The Tierneys and the Hoover Dam

One of the highlights for me of a trip to the Las Vegas area many moons ago was a visit to the Hoover Dam. It was at a time before 9/11 when you could go inside the dam itself and admire the massive turbines and walk along the sluice gates. What was astonishing to me was the sheer size of the structure and the fact that a major Highway, 93, ran across the top. The Hoover Dam bypass, opened in 2010, means this is no longer the case.

Situated some thirty miles south-east of Vegas, near Boulder City, a town that was originally built to house the construction workers, and on the border of Nevada and Arizona, it is 726 feet high and tapers from a 650 feet base at the bottom to a 45 feet top and 1,244 feet long. A particular feature of its design is that it curves upstream, forcing the majority of the water against the rocks of the canyon. The reservoir which the dam formed is known as Lake Mead and is the largest by volume in the States.

The Hoover dam construction project was part of Roosevelt’s New Deal of public-financed works and was finished two years ahead of schedule in 1936, the 10,000 or so workers taking just five years to complete it. Although the project was only approved by Congress in 1928, significant survey work had been undertaken from the early 1920s. The Boulder Dam – its name was changed to commemorate President Hoover in 1947 – was officially dedicated on 30^th September 1935 by Roosevelt. At the time it was the world’s largest hydroelectric power station and the arch-gravity dam was the world’s largest concrete structure.

The power of the river and the inclement conditions, together with the rudimentary health and safety standards prevailing at the time and the exploitation of workers who were desperate for any kind of paid work, meant that it was a dangerous place to work. Officially, 96 workers will killed during the survey and construction phase of the project but many feel that this is somewhat of an understatement. Accidents went unreported and workers who were injured but died either in hospital or at home were not included in the death toll.

What is incontrovertible is that John Gregory Tierney was the first fatality. Of Irish descent Tierney was a hard-rock miner, working with a survey crew looking for a suitable spot to dam the Colorado. On 20^th December 1921 John was caught by a flash flood which carried him downstream. Tierney’s body was never recovered and it took almost two weeks for news of the tragic accident to reach Las Vegas. According to the Clark County Review newspaper on 6^th January 1922, a spokesperson commented on the accident in a rather matter-of-fact manner; “when Tierney lost his life it completely demoralised our forces. The rising Colorado river has made the work extremely hazardous and about 15 of our men quit immediately. However, they will be replaced and the work will go on.”

And on it went.

The last recorded death occurred exactly 14 years to the day of John’s death. An electrician’s helper fell some 320 feet from one of the two intake towers on the Arizona side of the dam and was swept away, his body eventually being recovered on the upstream side near where Lake Mead was filling up.

His name?

Patrick William Tierney, John’s only son, the two deaths book-marking the construction of the dam, a remarkable coincidence that the Las Vegas Evening Review was the first to spot in its report the following day.