How Boulder Dam Became Hoover Dam

The story of how Boulder Dam became Hoover Dam is an interesting example of politics influencing the naming of one of America’s greatest engineering achievements.

Although the dam was constructed in Black Canyon on the Colorado River, the project was originally known as the Boulder Canyon Project. The name Boulder Dam became widely associated with the undertaking before construction began.

In September 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur announced that the dam would be named Hoover Dam, honoring President Herbert Hoover, who had played an important role in negotiating the Colorado River Compact. Congress subsequently recognized the name.

However, when Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Hoover in the 1932 presidential election, the name became a political issue. Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, disliked the decision to name the dam after Hoover and directed government officials to call it Boulder Dam instead. When Roosevelt dedicated the completed dam in 1935, that was the name he used.

The controversy finally ended on April 30, 1947, when President Harry S. Truman signed legislation restoring the name Hoover Dam, which it has retained ever since.

An interesting bit of history: Hoover Dam was named for a Republican president, renamed under a Democratic administration, and eventually had its original name restored by another Democratic president.