Originally called the Boulder Dam Project Act signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1928 was championed by his Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, from inception to finish the project would span three presidencies.
🔺As Secretary of Commerce (under Presidents Harding and Coolidge), Hoover was the driving force behind the project. He chaired the Colorado River Commission, negotiated the Colorado River Compact (1922) that divided water rights among the basin states, and helped draft and push the Boulder Canyon Project Act through Congress.
⏺️ He was elected president in November 1928 and took office in March 1929.
⏺️ On June 25, 1929, President Hoover signed the proclamation that made the Colorado River Compact effective (a required condition for the project to proceed).
⏺️ In 1930, his Secretary of the Interior, Ray Lyman Wilbur, officially named it Hoover Dam at a groundbreaking ceremony.
🔺Construction under Hoover:
⏺️ Bids were opened and the contract awarded to Six Companies, Inc. in March 1931 (while Hoover was still president).
⏺️ Hoover ordered work to begin earlier than originally planned (in spring 1931 instead of later that year).
⏺️ Actual heavy construction (river diversion, etc.) ramped up in 1931–1932 under his administration.
The project employed roughly 21K workers at the height of the depression 96 of whom would lose their lives during this massive undertaking