Boulder City brimming with history, attractions

Boulder City is 23 miles from Las Vegas on U.S. Highway 93 on the way to Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Hoover Dam. Follow U.S. 93/95 south toward Railroad Pass. Watch your speed after the U.S. 95 turnoff toward Searchlight and Laughlin, for highway speeds diminish as you approach Boulder City. U.S. 93 becomes Nevada Way through the historic downtown.

Boulder City was born in 1931 as a government plan to house management and workers on the Boulder Canyon Project. During the Great Depression, thousands of men flocked to Southern Nevada for jobs during the construction of Hoover Dam. Company towns are not unusual in Nevada, where mining camps often began that way, but this town was an early example of urban master planning.

The town centered on a main downtown area for business, commerce, services and government. Utilities were put in place first, not as an afterthought as in many older communities. Planners set aside space for parks and recreation. Temporary mass housing went up in a hurry, but substantial homes for upper and middle managers were built to last along neighborhood streets fanning out from downtown. Prohibition of liquor was the law. Gambling was not allowed.

The government later relinquished control of the town to its citizens, who continue many of the original precepts. Today, Boulder City deserves its reputation for being clean and green. It limits development to what it deems to be beneficial to its residents, now numbering about 15,500. You still can’t gamble in Boulder City, but liquor became legal in 1969, and the town now has a brewery.

In downtown Boulder City, many original structures and residences still stand, including vintage municipal buildings. Quaint houses and a few apartment buildings built 75 years ago grace shady side streets in the historical district. Parks create shaded open space for picnics, games, special events and quiet moments on a park bench. Compact Old Town invites strolling along landscaped sidewalks past restaurants, stores, boutiques and antiques shops and emporiums.

A growing collection of handsome statues of historical figures, dam workers, children at play, animals and other figures graces landscaped areas along Nevada Way and Arizona Street. Boulder City’s Public Art Scape exhibit, begun in 2007, displays 35 pieces, including 13 new sculptures this year. Sculptors loan their work for a year in return for publicity, exposure and security. Many pieces end up in the city’s permanent outdoor sculpture collection.

Built in 1933, the handsome white Boulder Dam Hotel on Arizona Street housed many dignitaries, including a few presidents. In later decades, it began a long decline. Listed in 1982 on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel soon underwent restoration.

Today the hotel is once again a meeting place for locals, a center for special events and a charming place for overnight visitors. The Boulder Dam Hotel offers 22 rooms and suites ranging from $70 to $100, including breakfast in the main floor restaurant with its varied menu for breakfast and lunch. From the elegant lobby, step up to the next level that houses boutique shops, the Boulder City Art Guild’s gallery and the Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum, where interactive exhibits and a short film retrace history.

Boulder City offers many recreational pursuits, including golf at two public courses, walking and hiking trails, challenging mountain bike routes and thrilling zipline rides. Visitors can also take a weekend train ride at the Nevada Southern Railway Museum. Lake Mead and its many activities are nearby, and Hoover Dam draws crowds daily to tour the mighty structure that finally conquered the Colorado River, spurred regional growth and gave birth to an attractive desert oasis called Boulder City.

Margo Bartlett Pesek’s column appears on Sundays.