Daniel S.
Yelp
I enjoy museums. Unlike many of the monotonous college lectures that I sat through where I wished I was anyplace else, well-done museums are successful at making the exact subject entertaining and keeping my attention. A well-done museum tells a story. The Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum tells a story of a hostile desert that through the hard work of Six Companies employees created an engineering marvel, lake, and commendable city. A couple of Saturdays previous (closed on Sundays) after having breakfast downstairs at the Restaurant in the historic Boulder Dam Hotel, I was up for this story.
This is a tiny museum large on substance. It sits in level two of the Boulder Dam Hotel. When you enter the Boulder Dam Hotel through the main entrance off Arizona Street, head for the staircase that is directly ahead and to the right of registration. But stop for a second. If you are hungry, to the left is the Restaurant. They serve a decent breakfast in a historical setting. After stopping for a second, you want to climb up the staircase to level two. At the end of the hall is the museum. When you walk down the hall, keep in mind that admission is $2 for adults.
The Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum is a square layout divided into separate rooms that correspond to the nine exhibits. These nine exhibits are the chapters of the story. It is a story told through signs with white letters on a gray background, maps, memorabilia, antiques, pictures, displays, the sound of hammering, and interpretive exhibits. The pictures that myself and fellow Yelpers posted showcase the exhibits. Walking into the museum counter clockwise, the story starts off as a desert region that is inhospitable to living in the era of the Great Depression. Walking deeper into the museum counter clockwise, the story develops into the idea of turning the desert into a hospitable region.The seeds of the Hoover Dam is born. Suffering and perseverance are the themes. Exhibits display the suffering that newcomers experienced. The suffering exacerbated with the conditions of the Seven Companies employees when they labored to build the dam. The exhibits show in detail the suffering. Another theme of the story is a celebration of building the Hoover Dam. I learned amazing facts such as, "Engineers had calculated that if the dam were built in one piece, the heat produced by the setting concrete would take 125 years to cool." When I progressed through the museum, I was progressing through an education in Hoover Dam. The vintage exhibit is Lives on the Line. This is a room size diorama of Six Companies Workers constructing Hoover Dam. From here the museum focuses on the development of Boulder City. An interesting fact is that it was a company town that was supposed to be temporary. The exhibits continue the story with a map of the original Boulder City grid overlapped with today's Boulder City. The exhibits talk about the naming of Boulder City and the first City Manager. Additional exhibits help tell the story. As the museum concludes, the story has a surprising ending:" Today power from Hoover Dam plays just a small role in lighting up Las Vegas. The real benefit comes from Lake Mead, which supplies most of the water that has helped make the Las Vegas Valley one of the busiest, fastest growing areas in the country."
Regardless that this museum trails in size to the Clark County Museum and Nevada State Museum, color me impressed. It held my attention for the half hour that I spent there. I left with an education on the construction and history of the Hoover Dam and development of Boulder City. I recommend visiting this museum with a Boulder City or Lake Mead attraction. Or even part of a tour of the Boulder City Historic District. And if you visit it, I also recommend combining it with a breakfast downstairs in the Restaurant. I guarantee that when you leave the Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum that you will gain more knowledge on Hoover Dam and Boulder City. And, knowledge is power!
