ABSTRACT
Intense battles marked the beginnings of the debates, the actual construction, and even the dedication of Boulder Dam. First proposed by Mark Rose and the Imperial Irrigation District in 1911, the dam was fought over by western states, debated by farmers, power companies, media moguls, Congress, and Bureau of Reclamation engineers. Finally approved in 1928, and constructed from 1931-36, Boulder Dam established the foundation for mid-century state-building discourses that were infused with the rhetoric
of dominating nature and subordinating it to human ends. The Colorado River was variously described as a “tyrant,” a “raging river,” and a “natural menace.” In order to overcome these natural barriers the Bureau of Reclamation, Congress, and several Presidents of the U.S. acted (sometimes in consort, sometimes at cross-purposes) to discursively construct the river as a “natural resource.”
