Colorado River Quotes
When the dam was under construction, it was referred to as the “Boulder Canyon Project”. However, the Great Depression was raging and President Hoover had to run for a second term the following year with a terrible economy. Hoover’s Secretary of the Interior, named it “Hoover Dam” and on February 14, 1931, Congress made the name "Hoover Dam" official. Hoover lost to FDR, and the Interior Secretary—a Republican—sent this memo calling the dam, “Boulder Dam” for the first time. At the time Hoover was one of the least popular names in the United States. The Stock Market crash and the Depression occurred on "Hoover's watch." Hoover was blamed not only for the economic crisis, but with being hard-hearted by not using the power of the Government to help the suffering families. Ickes thought it was essential that the public overcome their fear and hopelessness. Hoover was just the image that most people wanted to forget, and this in large part motivated the name change.
Rivers that wind and do not follow a straight course actually change the course and the location of the center of the river bed with surprising rapidity. Some bends of the Colorado river system have moved 50 miles since the late 19th century when the first agreements and laws were made about borders, rights to water, jurisdiction, etc. Due to the centrifugal force of the flowing water on the river banks at the curved bends of the river those bends extend outward and the river bed follows.
