The Haunted Hoover Dam
Just over 30 minutes south of the shimmering lights of Las Vegas sits a quiet, illustrious town brimming with antique shops, modest motels, and adorable roadside eateries. Boulder City is a far cry from the glitz and glam of Sin City, its core being a reasonably walkable stretch of shops and real estate offices with windows lined with million-dollar listings. It’s an idyllic slice of life, its manicured neighborhoods constructed with the sprawling Lake Mead set in the background like a matte painting.
The Hoover Dam sits on the southwest tip of the lake, at the border of Arizona and Nevada, where the Colorado River empties into Lake Mead. Before the dam’s development began in 1931, Boulder City didn’t even exist. Construction of the Hoover Dam required housing for contractors, which ultimately led to the development of the small city. Though the dam was an improvement for Nevada and surrounding states, it also became a hotbed for tragedy and the cause for an entire town to be wiped off the map completely.
What is the haunted story behind the Hoover Dam?
From the more than 100 lives lost during construction to the men and women who committed suicide at the dam, that it’s haunted is no shock. Some even believe that the dam has ties to Satanism, with symbolic statues and intentional design elements linking the structure to Lucifer.
Tales of spirits trapped within the dam are told from Boulder City to Sin City, where even more iconic ghost stories await the bravest travelers. Book a Las Vegas ghost tour today for more desert haunts, including the former mob bosses likely responsible for the bodies entombed at the bottom of Lake Mead.
Daming the Colorado
When the construction of the Hoover Dam was proposed before it began in 1931, the Colorado River and its surrounding landscapes were quite different. Budding civilizations were slowly moving in on land south of the river, which highlighted a considerable issue with settling the land—dangerous seasonal flooding.
In 1928, the federal government initiated the Boulder Canyon Project Act, which allowed for the development of a dam built southeast of Las Vegas along the Nevada/Arizona border. For a spell from 1922 to 1933, the dam served to honor the efforts of then-President Herbert Hoover, who worked to have the Colorado divided into two basins. In 1933, Hoover turned the office over to President Franklin Roosevelt, and shortly after, Secretary Harold Ickes had the name of the dam changed to Boulder Dam.
By 1947, Hoover’s name was back on the dam, and though it’s remained there ever since, you may still find materials calling it the “Boulder Dam” floating about the small town of Boulder.
A Town Disappeared
Boulder City wasn’t the only town that the Hoover Dam ultimately affected. However, unlike Boulder, St. Thomas, NV, didn’t benefit from the construction of the imposing structure. Rather, its development spelled a certain doom for the small town, which was founded in 1865 by Mormon settlers.
A case of misfortune put the residents of St. Thomas in the path of unexpected destruction. When they first arrived in the region, they thought they were still in Utah and Arizona territories. Had they known their actual location, they would have likely continued and settled elsewhere, avoiding eventual tragedy.
Though it was technically taxes that leveled the town, as Nevada levied unpaid amounts against residents once it was determined they were within the state’s borders, construction of the Hoover Dam was its final death knell. A casualty of the Hoover Dam, St. Thomas was right in the path of the waters that would rise to create Lake Mead.
The settlers who remained were offered reimbursement from the government, but many still refused to leave until they had to. In 1938, the last of its people, Hugh Lord, boarded his boat and paddled to safety, setting fire to his home as he bid it adieu and the waters rose to his door.
St. Thomas remained submerged for years, but recessions in the waterline in 1945, 1963, and finally in 2012 uncovered what remained of its 19th-century architecture. Though the people of St. Thomas left without incident, the emotional charge of being forced out of one’s home has undoubtedly left an imprint on the large structure responsible for their troubles.
Death on the Dam’s Rim
The submerging of St. Thomas was a calculated loss, one that benefited both Arizona and Nevada tenfold. Unfortunately, St. Thomas wasn’t the only sacrifice made for the sake of the dam’s development. It’s believed that over the five years it took to complete the Hoover Dam, at least 96 workers perished.
That number is even expected by some to be quite higher, with some estimates topping out at around 120 as the dam’s official records fail to count anyone who died off-site, even if their death was related to an injury incurred on the job site. There’s even a discrepancy where 42 workers were said to have died from pneumonia despite the lack of cases in Boulder residents in the same timeframe.
That, alone, is a lot of lost souls and restless spirits looking to return to a home that’s no longer theirs. Death and loss have been a constant theme surrounding the dam, with murder and suicide staining what’s meant to be a symbol of progress and development. Instead, some believe it’s a symbol of Satan because of its physical layout, which, when viewed from above, looks like a head with two horns.
Could that be what continues to attract death? Why many have decided to end their lives off the rim of the Hoover Dam? Was the murder of 25-year-old Marion Berry Ouma all a plan devised by the sinister underbelly that actually has a supernatural hold on the historic dam? It all sounds so fantastical at first, but as the body count increases and spectral energy becomes more dense, it may become an idea that’s difficult to scoff at.
A Haunting of Hoover Dam
There are many names that could be associated with the ghosts who have claimed Hoover Dam as theirs. From the many workers who never saw the dam’s completion to any of the jumpers who claimed the structure as their final resting place, the list is extensive and will likely continue to grow as the years go on.
As the bitter remains of St. Thomas bask in the sun at the bottom of a receding lake and the unsolved crime of Marion Ouma’s murder goes without answers, more and more spirits feed off the amassing supernatural energy. Workers will continue to complain of unusual noises and missing equipment, lives will continue to be lost, and whispers of Satan’s presence will chill some to their core.
Though the Hoover Dam has its own spirits to marvel over, Las Vegas is not to be outdone. Book a Las Vegas ghost tour to explore Sin City and visit some of the city’s most haunted locations. Be sure to follow our blog for even more ghostly tales from the desert, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Sources:
https://www.nps.gov/articles/nevada-and-arizona-hoover-dam.htm
https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/nature/st-thomas-nevada.htm
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-thomas-nevada
https://tataandhoward.com/four-haunted-dams-united-states/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUteBiaWGuY
https://hoodline.com/2024/08/new-leads-sought-in-1979-hoover-dam-cold-case-of-heiress-marion-berry-ouma/
