History of the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association
1933
A southern California theater operator named Earl Brothers is granted a permit by the Bureau of Reclamation to establish the Boulder Dam Tourist Service Bureau [later known as the Hoover Dam Visitors Bureau] in Boulder City. Brothers sells brochures, booklets, postcards, and memorabilia about the Boulder Canyon Project to tourists and keeps small displays of construction artifacts. As part of his effort to promote the Boulder City/Hoover Dam construction project and to preserve its history, Brothers begins screening a Bureau of Reclamation-produced film on the dam's construction called The Story of Boulder Dam.
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Boulder Dam Tourist Service
Bureau, May 21, 1937
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1935
In April, Elton M. Garrett, vice-principal of Boulder City Schools, founds Boulder City's first "official" museum. With the support of school children, the faculty, and the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce, Garrett appropriates a room in the basement of the school building where small artifacts such as hard hats, drill bits, cable sections, and a bosun's chair are displayed. Later in the year, newly elected Chamber of Commerce president J. C. Manix announces ambitious plans for the Chamber to sponsor a museum built on land acquired from the Bureau of Reclamation and staffed by volunteers. Among artifacts acquired by the Chamber for such a museum are a muck truck, rock and mineral samples taken from Black Canyon during dam construction, and an 8-cubic-yard concrete bucket. The bucket is put on display behind the old Terminal Building on what is now Hotel Plaza.
Las Vegas Evening Review-
Journal, December 12, 1935
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When Hoover Dam construction is finished, however, most of Boulder City's population leaves and the Chamber of Commerce's ambitious museum plans die. The artifacts the Chamber collected are disbursed Elton Garrett's museum in the school basement is dismantled when the room is needed for school activities, and he takes his artifacts home. Throughout the next 45 years, Garrett keeps a quasi-museum of photographs, artifacts, and mementoes for private viewing.
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1938
The National Park Service establishes a museum in the old Six Companies Hospital on Park Street. On display are flora and fauna from the newly established Boulder Dam Recreational Area, as well as archeological relics from the Lost City excavations in the Moapa Valley.
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National Park Service
museum renovation, 1936
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1966 - 1967
The Boulder City Cultural Center is conceived by a group of Boulder citizens including Elton Garrett. Their idea is to found an umbrella organization for the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce, the Boulder City Art Guild, a yet-to-be-organized Boulder City museum, and to provide a venue for other cultural endeavors for the citizens of Boulder City. By February 1967, more than $1,000 has been pledged toward building a cultural center designed by Bureau of Reclamation draughtsman Maynard Whitebread. In March 1967 Earl Brothers, who had established the Boulder Dam Tourist Service Bureau in 1933, gives the Cultural Center $1,000 toward building a museum.
Las Vegas Review Journal, January 15, 1967
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1968
The Boulder City Cultural Center is incorporated on April 15.
1969
Boulder City sells Tract 88 at 1495 and 1497 Nevada Way to the Cultural Center for $1.
1974
The Boulder City Chamber of Commerce builds a dome structure at 1497 Nevada Way to house its offices.
1980
The Boulder City Art Guild acquires the former Sproul Homes sales office at 833 Nevada Highway and moves it to 1495 Nevada Way to house the Cultural Center office and the Art Guild's gallery.
In May 1980, Boulder City businessman Robert Ackerson and his wife, Carol, establish a historical society to mount plaques on Boulder City's historic buildings. This unnamed historical society also plans celebrations for Boulder City's 50th founding anniversary [1981] and Hoover Dam's 50th dedication anniversary [1985].
Boulder City News, May 8, 1980
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In August 1980 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announces its intent to sell a large park it owns along Nevada Way at Birch and Cherry Streets for $74,000 to the city of Boulder City with money provided by former Hoover Dam pioneers Red and Catherine Wixson. The Wixsons stipulate the site be dedicated to Frank Crowe, Construction Superintendent on the Hoover Dam project, who was Wixson's boss and business partner, and that a museum be built on the property.
Robert and Carol Ackerson's historical society becomes the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association and is formally established in September. 1980. Artist Cliff Segerblom designs a building that the museum uses as its logo for several years.
