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Hoover Dam , Nevada / Arizona

Distance from Las Vegas : 38 Miles via Northshore Rd. or 33.5 Miles via US-93 (one way)
Time of year to visit : All Year
Gasoline Available : No, but gas is available nearby in Boulder City
Additional Info : NorthShore Rd. route requires a toll of 3$ motorcycles

Web Links :
Road Conditions : Nevada Department of Transportation
Tourist Information :
Nevada Commission on Tourism
Lake Mead National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)
U.S. Dept. of the Interior - Bureau of Reclamation : Hoover Dam
Boulder City Museum and Historical Association

Hoover Dam History:
There is a tremendous amount of information available about Hoover Dam or Boulder Dam on the Internet than what I could possibly put there. Please use the links above or do some searches on the Internet for more information.

The information below was taken from the Arizona-Leisure wesite.

"Hoover Dam" or "Boulder Dam". Few know that Hoover Dam was originally named Boulder Dam. That's because the initial planned site was at Boulder Canyon about 10 miles north upriver from where it is now located at Black Canyon. An engineering reassessment moved the location from Boulder Canyon to its present location. The Herbert Hoover administration changed the name from Boulder Dam to Hoover Dam in 1930 as a political move. In 1933, the Franklin Roosevelt administration changed it back to Boulder Dam, and under Harry Truman, the permanent name of Hoover Dam was restored.

Six construction firms created a consortium call Six Company, Inc. to submit a competitive proposal to build Hoover Dam. As the lowest qualified bidder at $48,890,955, Six Company was awarded the contract. It was given incentive bonuses and would be fined for each day construction overran the assigned schedule. Thus began a furious pace of around the clock construction, which would result in completion of Hoover Dam almost two years ahead of schedule.

The Great Depression led to massive migration of the unemployed to Las Vegas in hopes of landing jobs building Hoover Dam. Men came from around the country, many bringing families and life's possessions hoping for employment. Living conditions were difficult and became substantially much worse when construction began, creating the shantytown known as Ragtown. Read more about the Men, Women and Children of Hoover Dam where life became a living hell. Life was particularly difficult for the few blacks that were hired as token to government mandate.

Hoover Dam required over 3,250,000 cubic yards of concrete plus another million for the power plant, intake towers and other support structures. Two batch plants onsite were created to produce the concrete that was transported on railcars in large four and eight cubic yard buckets. An overhead cableway system lifted the buckets and lowered them to the forms. At peak production, one bucket was delivered about every 78 seconds.

The base of Hoover Dam alone required 230 individual gigantic blocks of concrete. Five-foot tall blocks of varying width, ranging from 25 square feet on the downstream face to 60 square feet on the upstream face. Columns were linked together like a giant Lego set with a system of alternating vertical and horizontal schemes.

It is interesting to note that it would have taken about 100 years for the concrete to cool and properly cure without engineering intervention. The chemical heat generated by concrete setting was dissipated by imbedding over 582 miles of one-inch steel pipe through the interconnecting concrete blocks that circulated ice water. Its own ammonia refrigeration plant that cooled the water was capable of creating a gigantic 1000 pound ice block every day. The cooling pipes were subsequently back-filled with concrete to create added strength. As an arch-gravity dam, the massive water pressure of up to 45,000 pounds per square foot at the base of Hoover Dam, is held back by gravity. The arch-curved structure against the lake reservoir dissipates that pressure into the canyon walls equally on the Arizona and Nevada side.

It was the job of High Scalers to hang dangerously by rope above the canyon to blast and remove weakened and loose rocks from the face of the Black Canyon cliffs where the ends of Hoover Dam would join. Read more about these High Scalers that risked their lives not only performing their jobs, but also entertaining workers below with thrill-seeking and death-defying stunts along the cliff walls.

Directions via Northshore Rd. (Recomended Route) :
• Take E LAKE MEAD BLVD/NV-147. leaving Las Vegas for approx. 14 Miles.
• Turn RIGHT onto NV-147/NORTHSHORE RD for 3.1 Miles.
• Turn LEFT onto E LAKE MEAD PKWY. for 1.8 Miles then,
• E LAKE MEAD PKWY becomes LAKESHORE RD/NV-166., travel another 10.1 Miles.
• Turn LEFT onto US-93. and travel 4.3 Miles until you enter Hoover Dam.

Directions via US-95 :
• Take US-93 South for approx. 25 Miles.
• Turn LEFT onto US-93 and continue for 8 Miles until you reach Hoover Dam.

Goodsprings, Nevada - Pioneer Saloon

Distance from Las Vegas : 39 Miles (one way)
Time of year to visit : All Year
Gasoline Available : No
Tips for the ride : Goodsprings experiences Mild Winters and temperatures over 110 degrees during the summer months.

Web Links :
Road Conditions : Nevada Department of Transportation
Tourist Information : Nevada Commission on Tourism
Pioneer Saloon Website : Pioneer Saloon

Goodsprings History:
The Pioneer Saloon was built in 1913, and other than a short period from 1954 to 1960, the bar has been open for the last 95 years. Recently the Saloon has been added to the State Register of Historic Places and is under consideration in the National Register.

The bar itself was made in 1860 out of Cherry Wood and was shipped in three pieces from Brunswick, Maine. The trip took the bar around Cape Horn and into San Fransico. One section of the bar never arrived and another section was lost to a fire. The third section is what still stands in the bar today.

Directions:
•Take I-15 South out of Las Vegas towards Los Angeles for 30 Miles
•Take the NV-161 exit (Exit 12) toward Jean / Goodspringsf or 0.3 Miles
•Turn Right on NV-161 to Goodsprings, NV, 6.7 Miles

Callville Bay, Nevada
Located in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Distance from Las Vegas : 32 Miles (one way)
Time of year to visit : All Year
Gasoline Available : No
Fee : 3$ per Motorcycle to enter the Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Road Conditions :
Nevada Department of Transportation

Tourist Information :
Nevada Commission on Tourism
Lake Mead National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)

Callville Bay History:
Seeing the viability of steamboat travel to transport supplies and immigrants, Mormon leader, Brigham Young recruited Bishop Anson Call to establish a colony and build a warehouse on the Colorado River.

Call was sent to select a site for a steamboat port on the Colorado River and in 1864, he established Calls Landing which is about 15 miles upstream from the present day Hoover Dam.

A large warehouse was constructed first, followed by a landing, post office and corral. The steamboat Esmeralda completed a trip on October, 1866, and delivered 100 tons of freight.

Call's Landing (also referred to as Call's Fort and Old Callville) became a permanent settlement with homes, warehouse and irrigation systems. Supplies intended for the newly established Mormon communities in the west traveled from New York and other eastern cities to Panama. From there goods were shipped to the west coast of Mexico, through the Gulf of California and up the Colorado River to Call's Landing.

In January, 1867, the Army arrived at Fort Callville and it became an outpost until May, 1868. Callville, being very desolate, isolated and lonely, had the most desertions of the Army company stationed at El Dorado, and one suicide.

The Mormon's plan for a supply route via the Colorado was abandoned when the transcontinental railroad was completed in northern Nevada in 1869.

When construction for the Boulder Dam began (now know as Hoover Dam), portions of the old warehouse still existed. Callville then became submerged when Lake Mead was formed by the damming of the Colorado River.

Directions:
• Take E LAKE MEAD BLVD / NV-147 leaving Las Vegas for approx. 12.6 miles;
• Turn LEFT onto NV-167 / NORTHSHORE RD. and continue for approx. 7.8 Miles;
• Turn RIGHT onto CALLVILLE RD. and continue for approx. 3.6 Miles until you reach Calville Bay.