel bucket filled with 16 tons of fresh concrete is lowered to the floor of the Black Canyon on Block J3.

• 57:07Greg Jackson?

  Finally, after two years of digging down, it's time to start building up. The site of concrete structures filling the depths of the canyon is nothing short of incredible. Author Joseph Stevens describes it as “some forbidding futuristic metropolis: the asymmetrical concrete columns of the dam reared up from the canyon bottom. They stabbed skyward, a phalanx of blank towers, modeled by dark water stains and black shadows, but otherwise featureless, inscrutable, and cruelly huge. Here and there, pipes, pieces of lumber, cables, and bristling clumps of structural

• 57:50Greg Jackson?

  steel protruded from the tops and sides of the long oblong blocks, but the overwhelming impression was one of barrenness, bulk, and brooding power.”

• 58:01Greg Jackson?

  This piecemeal approach to laying concrete isn't one of choice but necessity. If the dam were built in one continuous pour, the internal temperature would be so high that it would take 125 years to cool. Further, the concrete would likely crack, rendering the whole thing useless. So, five-foot-thick blocks are getting stacked on top of each other, among honeycomb-like pipes, to create the jigsaw-esque upward movement that Stevens described. In theory, these design notes are easy, but Frank Crowe has some serious managing to do on the ground. As he explains in an interview with Fortune Magazine, "We had 5,000 men in a 4,000-foot canyon.

• 58:42Greg Jackson?

  The problem, which was a problem of materials flow, was to set up the right sequence of jobs so the workers wouldn't kill each other off." Indeed, Frank's worst fear of workers getting "killed off" is realized all too often. Nonetheless, Frank Hurry-Up Crowe is holding his pace in 1934. On July 20th, he has his peak workforce with 5,251 men working in Boulder City and the Black Canyon. The dam has mostly taken form and is becoming a spectacle, drawing 266,436 tourists that year alone. And by December 4th, 1934, the date by which six companies is required to start pouring

• 59:23Greg Jackson?

  concrete, 92% of the intake-towered, tunnel-and-pipe-filled hydroelectric dam is already complete. The next day, December 5th, Frank and his army poured their 3-millionth yard of concrete. Sounds like this behemoth of a project is nearly in the bag, but that doesn't mean that things are any less dangerous or deadly on the worksite.

• 59:49Greg Jackson?

  It's the night of January 3rd, 1935. Some 700 feet up at the crest of the dam, on the Arizona side, in Form B-1, head-pipe-fitter, J.W. Happy Pitts and his signalmen, Ike Johnson, are installing cooling pipe. Happy is hunched over while Ike hollers upward, asking the cableway operator to send more concrete down. The bucket descends slowly, but as it's about to reach the crew, a hoist line noisily snaps. The container tips to its side and, swinging like a pendulum, slams into Happy and Ike. Happy goes flying into the air. His lifeless body flails downward and crashes into one of the crisscross catwalks 150 feet below the dam's crest.

• 1:00:34Greg Jackson?

  Meanwhile, the massive, wildly swinging, out-of-control concrete bucket slams into the Nevada wall and explodes, spilling concrete all over the riverbed. But what about Ike? It's like he just vanished. But suddenly, his colleagues see a faint light flickering below. Scrambling down the ladders, aka the monkey slides, the men dart toward the light to find that it is Ike, flat on his back, submerged in concrete with only one free arm frantically waving a lit match. Whether the swinging bucket swept him up, or Ike caught hold of it, we'll never know. But he was lucky, unlike his dearly departed boss, Happy.

• 1:01:14Greg Jackson?

  In fact, Ike's only injuries are an eye irritated from the lime in the cement and minor bruising. He's back to work 24 hours later. As the deaths continue and injured employees sue six companies, the work nonetheless continues. In on February 1, 1935, the last of the four river-diverting tunnels is sealed with a 1,200-ton steel gate. A 400-foot concrete plug follows. Two tunnels will now serve the two spillways. The other two tunnels have been lined with steel and send water to the intake towers. Yes, the mighty Colorado is officially back in the canyon, and more than that, it is,

• 1:01:57Greg Jackson?

  for the first time in history, tamed and controlled. Now impounded, the water begins pooling upstream of the dam wall, with space to hold nearly 250 square miles of water. You and I will know this fluctuating oasis as Lake Mead. There are more finishing touches in 1935, and the production of hydroelectric power won't start happening until 1936. But before we get to that and otherwise wrap up, we can't leave 1935 without attending the dam's dedication. And who better to officiate than the president whose New Deal has carried the funding torch as the Great Depression has rocked the nation and the world?

• 1:02:39Greg Jackson?

