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The time was the early 1930s, the president was Herbert
Hoover, and the situation in the United States looked bleak.
The stock market had crashed in 1929, and most Americans were
hurt by the Great Depression, which left a majority of them jobless,
homeless, and penniless. But in the West, a beacon of hope
was in the works— a major structure that would symbolize the
nation’s technological prowess. That structure, built as graceful
as it was strong, would come to be known as the Hoover Dam.
In the dry western United States, water resources and water
rights had almost always been an issue. For this growing area of
the country, water for drinking and irrigating land was an everincreasing
necessity. The United States Reclamation Service was
formed to help deal with these concerns. This government entity
and its engineers would come to play a great part in the construction
of the Hoover Dam. |
