Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, during the Great Depression, it was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over 100 lives. In bills passed by Congress during its construction, it was referred to as the Hoover Dam, after President Herbert Hoover, but was named the Boulder Dam by the Roosevelt administration. In 1947, the name Hoover Dam was restored by Congress.
Hoover Dam by Ansel Adams, 1941
Image: 2017 Aerial view Hoover Dam 4774
River view of the future dam site, c. 1904
Sketch of the proposed dam site and reservoir, c. 1921
The Lower Colorado River Valley (LCRV) is the river region of the lower Colorado River of the southwestern United States in North America that rises in the Rocky Mountains and has its outlet at the Colorado River Delta in the northern Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, between the states of Baja California and Sonora. This north–south stretch of the Colorado River forms the border between the U.S. states of California/Arizona and Nevada/Arizona, and between the Mexican states of Baja California/Sonora.
A section of the LCRV showing the Colorado Desert (yellow dotted line) in the west, the Salton Sea, and the three US bordering states on the Colorado River. Portions of the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora also shown. Proximity to San Diego and the rain shadow of coastal mountains is also shown.
Trigo Mountains Wilderness, a ridgeline wilderness area on the eastern border of the river proper, 30 miles north of Yuma–Winterhaven. A buckhorn cholla cactus is in foreground; creosote bush scrubland on hillsides.
Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree)
Abronia villosa (sand verbena)