  It's the morning of September 30th, 1935. Boulder City doesn't have the population it once did, but every resident is downtown, lining the sweltering hot streets and cheering as a top-down convertible approaches. In it is President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He waves his hat to the crowd as the motorcade carries him by. From here, they continue on, taking the President to the Boulder Dam, where he's driven across the highway that runs across the dam's crest, all the way to the Arizona side, before coming back to the big wooden platform by the observation point on the Nevada side. It's now 10:30 in the morning. Dressed in a dark, double-breasted suit, Franklin makes his way to the podium, locking

• 1:03:23Greg Jackson?

  his braces and gripping the platform. He looks out at the dam. No words can express the majesty of what he sees as he mutters, "I'm speechless." FDR then ad-libs a variation of Julius Caesar's famous phrase, "I came, I saw, I was conquered." Suddenly, the reverent moment is interrupted as Secretary Harold Ickes drops a handful of coins onto the wooden floor. He turns bright red with embarrassment, while members of the press corps snicker and summon the crowd, cast austere glares. But Franklin doesn't seem to notice. The bespectacled guest of honor looks down at his paper and begins his planned remarks.

• 1:04:07Speaker 07

  ... Secretary Ickes, governors of the Colorado State, and you especially, who have built Boulder Dam. This morning, I came, I saw, and I was conquered. As everyone would be, who sees for the first time...

• 1:04:36Speaker 07

  This great feat of mankind. The transformation wrought here in these years is a twentieth-century marvel. The people of the United States are proud, proud of Boulder Dam. With the exception of the few who are narrow-visioned, people everywhere, people on the Atlantic seaboard, people in the Middle West and the Northwest, people in the South, must surely recognize that the national benefits which will be derived from the completion of this project

• 1:05:21Speaker 07

  will make themselves felt in every one of the forty-eight states. They know that poverty or distress in a community two thousand miles away may affect them, and equally that prosperity and higher standards of living across a whole continent will help them back home. Today marks the official completion and the dedication of Boulder Dam, the first of four great government regional units. This is an engineering victory of the first order, another great achievement of American resourcefulness,

• 1:06:07Speaker 07

  American skill, and American determination. And that is why I have the right once more to congratulate you who have built it, Boulder Dam, and on behalf of the nation to say to you, "Well done."

• 1:06:36Greg Jackson?

  Ceremonia aside, things become more official on March 1, 1936. That's when Interior Secretary Harold Ickes formally accepts the dam from Frank Crowe and the senior members of Six Companies. The work of 21,000 men, more than 5,000 of whom were employed and working at the same time in June 1934. They've delivered a 727-foot-tall, 1,180-foot-long dam wall with a 45-foot-wide crest and a 660-foot-wide base, four 395-foot-tall intake towers, two spillways, and a power plant. The process required excavating 5.5 million cubic yards of silt and rock, filling in

• 1:07:19Greg Jackson?

  1 million cubic yards, pouring 4.4 million cubic yards of concrete, and laying several tens of millions of pounds in pipes, gates, valves, fittings, reinforced steel, structural steel, and other metals. They've delivered this momentous work two years, one month, and 28 days ahead of schedule, all while going less than 2 million over the initial estimated cost for a total bill to Uncle Sam of 51.6 million. Not bad. Meanwhile, Six Companies walks away with a profit somewhere between 10.4 and 18 million. Not bad either. But the cost in human life is significant.

• 1:08:02Greg Jackson?

  Back on May 30, 1935, workmen gathered in the Black Canyon to honor their fallen friends who lost their lives working on the project by raising a memorial to them. It reads, "They labored that millions might see a brighter day, in memory of our fellow men who lost their lives on the construction of this dam." Yet, this ceremony didn't mean that death was done taking his toll. The last was Patrick Tierney. The 25-year-old electrician's helper fell over 300 feet from an intake tower on December 20, 1935. Eerily, it was 13 years to the day since his father, J.G. Tierney, drowned in the Colorado River while surveying for potential locations for the future dam.

• 1:08:45Greg Jackson?

  He was the second to die for the Boulder Dam Project. Thus, this father-and-son duo became near bookends on the estimated over 100 lives lost to make the desert bloom. And bloom it does. Never will the Imperial Valley, which is also getting its all-American canal as a part of this project, worry like it once did about water. Cities from nearby Las Vegas to 300-mile-distant Los Angeles benefit. Countless millions of Southern Californians, Arizonans, and Nevadans will lead their lives in the southwest's desert for the foreseeable future without ever realizing they do so because these daring and dying men tamed the Colorado.

• 1:09:27Greg Jackson?

  These millions upon millions of Americans benefit from both its water and, as of October 1936, its electricity. That's when Los Angeles starts receiving hydroelectric power from the first operational turbine, and eventually, the Colorado's swift waters are churning a total of 17 gigantic turbines at the Boulder Dam's power plant. Or should we say the Hoover Dam's power plant? On April 30, 1947, the name officially reverts back to being Herbert Hoover's namesake. In 1943, Frank Crowe remarked, "There's something peculiarly satisfying about building a great dam. You know what you have built will stand for centuries."

• 1:10:09Greg Jackson?

