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The construction of the Hoover Dam was the culmination of years of attempts to harness the power of the Colorado River.
Past efforts at forcing the Colorado under human will had met with varying degrees of success.
From Spanish missionaries to American entrepreneurs, the Colorado had offered a challenge. If controlled,
the Colorado could irrigate countless acres of potential farmland.
After years of surveys and countless hours of planning, the United States government announced the Boulder Canyon Project.
Consisting of a dam in the Black Canyon area and a canal to irrigate the Imperial Valley, the Boulder Canyon Project was the
first of its kind in US history. The arid southwest would finally be made farmable and productive for the US economy.
The Bureau of Reclamation had constructed previous dams throughout the American West, but none of this magnitude. The dam was
to be built directly in the path of the powerful Colorado.
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