The Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum tells the story of the men and women who braved the desolation of the southern Nevada desert to build Hoover Dam and settle Boulder City. Theirs is a story of American ambition, vision, and grit. Built during the Great Depression and as the Dust Bowl ravaged the American heartland, the engineering and construction marvel that is Hoover Dam also served as a beacon of hope -- signaling a brighter future.
Striker
Dust Bowl Migrants
Ragtown
Taming the Colorado
Highscaler
Crane Operator
The Big Pour
Daily Life
Open FREE to the Public Daily
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
7 days/week, 365 days/year
Research Facilities and Assistance are Available by Appointment
We maintain a public archive and research facility with an emphasis on Hoover Dam and Boulder City, but with an expanded scope that includes lower Colorado River development and the Depression Era. Developed through grants and gifts, our archive has become a significant repository of information on water and power development along the lower Colorado. The archive’s collections include still photography and motion pictures, manuscript collections, extensive subject and biography files, oral history recordings and transcripts, plans, plats and maps, posters and artwork, serials, monographs, newspapers, and three-dimensional artifacts. The museum’s archive has been researched both on-site and through the Internet by students and scholars, novelists, journalists, and filmmakers worldwide. In addition, the museum routinely provides information and images to federal, state, and local government institutions, the print and visual media, and other museums and archives.
Our Home
History & Hospitality
We are located on the 1st floor of the historic Boulder Dam Hotel. Built in 1933 to accommodate visitors to the Hoover Dam construction project, the building is one of the oldest in Nevada still operating in its original capacity. The masonry; the gum wood paneling, fireplace, and chandeliers in the lobby; and the windows throughout the building are original. We offer 21 guest rooms that blend the classic style of the era with the amenities modern travelers expect. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Our Town
The Town that Built Hoover Dam
WALK BC, a free, self-guided audio walking tour takes you on a one mile loop through Boulder City's Historic District -- beginning and ending at the Boulder Dam Hotel. Learn the story of Alabam, the Toilet Paper Man (his sculpture is pictured left), discover the intentions of the men who designed and photographed the dam, tour the neighborhoods built to house the Hoover Dam workforce, and gaze over Lake Mead from the Boulder City overlook. This tour, coupled with a visit to our museum, provides a thorough look at the men and women who built Hoover Dam and settled Boulder City.
Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum's three-dimensional displays and exhibits describe the great social and economic forces surrounding the 1929 Stock Market Crash and Depression that drove thousands of unemployed citizens from their homes into the isolation of the Nevada desert where the Boulder Canyon Project was one of the few places in the United States where men could find work.
Photographs, artifacts, oral histories, and the sounds of Hoover Dam construction ringing off the walls of Black Canyon provide a sense of the complexity, danger, and immense scale of the construction project, as well as a picture of ordinary life in an extraordinary time and place.
Listen as these pioneers tell about their lives in Boulder City and down at the Hoover Dam construction site in the desperate years of the early 1930s.
Mothers describe how they set up households in the sandy wastes along the Colorado River. Dam workmen tell stories of the dangers they faced building Hoover Dam, an engineering project unlike any attempted before.
How did they live? How did these people survive 120-degree heat in the summer and below-freezing temperatures in the winter?
How did they care for their children? How did they get back and forth to work? How much money did they earn in Boulder City, a town completely controlled by the federal government? What did their homes look like? What happened if workmen were injured or killed on the job?
Museum Hours
Every Day
7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.