  Nearly a century later, there's every reason to expect Frank's right: that the Hoover Dam will likely stand for centuries to come. But as we move from this remarkable feat of engineering, this testament to the American spirit, purchased not only in time and money but with more than 100 lives in many more limbs, it's only fair to wonder: just which of the 1930s' many iconic and gargantuan works is, in fact, the most impressive? Is it the 6.6-million-ton Hoover Dam? The 8,981-foot-long Golden Gate Bridge? Or perhaps the 1,450-foot-tall Empire State Building? I suppose we'll have to withhold our judgment until we've heard all their tales.

• 1:11:00Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode researched and written by Greg Jackson and Riley Moon-Bowler. Production by Airship. Sound design by Molly Bock. Theme music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsay Graham of Airship. For bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit hds podcast dot com.

• 1:11:25Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is supported by VistaPrint. This podcast is a small business passion project, and seeing our vision come to life offline is cool, too, thanks to our expert partner, VistaPrint. On my recent book tour, we were able to order custom, high-quality banners for book readings. It also added a nice professional polish. It also made the events more memorable because readers and I could pose together in front of the banner for selfies to post online. And that's just one of the countless premium products VistaPrint offers to elevate your brand identity. From postcards and posters to tumblers and t-shirts, VistaPrint makes high-end, custom printing accessible to everyone, giving you exceptional quality and results that make every single dollar go further. With real people on standby and seamless tools, VistaPrint guides you through every

• 1:12:08Greg Jackson?

  step of the process so you always look completely polished. There's a reason over 17 million small businesses trust VistaPrint to elevate their vision. VistaPrint: Print Your Possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at vistaprint.com using code NEW20.

• 1:12:30Speaker 05

  Retire Path Virginia is a convenient way for Virginians to save for retirement, giving employees an easy option to help build long-term financial security. State law requires certain Virginia employers to register and facilitate the program if they meet eligibility criteria, and recent changes mean more businesses are now included. Retire Path is simple to administer, integrates with most existing payroll processes, and has no employer fees, making it an efficient way to meet state requirements. Take the employer eligibility quiz and register at retirepathva.com.

• 1:13:08Greg Jackson?

  HTDS is supported by fans at htdspodcast.com/membership. My gratitude to you kind souls for providing funding to help us keep going, thank you. And a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Adam Goran, Ahmed Chapman, Amy and Ross Hensman, Andrew Nissen, Andrew Sherwin, Anna M. Huta, Art Lang, Baby Nico, Bob Stinnet, Bonnie Brooks, Brian Gavigan, Brian Boils, Brian Goodson, Bruce Hibbert, Kayden Howitz, Charles Plendenin, Charles Starkey, Charlie Majes, Christopher Merchant, Christopher Lyle, Christopher Pullman, Christopher Young, Cody Brown, Colleen Martin, Colin Ferris Pennington, Connor Hogan, Craig Burhost, Dan G., Daniel Beecham, Daniel Lucana, Darren Chambers, Daryl the Kid Lovell, David Rifkin,

• 1:13:53Greg Jackson?

  Dean Heiser, Deronte Spencer, Donald Moore, Eli Edwards, Elizabeth Chris Janson, Ellen Stewart, Ernesto Franco, Ernie Lomaster, Ethan Lowery, Ethan Thompson, G2303, Jeffrey Nelson, George J. Sherwood, Gareth Griffin, Gina Johnson, Gordon Garwood, Henry Brunges, Holly Hamilton, Jake Gilbreth, James Bledsoe, James Blue, James Schlender, Jarrett Zungora, Jeffrey Moots, Jennifer Mignioni, Jennifer Ruth, Jessica Poppin, Joe Dobis, John Booby, John Frugal Dugal, John Huber, John Messmer, John Aliberos, John Riedlewicz, John Schaefer, Jonathan Schaaf, Jordan Corbin, Joseph Curry, Joshua Steiner, Julian Wright, Justin Tolman,

• 1:14:35Greg Jackson?

  Karen Bartholomew, Carl Freedman, Carl Romer, Ken Culver, Kim R., Kimberly Pruitt, Kristen Pratt, Kyle Decker, L. Paul Goringer, Laura Norman, Lawrence Newbauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark D. Worrell, Mark Ellis, Marcia Smith, Mason Glenn, Matt Siegel, Michael Longus, Michael Sullivan, Nick Caprell, Nicholas Powell, Owen W. Sedlak, Paul Hugan Rock, Philip May, Randy Keane, Rich Ruckel, Rick Brown, Rob Dravovic, Robert Shelton, Rock Day, Ryan Fogelman, Sam Holtzman, Sarah Prescott, Sarah Traywood, Scott Hurst, Shane Smith, Shannon Hoagland, Sharon Feasen, Sean Baines, Sean Collins, Stacy Ritter, Steve Williams, The Creepy Girl, Thomas Churchill, Thomas Matthew Edwards, Thomas Sabbath, Tim and

• 1:15:19Greg Jackson?

  Sarah Turner, Todd Curran, Tom Bostovka, Travis Cox, Walter M. Ames, Wesley McKee, William Durham, William Curry, William Thompson, and Zach Jackson. Join me in two weeks, or I'd like to tell you a story.