Boulder City

BOULDER CITY BY GENE SEGERBLOM

Boulder City is a lucky town, thanks to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. In fact Boulder City owes its birth and continued prosperity to these two spectacular tourist attractions.

When the Bureau of Reclamation started construction on huge Hoover Dam in the early 1930's, a tent city sprung up amidst the wind-swept desert waste. From this original tent city, Boulder grew in a year into a community of a thousand homes, a dozen dormitories, four churches, a grade school, shops, stores, a 700-seat theater, tourist camp and later a motel. The Bureau of Reclamation spent approximately two million dollars in turning the desert waste into a complete modern city.(Continued on page ten) "AIR VIEW - BOULDER CITY" BY MIKE ROBERTS. Boulder City today is a green oasis in an otherwise barren desert of southern Nevada. Born as a construction camp for the building of Hoover Dam, the city is now a busy tourist center. Here live, among others, the governmental employees maintaining the dam and supervising the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E3; f.11 at 1/400th sec.; Ektar lens; September; full sun; meter reading 600; ASA rating 64.

Purpose of the city, of course, was to house workers and a headquarters for Hoover Dam. But after completion of the Dam, instead of dwindling to the status of an outpost, the tourists kept Boulder alive, and today its orderly, planned growth makes it one of the most desir able family towns in the West.

Boulder residents celebrate two birthdays one in 1931 when the Bureau of Reclamation town was born and one in 1960 when the Bureau turned the town over to the incorporated citizenry, and it joined the sisterhood of Nevada cities. Since this time it has grown some, but it has not mushroomed with accompanying growing pains of crowded schools and lack of municipal facilities.

To get Boulder City off to a good start in 1960, Uncle Sam, through his servant the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of Interor, bequeathed the little city nearly five million dollars worth of land and build ings; electric, water and sewerage systems; streets, side walks and curbs; parks and parkways and the equipment with which to maintain them. The Bureau transferred ownership of the thirty-three square miles, or 21,674.23 acres of land, to the incorporated city. There's plenty of room for Boulder to grow in all directions.

Unique among Nevada towns, it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb, but rather like a rose among thorns.

First, it is green. Most Nevada towns lack that marvelous resource, water, and look like they are "dying of thirst." Not so Boulder. In its enviable position, just five miles from Lake Mead, it hasn't suffered from a water shortage. Its parks and tree-lined streets create an impression of an oasis in the desert often causing more comment from travelers than Hoover Dam or Lake Mead.

Second, unlike other Nevada communities, there are no casinos with gambling nor bars serving hard liquor. These were prohibited while the Federal government was in control, and when Boulder City became an in corporated municipality, they were prohibited by charter. It will remain without slot machines and other games of chance and "dry" unless residents vote to amend the charter. And that isn't likely as most Boulderites chose the town because of its more conservative position. They intend to keep it the only "dry" spot in wide open Nevada.

Although the Bureau of Reclamation has its Region III headquarters as well as offices necessary for Hoover Dam administration, and the Bureau of Mines has a research station and the National Park Service maintains its Lake Mead National Recreational Area headquarters here, most of the new residents work in nearby Hender son or Las Vegas, preferring to live away from the glam our and glitter but close enough to enjoy the fun offered when the occasion arises.

Today Boulder has hotels and motels, trailer parks, restaurants, shows and services for all travelers. Business men realize that Nevada's biggest industry is tourism and are always on the bid for Boulder's share. As an added attraction free movies of the construction of the dam are shown daily all day long at the Visitors' Bureau in the heart of Boulder City.

Boulderites are eager to help their community live up to its slogan "clean, green Boulder City" keeping their yards and homes as "spic and span as though they were Dutch housewives." There are several new housing subdivisions with many local residents building their own new homes. Planned also is an 18-hole golf course to be surrounded by custom-built homes.

Rated high in scholastic circles, Boulder City schools turn out championship sports teams as well. It is surprising that the town would boast of such excellent schools and scholars considering that when Boulder City was getting its start in 1931, there was no provision for the education of the children, and the first classes were conducted in private homes. The following year, some of the children were taught in Boulder City, but most of them traveled by bus to Las Vegas. The first high school graduating class was in 1941. Uncle Sam built a new high school plant for the town in 1954, and under the Clark County School System, a new multi-rise instruc tional center, a building readily convertible into as many as five or more classrooms usable every hour of the school day or night, was added. The percentage of high school graduates going on to college tops seventy per cent. In any National Merit or National College Board tests, Boulder City is sure to be represented at the top level.

Boulderites are church-going, organization-joining citizens. The town supports twelve churches and many welfare, cultural, civic, fraternal and service organiza tions. Much emphasis is placed on youth groups with volunteer workers keeping a year-round sports set-up going including baseball, football, tennis, basketball and swimming.

Two big annual events help keep Boulder City in the state and national lime light. The Fourth of July Jamboree celebration, sponsored by the American Legion Post, is an old-fashioned Independence Day celebration complete with gigantic fireworks. And for the horse lover, the Boulder City Round-Up offers three days of horse shows and rodeos. This is sponsored by the local Horse men's Association. Both events draw interested spectators and participants from all over the Southwest.

During the years since incorporation Boulder City has not lost its uniqueness. It has not succumbed to the pressure of the dollar, but has chosen to move into the big city status slowly. Most residents are enthusiastic about the future of Boulder City and echo the sentiments of Arleigh B. West, director of the Bureau of Reclamation's Region III, who said on turning the city over to Nevada's Gov. Sawyer, "Boulder City is to most of us an ideal spot which we have purposely chosen to pursue our professions, raise our families and enjoy a good life."

GENE AND CLIFF SEGERBLOM

Always on the lookout for a story, Cliff and Gene Seger blom, of Boulder City, Nevada, have found the Southwest rich in opportunities for the free-lance writer and photographer.

Both are natives of the Southwest, Mrs. Segerblom being born in Ruby Valley, Nevada, and Mr. Segerblom in Los Angeles. Both are graduates of the University of Nevada in Reno.

Mr. Segerblom is also well-known as a watercolor artist. In addition to holding several one-man shows in the Southwest, his work was in the third annual exhibit of American Art at the Metropolitan Museum in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Mr. Segerblom first came to Boulder City as a photographer for the Bureau of Reclamation. Leaving the Bureau in 1941, he went to Panama, returning in 1948. With the Bureau, he did much documentary photography and, during the war, made motion pictures for the Air Force in Central and South America.

At present he is teaching a watercolor class at Nevada Southern University in Las Vegas.

He is a member of the Nevada State Park Commission, advisory board of the Bureau of Land Management for the state of Nevada and the Lake Mead Natural History Association.

The Segerbloms have two children, a daughter, Robin, who is a sophomore at Pomona College, and a son, Tick, a sophomore at Boulder City High School.