Begin construction. Nine a contract awarded in 1931, a combine of six Major Construction firms. Men and machines went to work to build this dam of unprecedented size. This modern Civil Engineering wonder. Reclamation engineers rushed to completion specifications, and design drawings. Crews at the dam site completed their surveys and investigations. Sender of mans determination to conquer the colorado reverberated between the sheer cliffs of black canyon as construction got underway. The first major task was to divert the river around the dam site. To do this, for tunnels, two on each side, were drilled through the canyon walls. Diameter, they averaged 4000 feet in length. Holes were packed with dynamite and blasted. After each explosion, shovels and trucks entered the tunnels, marked out the shattered rock, and dumped it in nearby gorges. Explosions rocked the camera the canyon for two years before the placement of concrete began. Acrobatic workman called high scalers, prepared the canyon walls for each blast. Suspended on ropes, they drilled holes in the rock and loaded them with dynamite. After each explosion, these daredevils prying loose rock and clearing the walls of debris. In november 1932, the Colorado River was diverted. Under control for the first time in its history, the river flowed around and past the site. Men in truck dumped the rock embankment. Forcing its river from its ageold bed through the huge diversion tubes. A second earth and rock dam was built across the river above the tunnel outlets downstream. Keeping water from backing into the foundation area. Isolated and protected from the river, the site was pumped dry. Men and machines dug 135 feet the low the old river level to reach bedrock. Excavating over 2 million cubic yards of rock and sand. As cleanup of the site exposed the ancient bad of the Colorado River, geologists read the history of what happened ages ago. Workman cleaned and prepared bed Rock Services to receive the first concrete. Assuring utmost stability for hoover dams foundation. From the mixing plants, concrete was dispatched to all points of construction. Nine anchored aerial cable waves spanning the canyon from rim to rim, lowered the concrete into the forms and handled other supplies in agreement as well. As the first bucket of concrete settled into its foundation on june 6, 1933, hoover dam began its rise from the depths of black canyon. Hoover dam has pointed the way to the fullest utilization of the Colorado Rivers resources. Truly, a modern Civil Engineering wonder. All weekend long, American History tv is joining our Comcast Cable partners to showcase the history of boulder, colorado. To learn more about the cities on our 2014 to work, visit www. Cspan. Org localcontent. We continue with a look of the history of boulder, colorado. This is American History tv, on cspan3. Actually, the highways you drove up through Boulder Canyon early 1870s. He i think it was finished in 1871. It was built specifically to go to caribou. Into the mining game early. Boulder was still the supply town, and wagons were the rule of thumb for a lot of mining. To town and aore wagon, you bought your dynamite and supplies, and everything else. Put it back in the same wagon, and went back to your mine. Boulder figures into all of this very early. We are in western boulder county, near the site of the old town of caribou. It is a complete ghost town, and write down their in right down there in that meadow, was a town that was built to exploit the silver resources discovered in 1869. Boulder was the supply town. ,hen the discoveries were made boulder was a small community, still looking for its identity in the world. It was supporting agriculture. And they needed to be a place where commodities could be brought in, and then brought to the mines. But caribou was easily the most important silver Mining Center in colorado, probably up until the mid1870s. Beginning in 1869 with the discovery, you have 5, 6, 7 years of silver production that outstrips everyplace else in the state. Of course, the original discoveries that lead people to come to colorado were gold. Silver was sort of a novelty for a while. This was a serious, big time deposit. There were several large mines, the largest of all being the caribou mine, which operated quite successfully into the early 1880s. The 1880s, the price of silver had dropped significantly. Down even0s, it was further. It is a steady curve the just goes right down. In 1893 you have the silver panic. That pretty well finishes it off. Aboutou have to remember silver mining, which was what was premier league going on going onprimarily here, was that the buyer of silver was the United States government. , so tod a contract speak, that Congress Passed in the form of legislation. They were buying silver at a fixed price. However, silver was a commodity that was fluctuating on the market. Silver fore of something that you would obtain just on the market might be completely different from what the government was paying. Governments weight they were paying was about 25 higher than the silver market value. So the government was losing money. They were coining silver dollars, . 50 pieces, quarters, nickels, dimes. There is only so much that can go into coinage. The rest of the silver then had to be sold on the market. That was being sold for a significantly less amount. The other thing you need to realize, when you start throwing all of these silver mines together, is by 1879, the lead had started to produce. Iod, it wasar per producing more mineral wealth than the rest of colorado put together. It made this production shrink to almost insignificance. Race for this immediate area played out. However, there are deeper deposits. Those are being successfully mined even today. But its not right here on top of the hill. Tom hendricks is cross mine has been operating since the 1970s. He has had his ups and downs, just like the price of silver has had its ups and downs. Present time, he is optimistic about mining in the future. Tom is actually mining deeper underground than most of the mines were operating up here. There is a mineable portion of ore that has gold in it. Its not just silver, its also gold. You see all these little veins shot through here. Those carry the gold. You can see the white quartz. The calcite is actually leaching out through the rock. See those dots will become stalactites and stalagmites. Most of the mining today is on a much larger scale. Tom hendricks is one of the last of the small Mining Operations in the state. Operations, carried on by big multinational areorations, or the rule the rule. Can betory and legacy reduced to nothing but production numbers. At the same time, it is an interesting and colorful story. Readinghave a good time the material, and still go through some of the more dry statistics, and see that there really is something that is important u. S. Today. O us today. We travel to u. S. Cities to learn about their cities and literary life. This weekend we partnered with comcast for visit to boulder colorado. This is east in the garden, because it is a the beast in the garden. We wouldve called it the beast, the melon. The mountain lion. Boulder is a beautiful, seemingly natural place. In many ways, it has been altered by human kind. When you get this wild animal coming into an artificial landscape, you actually can cause changes in the behavior of that animal. Favorite foodns is venison. The one dear week. Deer a week. The city attracted the deer. We had heard it living in downtown boulder. When the lions came back into the area, they were in open space. Then they discovered there were deer in town. Then the lions discovered they could eat dogs and cats. That is food for them. The lions were learning, and they have learned, that this is where they will find food. There are certainly food up there too, but there is lots to eat in town. Chautauqua is a retreat in a enrichment,ace, for and lightman, entertainment, and coming together. The people who were intended to be the audience were really what we would call the middle class. The programs are very simple. Of thenation of speakers day, and a variety of what you might consider lowbrow and highbrow entertainment opera, classical music, and probably will we would consider the vaudeville of that day. Watch all of our events from boulder today at noon eastern on tv and sunday afternoon on cspan3. Bluebird the Herbert Hoover National Library hosts
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