1981
The Boulder City Museum and Historical Association files its incorporation papers on January 26.
Proposed museum in
Frank Crowe Park, 1981
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1982
The $750,000 cost of putting a museum in Frank Crowe Park is beyond the Association's means. A long search begins to find a home for the museum's growing collection of archives and artifacts related to the construction of Boulder City and Hoover Dam.
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1983
Boulder City Manager Terry Zerkle asks the Bureau of Reclamation to consider surplusing Boulder City's water filter plant on Railroad Avenue and Colorado Street to the city. The city would lease a portion of the building to the Museum Association, but reserve the building's pumping apparatus as a standby water filtration facility. Negotiations between the city and the Association last for 2 years.
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Former city water
filtration plant
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1984
On January 20, 1984 Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Bill Plummer proposes to the Association Board that the museum might be given use of an abandoned building and outdoor display area in the old Bureau of Mines complex on Date Street and Railroad Avenue. A building committee is assigned the task of investigating the offer and determining costs for renovation, while still considering the old water filtration plant as an alternative.
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The Association's building committee on October 18 determines that the Bureau of Mines property offered by the Bureau of Reclamation requires too much renovation and would be prohibitively expensive. The Board declines Reclamation's offer.
1986
On September 25 the Association's Board of Directors decides that not only would renovation costs of the old filtration plant be too high, but the city's plan to reactivate it as a standby filtration facility would make operation of a museum impossible. The Board votes not to pursue it.
1987
The Association's first newsletter is published in April.
The Association investigates two properties for possible use as a museum. First is the Boulder Dam Hotel, where the museum looks into the possibility of renovating space in the basement. But the building's poor condition makes renovation costs exorbitant. At the same time the Nevada Legislature is considering establishing a Southern Nevada branch of the Nevada Railroad Museum, and the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association is asked whether it would like to have exhibit space in that facility. The Association agrees to commit $150,000 toward adding Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum space to the Railroad Museum.
1988
In March, Liz and Kae Pohe, owners of the Six Companies Store gift shop, offer a portion of their building at 444 Hotel Plaza rent-free for temporary use as a museum. The Association opens its first exhibit space on September 30, 1988 -- the 53rd anniversary of Hoover Dam's dedication.
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Museum at 444 Hotel Plaza, 1988-92
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Museum exhibits at
444 Hotel Plaza, 1988-92
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By the end of 1988, the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association has accumulated $120,000 toward establishing a permanent museum. This money was raised through Memorial Board contributions, book and gift sales, private donations, and Kae Pohe's 1985 Penny Power Project. Volunteers that year, as part of Hoover Dam's 50th anniversary celebrations, laid 21.9 miles of pennies--a world record--and raised $10,000 for the museum.
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1989 - 1991
In 1989, the first year of its operation, the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum attracts more than 8,000 visitors from throughout the United States and around the world.
When the Hoover Dam Visitors Bureau closes in 1990 after 57 years in business, the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum begins showing The Story of Hoover Dam construction film.
| In 1991, the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association becomes official host for the annual 31ers banquet. The 31ers was founded in 1956 when a group of men and women who came to southern Nevada in 1931 to build Boulder City and Hoover Dam began meeting once a year for dinner and memories. The 31ers still meet today and attendance is open to the families and descendents of Hoover Dam builders, as well as to Boulder citizens who have been resident for 31 years. By the end of 1991, the museum averages 1,000 visitors a month. |
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1992
A state-wide budget shortfall postpones indefinitely construction of the southern Nevada branch of the Railroad Museum, and with it, the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association's plans to become a part of it. At the same time the museum looks into the possibility of buying the historic Boulder Dam Hotel and turning it into museum space, Chamber of Commerce offices, and a cultural center. These plans are thwarted, however, when the hotel's owners enter a purchase agreement with someone else.
1993
Kae and Liz Pohe begin charging the museum $750 a month rent, but provide more space for exhibits. Boulder City architect Alan Stromberg and graphic artist Paul Barnes design a new museum logo with a more appropriate 1930s Art Deco look.
