Evening Star Newspaper, January 3, 1932, Page 76

THT SIMDAY STAR WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY 3, 1932. = e UNCLE SAM BUILDS A TOWN IN DESERT Boulder City, Nev.,, Where Workers on the Great Hoover Dam Will Live, Will Be No Mere Construction Camp, but a Complete Government-Operated Municipality With a Business Section, Parks and Hundreds of Homes, Laid Out on an Idealized Plan. BY ARMISTEAD W. GILLIAM. UT on the sun-baked, desert bank of the Colorado River in Nevada, where the temperature hits 100 more often than not and where nothing but a few gnarled and wrinkled cacti and mesquites grow, the' United States is planting and expecting to grow (figuratively speaking) a lush, fresh ily. Amid the newly created, but far-flaunted wickedness of the State of Nevada, with its famous divorce mill, its wide-open gambling and its famous liberality toward those who would disregard the eighteenth amendment, Uncle Sam is building himself a model city. Life in Boulder City, Nev. for that is the name of Uncle Sam’s new municipal ward, is to be about like life in Washington—except for thRg heat. ¢ Washingtonians, Boulder City folk won't be able to vote—they will live in a Federal dis- trict and they will be governed by the Federal Governgnent—but they will pay for it. Boulder City, Nev., is the town the Govern- ment is building in the coelest place that could be found in the Nevada desert in the imme- diate vicinity of Hoover Dam, the gigantic structure that is to be reared in the bed of the Colorado to back up a lake 115 miles long and 70 feet deep. IMS ELY of Arizona has been installed as city manager and, under the Bureau of Reclamation of the Interior Department he will govern the newest Federal district with the help of a police foroce of nine deputy United States marshals, an advisery commission com- pesed of John C. Page, a Government engineer; James R. Alexander, district counsel represent- ing the Government, and V. G. Evans, who will represent the contractors building the big dam —and last, but not least, a Government leas- ing system. This leasing system is expected to make Boulder City vastly different in meral tone from the rest of the flamboyant cities of Nevada. Por there is a clause in the leases under which all business and even residence, for that matter, will be regulated, which reads in part as follows: “e & * I amy premises * ¢ ¢ shall be used for the purpose of manufacturing, selling or otherwise disposing of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, or narcotics or habit-forming drugs, or for gambling, prostitution or any unlawful purpose * * * or if loose or im- moral characters shall be harbored ar sheltercd thereon * * * allrights * * * shall termi- hate * roen With the broad powers provided by this leasing law, and the other legal appurtenances, including a United States Commissioner to hold court, Mr. Ely will rule this 12 square miles of desert. He will be answerable directly to Walker R. Young, the Government's construc- Y(i5¥ engineer on the dam project. Inm spite of all the obstructions nature has put in the way of comfortable life in the Nevada desert, it is more than likely that Uncle Sam, in his customary way, will make a huge go of this Boulder City project. O mere construction camp is this to be. True, there is some construction camp - aspect now, what with the frame dwellings ot the Six Companies, the contractors on the job, maestly in evidence, but on the site of Boulder City already have arisen some of the Govern- ment’s residence buildings, little models of comfort for the desert dweller. The town boasts a population already of 2,000 souls and when completed is expected to have more than twice as many. Plows, graders, excavators, concrete mixers, steam rollers a1 all the machines used in the laying of water and sewer pipes, grading streets, water mains, pavements &nd sidewalks are al- ready in operation. The street scheme of Boulder City is com- plete and on the basis of an idealized ground plan worked out by skilled city planners in advance of its making that the town might have every reasonable convenience. The town was smpletely zoned in advance of its building, with special sections given over to administration buildings, business structures, repair shops government employes’ homes, con- tractors’ employes’ homes, temporary residences, auto camps, recreation fields and parks and a host of other things necessary. in the life of every complete community. The Six Companies already have completed several hundred homes in their section of the city for their employes and more are going up every day. More than 1000 men are being fed at every meal in the huge coniracters’ boarding house that at present is Boulder City's principal building. The contractors' hospital, a brick structure, built for service long after Boulder Dam has reared its eminence high above the bed of the Colorado River, is under construction. The fine-looking Government Administra- tion Building is about one-fourth completed. The town hall, which will be a model of modern municipal construction, and will house the offices of the new city manager, the town clerk, a public auditorium, the ecourtroem and the jail has been started. A dozen homes, built for Government em- Government forces constructing presedimentation basin and water supply intakes. der City is a Government reservation, paying no taxes to the State of Nevada, contributing nothing to the support of the State schools, and that the schools should be maintained by the Federal Government. Electricity has ridden into Boulder City on a big transmission line from California. Later it will came from the dam site. The sewer system already is in operation. THe big reser- Six Companies’ Commissary—View of complete building from south. ployes have been completed and a dozen more are about half finished. So, it may be seen, the Government, with a characteristic thoroughness, is going about building a city in the last place any one would think of building a city—in the middle of a desert. O