VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hoover Dam Was Ever Officially Named Boulder Dam

July 04, 2025

When work on the dam at Black Canyon, 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas, started on September 30, 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur mandated that it be named Hoover Dam, after the 31st president of the United States.  This week marks 93 years since the dam's official name was established by an act of Congress on February 14, 1931, five years before it opened.

The dam itself only ever had one official name, although the entire project was still mistakenly referred to as the Boulder Canyon Project after its first proposed location 20 miles upstream.

The US Bureau of Reclamation, who should know since it made the fucking thing, says this.

Damming  Hoover, Herbert

Wilbur lost his position to Harold Ickes and Hoover lost his dam when Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated him for the presidency in 1933.  On May 8, 1933, Ickes declared that the colossal engineering achievement should heretofore be referred to as Boulder Dam.

And FDR dedicated it just that way.  And if newspaper reporters didn’t happen to include the inaccurate name in their reports, a sign he had erected in front of him included it in their photos: “Franklin D. Roosevelt — President of the United States — Dedicating the Boulder Dam — Sept. 30, 1935.”

"The name Boulder Dam is a fine, rugged, and individual name,” Ickes said at the time. “The men who pioneered this project knew it by this name.”

Ickes failed to note that Herbert Hoover was one of those pioneers.  He was instrumental in creating the Colorado River Compact, which was necessary for the dam's construction, while serving as Secretary of Commerce in 1922.

Ickes further contended that Wilbur had erred in naming the dam after his boss because the laws that created it had been passed in 1928, under the Coolidge administration.

Technically, this was accurate, but by that time, Hoover had already been elected president, and more significantly, a congressional act had already given the dam a new name that had never been revoked or changed.

President Franklin Roosevelt dedicates Hoover Dam on Sept. 30, 1935, intentionally mislabeling it “Boulder Dam” and spelling it out on a sign placed in front of him.

The Dam  The truth

For a variety of reasons, the majority of which were political and outside the scope of this piece, Roosevelt, a Democrat, hated his Republican predecessor and presidential opponent.

Let's just say that during their four-month handover of power during the Great Depression, Hoover and the president-elect did not work together on anything.  Furthermore, following Roosevelt's inauguration on March 4, 1933, it is thought that neither president ever again spoke to the other.

One of America's most adored presidents, FDR passed away on April 12, 1945, soon after starting his historic fourth term. He is recognized for having helped the country escape the Great Depression and for having broken free from isolationism to declare war on the Axis forces during World War II.

FDR topped all four of the presidents etched into Mount Rushmore in the most recent Presidential Expert Poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute!

In contrast, Hoover came in at number 14, slightly ahead of Millard Fillmore and behind Zachary Taylor.

Franklin Roosevelt, right, looks decidedly happier than Herbert Hoover as they ride together in a convertible to Roosevelt’s 1933 inauguration.

Boulder-dash!

The moniker Boulder Dam started to appear on local businesses and in newsreels, even though its official name was always Hoover Dam.  The Boulder Dam Hotel opened nine months after FDR's presidency and the start of the disinformation campaign. It just celebrated its 90th anniversary.

Therefore, the 80th Congress decided that the dam should "officially restore" a name that had never been properly taken away from it.

Hoover's active role in designing and funding the dam was detailed in House Resolution 140, which was approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Harry Truman on April 30, 1947. It stated: "After Mr. Hoover left office, the Interior Department, for reasons that need not be referred to in detail here, avoided the use of the name Hoover Dam where possible and used the names Boulder Canyon Dam or Boulder Dam."

“After hearing testimony relative to the need for clarifying the present situation with regard to the name of this dam, it is apparent to this committee that affirmative legislative action by Congress is desirable.”

As a result, Hoover Dam is the only facility owned by the federal government that has never been formally renamed.

President Franklin Roosevelt, right, visits the Hoover Dam a few hours before attempting to rename it Boulder Dam out of spite.