The stuff that legends (and dreams) are made of.
Just what is this plaque with a dog on it in the canyon wall, just across from the escalator leading to the new Visitor Center at the dam site?
Well…Take one little dog.
Add a bunch of hardened construction workers. Mix in long, tough working hours in a hot river gorge, with the dog running around every day, and the scene is set.
This story has persisted and over the years has added to the mystique of Hoover Dam. Everyone is fascinated by the awesome achievement of this dam, and the story of the dog adds a human element.
The story goes like this…A dog of unknown origins was born, with black fur and big paws. A construction worker found him, when hardly weaned, and put him in his transport truck, which took workers from Boulder City in Nevada to the dam site and back each day. Thereafter, he became the dam’s dog. Everyday he rode the transports with the men, and scampered around the site at will. As the construction got higher, he also rode the skips, which are sort-of open-air elevators to get to higher levels. In addition, he learned to race very happily and easily on catwalks swinging 700 feet above the river. The men were amazed as most animals cannot do this.
The dog ran all over the site, and belonged to all the men. If he missed the regular transports for a ride back to Boulder City after a hard day at the dam site, he never hitched a ride on a truck that wasn’t associated with the dam construction. Nobody could quite work out how he knew which trucks to flag (bark) down!
Everyone wanted to feed him, and of course, being a dog, he accepted. But then he got sick, and the workers were very worried. They made a plan with the commissary for the dam construction at Boulder City; that the commissary would pack a lunch for the dog too, and they put up signs that no-one was to feed the dog in between meals. So, every day the commissary also packed a lunch sack for the dog, which he carried in his mouth when he boarded the transports in the morning. At the construction site, he put his sack with the workers’ lunch pails. When the lunch whistle blew, he raced to eat with the workers, waiting patiently for one of the men to open his sack.
Most of the workers gave a few dollars to the commissary, to help pay for the dog’s food. The money also helped pay for his license and collars. There’s a story that once a man, who wasn’t a construction worker, kicked the dog. The workers attacked the man so badly that the dam police had to be called. Supposedly, when the police chief arrived on the scene he stopped the attack because it was his duty, but he said that he wished he could finish the job!
One extremely hot day the dog lay down under a transport for some shade. The driver didn’t know, and later drove off. News of the dog’s death had a very sobering effect on all the men, and many wept openly, especially as they carved out his grave in the solid rock.
Life on the construction site was very difficult, and the dog had given the men something more light-hearted to think about, and taken their minds off the day-to-day grind.
If you are able to visit Hoover Dam, make a point of finding the plaque, hot in the sun, and imagine the lives of the dam workers and their dog mascot as they constructed this engineering marvel.
(This article was also posted on Viv’s WordPress Blog.
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