Boulder City exudes small-town friendliness

Boulder City’s location along U.S. Highway 93 near Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Colorado River ensures a consistent stream of travelers. The former company town, about 30 miles from Las Vegas, welcomes all with small-town friendliness.

It is listed as one of the country’s best places to retire, and about half of the community’s more than 15,000 residents are 45 or older. The crime rate is low and the town is free of gang activity. Growth is strictly limited and controlled by the city. You don’t often see litter or vandalism in the “best little town by a dam site.”

The first planned community in the state, Boulder City was created in the early 1930s by the federal government to house 5,000 men who would be working on the Boulder Dam Project in Black Canyon on the Colorado River.

Boulder City’s historic core includes streets of charming brick and tile bungalows where ranking managers were housed.

The town was designed as a clean, wholesome environment with plenty of open space and recreational facilities, but no gambling or liquor. It remains one of only two Nevada towns (along with Panaca) where gambling is prohibited, although two casinos bookend the town along U.S. 93 at Railroad Pass and on the approach to the dam.

Boulder City remained under federal control until 1959, when the city was incorporated and started managing itself. The ban on liquor remained until 1969. Today the town has bars, cocktail lounges and restaurants serving beer, wine and liquor, as well as its own craft brewery.

The grand old Boulder City Hotel not only offers excellent dining and appealing rooms and suites but features an art gallery and a museum chronicling the history of the city and Boulder Dam, known since 1947 as Hoover Dam. The town also boasts the Nevada State Railroad Museum and excursions on the Nevada Southern Railway.

Downtown Boulder City offers walking tours of its historical sites and the city’s artscapes of murals and a collection of statuary started in 2006. This eclectic public art now numbers 39 works by different sculptors in varied media.

The city’s old commercial downtown covers a grid of streets near U.S. 93. Buildings house the businesses, services and offices necessary for life in any town, as well as cafes, bars and fine-dining spots. Adding life and color is a quirky blend of specialty shops such as craft stores, ice cream and candy shops, antiques stores and clothing boutiques. Many visitors stop in Boulder City just for the shopping.

Margo Bartlett Pesek’s Trip of the Week column appears on Sundays.