Father and son died on the same day
 
Father and son died on the same day

Even after 81 years, myths still cling to Hoover Dam. No workers are entombed in the concrete and the hardhat was not invented there. But one story about the project is absolutely true. On Dec. 20, 1921, a surveying crew got caught in a flash flood and John Gregory Tierney was lost forever in the raging Colorado River, one of the first casualties of the project. Then on Dec. 20, 1935, 14 years later to the day, the job site suffered its last fatal accident A worker fell to his death from one of the two intake towers. That man was Patrick William Tierney, J.G. Tierney’s only son. Their names appear in raised metal on a plaque near the dam, never to be forgotten.

The Coffee Cup
 
The Coffee Cup

For nearly a quarter century, the Coffee Cup has been synonymous with good eating and a sense of community. California transplants Al and Carri Stevens first fired up the grill in 1984, and decades later, in a new location five storefronts down, they’re still at it — now with the help of their grown children, son, Terry, and daughter, Lindsay. At the Coffee Cup, customers are considered family. “This restaurant means so much to Boulder City — the whole family does,” said longtime regular Bill Burke, a retired National Park ranger. More than a restaurant, the Coffee Cup in a little slice of western culinary Americana. Al’s pork chili-verde omelet, which celebrity chef Guy Fieri featured on his Food Network series “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” and the tall-glass Bloody Marys served with a thick wedge of bacon as a stir-stick, have given the Coffee Cup a national reputation as a stopover for RVs and SUVs en route to the nearby Hoover Dam.

Filling Lake Mead’s third straw
 
Filling Lake Mead’s third straw

Now that the tunnel is connected to the intake structure below the surface of Lake Mead, engineers will put in a temporary cap so they can remove the tunneling machine and clear the way for the water.