schocl has as yet been planned. There is some legal hitch, and the Government is waiting for the decision of Controller Gen- eral J. Raymond McCarl. There seems to be some doubt as to whether the Government can, out of the appropriations it has for the city building job, erect and support schools. On the other hand, it has been maintained that Boul- Government residence completed October 1, 1931, voir which is to supply water to the finished town already is established, with pumps, which bring the supply up from the Colorado River in operation. Distribution pipes have not yet been laid, but will be in place shortly. Filters are being constructed. The Government expects Boulder City to thrive on after the big dam and its appurte- nances, on which the Government is spending $165,000,000, is completed. This in spite of the fact that whatever Boulder citizens may eat will have to be removed from cans or brought long distances across the desert, for prospective leascholders are warned that none of the ir- rigation projects incident to the construction of Hoover Dam will be in the vicinity of Boul- der City Of course, the borders of the great lake that will be backed up by Hoover Dam are ex- pected to become verdant in years to come, but that will be only a slight encroachment into the desert at best. So, when the dam is built, Boulder City must find something more than construction camp justification for being. Of course, the dam will always need a construction, maintenance and operation force, and this undoubtedly will form the nucleus for Boulder City’s permanent population. It may be that manufacturing con- cerns, attracted by the cheap power available from Hoover Dam, will locate at Boulder City or nearby and send ti®m~ -anployes into Boulder City to-eocupy its model desert homes. Whatever may be the outoome of the model desert city, the fact remains that Uncle Sam has confidence in its ultimate success. g WITH‘IN the boundaries of Boulder City undoubtedly legalied viees for which Nevada has been publicized will net be courte- nanced, buf without there are already signs of activity, G:vernment officials sadly admit. Without, the State of Nevada legalizes gambling, makes divorce easy and does many other things designed to entice a sporting ele- ment to come within her borders and spend its money freely. Las Vegas, Nev., just 25 miles away, Govern« ment officials admit, already is boeming under the influx of pleasure seekers from the Govern- ment town. Its gambling halls are knowing increased business. No great amount of liquer flows, however, thanks te the vigilant enferce- ment of the prohibition law by the Federal Government. xalife Even along the road from Las Vegas te Boulder City, recently made smooth and pass- able for present-day high-speed automobiles, there are springing up, it is said, places of pleasure focr Boulder Cityans. Boulder City will have no power to interfere with them out- side the Federal district limits, and, if the Government-owned town makes a go of it, it is not likely Nevada will deed over any more land to the Government to be administered under the laws of the Government ef the United States and not the laws of the State of Nevada. Already Nevada’s state treasury has felt the effect of the Government coming in and building a town, what with licenses for gambling places in Clark County, nearby te Boulder City, with increased trade in Las Vegas and with the other benefits that accrue to a state from the influx of a large body of people. Uncle Sam is paying $2,000,000 for Boulder City. Of the total, about $450,000 has gone for the construction of the water system. Water is the most valuable thing right now on the Nevada desert bank of the Colorado River. Paving will amount to nearly a half million. Sewerage and lighting system# wiil cost another $150,000 or $200,000. The Interior Department estimates it will cost close to $200,000 annually to adminster the town of Boulder City, including interest on the investment, salaries, maintenance, re- pairs and other expenses. From the sale of power the Government expects to get about $25,000, from rental about $60,000 and water rents about $30,000 or $35,000. The Six Com- panies’ annual rental bill will be in the neigh- barhood of $60,000. The cubject of taxation is one which has not yet becen ircned out by the Interior De- partment. From the present looks ef things, it ‘is likely the new city will cost the Govern- ment some money for a few years. Unless the District of Coiumbia wins representation in Congress, Boulder Cityans undoubtedly will have to go without a voice in the city, State or national affairs—except for what feeble cry can be raised by citizens' associations, advisory committees and the like. Therc is a chance to make money, but there are few big chanoes in Beulder City, the Government warns. Prospective lessors of busi- ness property in Boulder City are givem every warning and all the advice at hand in the Interior Department. There is a pay roll of $100,000 weekly in the new municipal ward of Uncle Sam, but just how much of this can be released into the channels of trade re- mains for the Boulder City business men of the future to discover. HE Government doesn’t mince words abeout the climate, either. In .its information bulletin on leases it states: “Boulder City is established as an adjunct to the construction of Hoover Dam, the power plant and the appurtenant works under the Boulder Canyon project act. It is in effect a construction camp, although, owing to the long copstructign period, men employetl will ‘be en- couraged to bring families and establish homes, and the necessary facilities are pro- vided to make that possible. ok 2 “The town site, heretofore & desert waste, arid and ‘treeless, is seven miles by highway from the dam site, the mountainbms character of the region about the dam an practicablé any extensive c de there. * * * Although the town"site is suf- ficiently exposed to get the benefit of any air currents, the maximum Summer temperature Continued on Seventeenth Page