# 774 - 1935 3c Dedication of Boulder Dam
1935 3¢ Dedication of Boulder Dam
Issue Date: September 30, 1935
First City: Boulder City, NV
Quantity Issued: 73,610,650
Dedication Of The Hoover Dam
As early as 1900, Black Canyon and Boulder Canyon were studied to be considered for the possibility that either might be able to support a dam to control floods, provide irrigation water, and create hydroelectric power. Severe flooding of the Colorado River in 1905 spurred this movement and necessitated the building of a dam to control the waters.
In 1922, a commission was created to equally divide the Colorado River among the Basin States. The governors of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming met with then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. On November 24, the Colorado River Compact was signed, splitting the river basin among the states.
In the weeks and months after the dam was authorized, thousands of unemployed Americans made their way to southern Nevada to find work building the massive dam. The small city of Las Vegas, then home to about 5,000 people, saw a great influx of 10,000 to 20,000 people arrive. The government also set up a camp for the surveyors and other personnel. Squatter camps popped up around it, home to men hoping to find work along with their families.
“We are here to celebrate the completion of the greatest dam in the world, rising 726 feet above the bed-rock of the river and altering the geography of a whole region; we are here to see the creation of the largest artificial lake in the world—115 miles long, holding enough water, for example, to cover the State of Connecticut to a depth of ten feet; and we are here to see nearing completion a powerhouse which will contain the largest generators and turbines yet installed in this country, machinery that can continuously supply nearly two million horsepower of electric energy.
Work on the dam was finished in the coming months and it was officially handed over to the government on March 1, 1936.
After Hoover lost the election of 1932 to Roosevelt, the new president and his Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, were insistent on calling it Boulder Dam. Both referred to it by this name at the dedication ceremony. However, in the coming years, both names were used. As America moved beyond from the Great Depression and Hoover redeemed himself during World War II, a bill was introduced to formally name the dam in his honor. It was passed in 1947, officially naming it the Hoover Dam.
Click here to read President Roosevelt’s full dedication speech and here for a neat video about the dam.
1935 3¢ Dedication of Boulder Dam
Issue Date: September 30, 1935
First City: Boulder City, NV
Quantity Issued: 73,610,650
Dedication Of The Hoover Dam
As early as 1900, Black Canyon and Boulder Canyon were studied to be considered for the possibility that either might be able to support a dam to control floods, provide irrigation water, and create hydroelectric power. Severe flooding of the Colorado River in 1905 spurred this movement and necessitated the building of a dam to control the waters.
In 1922, a commission was created to equally divide the Colorado River among the Basin States. The governors of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming met with then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. On November 24, the Colorado River Compact was signed, splitting the river basin among the states.
In the weeks and months after the dam was authorized, thousands of unemployed Americans made their way to southern Nevada to find work building the massive dam. The small city of Las Vegas, then home to about 5,000 people, saw a great influx of 10,000 to 20,000 people arrive. The government also set up a camp for the surveyors and other personnel. Squatter camps popped up around it, home to men hoping to find work along with their families.
“We are here to celebrate the completion of the greatest dam in the world, rising 726 feet above the bed-rock of the river and altering the geography of a whole region; we are here to see the creation of the largest artificial lake in the world—115 miles long, holding enough water, for example, to cover the State of Connecticut to a depth of ten feet; and we are here to see nearing completion a powerhouse which will contain the largest generators and turbines yet installed in this country, machinery that can continuously supply nearly two million horsepower of electric energy.
Work on the dam was finished in the coming months and it was officially handed over to the government on March 1, 1936.
After Hoover lost the election of 1932 to Roosevelt, the new president and his Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, were insistent on calling it Boulder Dam. Both referred to it by this name at the dedication ceremony. However, in the coming years, both names were used. As America moved beyond from the Great Depression and Hoover redeemed himself during World War II, a bill was introduced to formally name the dam in his honor. It was passed in 1947, officially naming it the Hoover Dam.
Click here to read President Roosevelt’s full dedication speech and here for a neat video about the dam.