The construction of Hoover Dam was the largest Federal project since the Panama Canal.

It became an instant tourist attraction drawing hundreds of prominent visitors and government bureaucrats. Unfortunately, there was no place for these people to stay that was befitting their station in life.

In 1932, the Bureau of Reclamation granted W.F. Grey a permit to build a hotel. Construction of the Colonial-Revival Boulder City Hotel began in 1932, and the hotel's grand opening was in December 1933.

Early visitors included the infamous, the famous and undoubtedly, the common: Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Senator Robert Taft, the Maharajah of Indore, the Duchess of Westminster, Crown Prince Olav & Princess Martha of Norway, Boris Karloff, Shirley Temple, hellfire evangelist Minnie Kennedy and her "conman" husband "Whataman" Hudson, Fibber McGee & Molly, Pope Pius XII before he was pope.

The hotel was a popular, elegant and prestigious resort up and into the 1940's.

The onset of World War II, changed this pleasant and economically prosperous picture.

With the Japanese bombing of Peal Harbor in December of 1941, security at Hoover Dam and other strategic facilities along the west coast was greatly increased. Tours were forbidden and civilian traffic over the dam was closely monitored. These restrictions, gas rationing, and the general tone of the times greatly reduced the tourist trade. The hotel business in Boulder City plummeted.

Since then the hotel has gone through a series of owners and uses. Its condition deteriorated, although its integrity was never seriously jeopardized. Rehabilitation commenced in 1980, and the restored hotel remains in business. The Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum is located on the first floor of the hotel.

Source: NRHP Nomination Form

...there was no place for these people to stay that was befitting their station in life.

...the infamous, the famous and undoubtedly, the common....

Other than British Petroleum executives, did people still talk this way as recently as 1982?

Regarding "hellfire evangelist Minnie Kennedy," the following notice appeared in Time Magazine's Milestones, Sep. 28, 1931:

Divorced & Married. Rev. Guy Edward ("What-a-Man!") Hudson from Mrs. L. Margaret Newton-Hudson; in Las Vegas, Nev. Next day the Rev. Hudson married at Boulder City, Nev. Mrs. Minnie (''Ma") Kennedy, estranged mother of newlywed Aimee Semple McPherson Hutton, for the second time. Their first marriage was annulled several months ago when "Ma" Kennedy Hudson discovered the existence of Margaret Newton-Hudson. "What-a-Man!" said "Ma" of her bigamist husband to reporters last July when three other women claimed him as their own. "My boy is mine," she said. "Of course I didn't marry a man that no other woman wanted. My boy has 'it' and I have him."

America's reaction to the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center was in most respects similar to America's reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the case of Hoover Dam, access was severely restricted, and since the opening of the Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge in 2010, through traffic is no longer permitted on the dam.