Boulder Dam Hotel, c. 1945
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When the Boulder Dam Hotel sales agreement falls through, the hotel's owners enter into a new agreement with the Boulder Dam Hotel Association, Inc., a consortium which includes the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association, the Boulder City Arts Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and the city of Boulder City. The Hotel Association buys the hotel and divides the space. For the $150,000 in its building fund, the Museum Association receives 4,300 square feet. The Hotel Association begins a renovation project, designed by Tate & Snyder Architects of Las Vegas, that lasts several years.
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1994
The Museum Association obtains two 40-foot semi-trailers for storage. The museum's collections have been scattered in makeshift storage areas throughout the city, and these two semi-trailers allow much to be kept in one place. But because they are packed so full, it's impossible for museum staff to work with any of it.
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Moving the museum's
collections into storage, 1994
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1995
Boulder City Assemblywoman Gene Segerblom successfully introduces legislation which provides $20 million over a 10-year period to fund the Cultural Affairs Commission. The Hotel Association receives a grant of $350,000 to renovate the museum's space in the Boulder Dam Hotel. This is about $120,000 short of the estimate, so fund raising continues.
1996
For a fee of $1 per year, the Museum Association leases the city's old post office at 549 California Avenue for storage. Artifacts stored in the semi-trailers and in other places around Boulder City are moved to the post office building which allows the long process of sorting and cataloguing to begin.
In November, the museum signs a contract with Formations, Inc., museum exhibit designers from Portland, Oregon, to design and build new exhibits for the museum. Fund raising for this phase of the museum begins.
1997
A $100,000 grant from the Nevada State Legislature, together with several private gifts, raises enough money for renovation to begin on the museum's Boulder Dam Hotel space.
Moving the museum into the
Boulder Dam Hotel, 1998
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1998
The museum's space in the Boulder Dam Hotel is completed, and the museum moves out of 444 Hotel Plaza. On October 25 the Association hosts a grand opening and fund raiser for the museum's "work-in-progress."
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1999
Through a combination of state grants and private gifts, the Museum Association raises more than enough to cover the $375,000 cost for Formations to build the interactive exhibits. In July 1999 the Association signs the fabrication contract with Formations and work begins on this phase of the museum's program. The museum closes in December 1999 and January 2000 so the exhibits can be installed.
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Formations Inc. creating
the museum's exhibits, 1999
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Museum exhibit finished 2000
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2000
Formations completes its work for the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum and the Association hosts a grand opening on March 25. Opening of the permanent exhibits marks the completion of Phase 1 of the museum's development. Phase 2 is establishing a separate library and research facility to accommodate the growing number of collections and the scholars, journalists, filmmakers, and students who come to Boulder City for their research on the Boulder Canyon Project and Colorado River development.
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2001 - 2002
The museum board considers purchase of one of two buildings to house the archive and library. The first is the former laundry building directly behind the Boulder Dam Hotel at 1300 Wyoming Street, and the second is the old post office at 549 California Avenue the museum has been using for storage since 1996. Studies indicate purchase and renovation of the former laundry would run close to $1.3 million, while renovation of the old post office is closer to $750,000. On April 23, 2002 the Boulder City Council and the museum Board work out a deal for the museum to buy the old post office with a $100,000 grant from Clark County.
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Fund raising for the
museum's Phase 2 begins
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Boulder City Museum and Historical Association Board of Directors
Board Officers
Bill Ferrence, President
Val Olsen, Vice-President
Peggy Caspar, Secretary
Darryl Martin, Assistant Secretary
Mike Penuelas, Treasurer
Cindy Bandy, Assistant Treasurer
Board Members
Rod Woodbury
Bret Runion
Chelsea Scheppmann
Staff
Shirl Naegle, Funds Development Officer
Diane Greene, Archivist
Marie Sullivan, Gift Shop Manager
Julia Kaighn
Nellie Softchin
Karen Wildman
Boulder City Museum and Historical Association
Located in the Boulder Dam Hotel
1305 Arizona Street, Boulder City, Nevada 89005
P.O. Box 60516, Boulder City, Nevada 89006-0516
Phone: (702) 294-1988 | Fax: (702) 294-4380
E-mail: info@bcmha.org
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Copyright © 2005-2007 - All Rights Reserved - Boulder City Museum and Historical Association
E-mail Web Master at webmaster@bcmha.org
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