Boulder City remembers

BC/Hoover Dam Museum exhibit celebrates 75 years

Advertisement

Visiting the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum's newest exhibit is like stepping into a world of déjá vu.

Headlines reading "Boulder City is destined to grow," "Proposed bypass could make Boulder City a ghost town," and "Many outside developers studying our city as future site of development" may be from the 1940s, '50s and '60s, but they still ring true today.

The exhibit, Boulder City 1931-2006 Themes, is the creation of museum curator Dennis McBride, who assembled the artifacts for a March 16 opening during the city's 75th anniversary celebration.

"The (museum) board said, 'Put up an exhibit celebrating 75 years of history,' which turned out to be a lot of hard work," McBride said. "They gave me the assignment in September so I thought about it and planned it until January. Then in January I went to get the materials. I spent an unknown number of hours looking at microfilm so I could pull it all together."

Through a collection of photographs, headlines and three-dimensional memorabilia, McBride attempted to capture the essence of what the life and times were like in Boulder City from its earliest days as a federal reservation to its maturity as a new city that started 46 years ago.

"If people will take the time to look," he said, "they'll see that mixed in with history are the common themes that continue today."

A major one of those themes is growth and development.

"Growth was something that was permitted and wanted until the 1970s when growth got out of hand," he said. "The people at the time thought about it and then did something about it."

The exhibit, located next to the museum's theater near the entrance, is set up so a visitor's first encounter with local history from the 1930s starts on the right. Then, following in a counterclockwise motion, the headlines and photographs follow a timeline.

McBride said there were various ways the materials could have been assembled, primarily by subject, but he thought putting everything in chronological order was the best way to present the city's history.

"The themes I chose are still an issue, but I had to make sure it had a paper, a document or something to show or else I couldn't do anything with it," he said. "I had to go through thousands of photographs, go through a lot of artifacts to see what I had to support what went on the walls. The 1970s were the easiest because it was all about real estate back then."

The exhibit is included in the price of admission to the museum, located on the second floor of the Boulder Dam Hotel, and will be on display indefinitely, or until another exhibit is requested by the museum board.

Visitors to the museum since March 16 have written in the guest book "Great," "Excellent," "Awesome," and "Very educational" -- thoughts that not only address the museum, but McBride's new handiwork as well.