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Welcome to Boulder City
Local Area
Information
BOULDER CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
1497 Nevada Highway. 702-293-2034. Complete your tour of Hoover Dam
with a stop in clean, green Boulder City. Discover the town that built the
Dam; listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Visit historic
Boulder Dam Hotel, browse in shops and art galleries, dine, hike, golf. Spend
the night in our fine motels.
Attractions
BLACK CANYON RIVER Raft Tours.
1297 Nevada Highway. 702-293-3776. Experience an unforgettable journey
on the Colorado River by raft. You'll see hot springs, waterfalls, wonderful
geological formations and a wide variety of desert plants and wildlife. Rapid
free, this raft trip gently travels through 12 miles of the beautiful and
pristine Colorado River. Reservations recommended. Hotel Pick-up available.
LAKE MEAD AIR.
Boulder City Airport. 702-293-1848. Take a glorious flight over the Grand
Canyon! From your window seat you will enjoy the view of the Colorado River,
Hoover Dam and the beautiful Lake Mead. We are also available for charters,
photo shoots and rafting trip shuttles. Come visit us in clean, green Boulder
City! Group rates available.
LAKE MEAD CRUISES.
Hoover Dam Ferry Terminal . 702-293-6180. Experience outrageously good
times aboard Lake Mead Cruises' Desert Princess. Only minutes away from Las
Vegas, you'll enjoy a relaxing adventure on Lake Mead in climate controlled
comfort. Unbelievable views, great food from the galley and flowing beverages
from the full service bar, make an excursion on the Desert Princess a must!
ST. JUDE'S RANCH FOR CHILDREN.
Hwy 93/95 just south of Boulder City. 702-293-3131. Visit the beautiful
Holy Family Chapel. This Spanish-style mission overlooking beautiful Lake
Mead, was built from a parachute drying tower and donated military buildings.
Daily tours of the campus are available after. Visit our Gift Shop stocked
with hand made craft items, angels, religious items, toys and gifts.
A brief History & Description of
Boulder City, Nevada
by
David W. Toll
By all means get to the
Dam, get to the lake, don't miss them! But don't be so tightly focussed on
the Great Artifact that you miss Boulder City on the way. Anywhere else on
the state map, Boulder City would be a 5-star wonder. Here, between the
mega-attractions of Las Vegas and Hoover Dam it sometimes goes unrecognised
as the exceptionally inviting city it is.
Boulder City celebrated
its 65th birthday recently. It was bulit by the govermnent to house the workers
who built Hoover Dam, and was the first planned community built in the U.S.
After fifty years it still stands in such pronounced contrast to the
higgledy-piggledy aspect of most Nevada towns that it seems an exotic flower
indeed to have grown from the gritty desert soil.
For many years Boulder
City was operated as a government reservation; homes could not be purchased,
only leased; gambling and liquor were prohibited. This tradition ran so deep
in the community that it was nearly ten years after the feds gave up ownership
(in 1960) before laws were relaxed enough to allow liquor licenses (gambling
is still outlawed). To this day the Chamber of Commerce gets calls inquiring
if FBI background checks are required before newcomers can move into town.
They're not, of course,
but a controlled growth ordinance enacted in 1979 limits the number of new
building permits each year, so that the population increase here - so close
to the fastest-growing city in America - is barely 400 people a year.
A quiet street in Boulder City
That's part of the reason
the pace is so much slower here, and the atmosphere so much calmer than in
Las Vegas. This more relaxed environment is one of Boulder City's characteristic
attractions, but there are a jillion things to do here, with plenty of
comfortable accomodations and a varied selection of dining choices.
To explore Boulder City,
park at the center of town and walk to the Boulder Dam Hotel. Tiffany's
Restaurant adjoins the almost-exactly original lobby. When its doors are
open, and the wood paneled registration desk is manned, you will be transported
effortlessly to 1933 when this was the most luxurious hotel in Nevada, catering
to guests like Shirley Temple and the Prince and Princess of Norway.
The hotel's more recent
history has been less lofty, and it was recently acquired by a consortium
of local non-profits for an ambitious program of restoration. A Chamber of
Commerce information desk is located in the lobby, rather like a concierge,
with maps and other visitor information available 7 days a week. A gallery
featuring the work of local and regional artists also operates daily. The
Historical Society is preparing to relocate its exhibits to the hotel, and
boutique shops will take the remaing space on the main floor. About 20 of
the upstairs rooms (each one dedicated to a famous patron) are being refurbished
for guests.
Begin a pleasant stroll
at the 728-seat Boulder City Theater, the largest in Nevada when it opened
in 1932. Walk west along Arizona street past the hotel, taking in the
characteristic "Southwestern" architecture of the commercial buildings and
indulging your interests and curiosity as you go.
You'll notice that the
Backstop Sports Pub still honors a famous local guarantee: "Free Drink to
Anyone Any Day the Sun Doesn't Shine in Boulder City." Cross the Nevada Highway,
and walk southwest along Boulder City's original commercial block. The Happy
Days Diner is a 50's-style cafe and the Coffee Cup Cafe on the corner of
Ash was built in 1931 and is the oldest surviving business structure.
Boulder City's downtown commerce today is geared to Dam tourists and other
travelers, with an emphasis on antiques and southwestern art. The galleries
display a great variety of exceptional work.
Turn right on Ash Street
and walk up to its intersection with Railroad and Colorado Streets, where,
next to the old water treatment plant, you will find the extraordinary
Reflections Center. This public setting dedicated to art and reflection,
was the inspiration of '31er ('31ers are Boulder City's version of the '49ers)
Teddy Fenton and the creation of community volunteers. Teddy's has decorated
her Avenue D home to her zestful taste, and she maintains the "Museum House"
at 640 Avenue C in its original form as Six Companies employee housing (it's
occupied by tenants, please do not disturb). There is a tv antenna on the
roof these days, but otherwise Teddy sees that it's kept original.
Take Railroad Avenue and
turn left on Birch or Cherry Streets to stroll through the first planned
neighborhood in the first fully-developed planned city in America. (A map
detailing 5 walking tours is available at the hotel.)
The historic district is
still the center of interest but there are other attractions.
Drive west on the Nevada
Highway to Buchanan Street and turn south. The boulevard passes the popular
Boulder City Municipal Golf Course and the recently created Veterans' Cemetery
en route to the airport where adventure awaits. Lake Mead Air operates a
fleet of small planes carrying a steady stream of sightseers to the Grand
Canyon and back, and Skydive Las Vegas carries skydivers and paragliders
up to 12,200 ft for an "adrenaline adventure" by appointment.
Daily raft trips on the Colorado River below the dam.
Another, considerably milder,
adventure awaits back uptown at the Black Canyon Raft Tours office on the
Highway. You can sign up here for the daily raft trips that depart each morning
from the base of the great dam, coming out downriver at Katherine's Landing
and return to the departure point by van.
There is a small rodeo
arena on B Hill - take Avenue K south to Corral Road - where you are likely
to see ropers working themselves and their critters most any afternoon. This
is the only part of Boulder City where horses are allowed to reside, and
they are here in force.
You'll find great shady,
lawned public parks all over the city and you are welcome to enjoy them,
but the locals use different names for them than the mapmakers. If you can't
find Wilbur Square, ask for Government Park, and if Bicentennial Park eludes
you, try Gazebo Park.
Hemenway Valley is one
of the fabulous sights in Southern Nevada. It lies to the north of the city
proper, a wide, rocky barranca spilling down toward the broad blue expanse
of Lake Mead. Near the top of the Valley the St. Jude's Ranch for Children
welcomes visitors. The highway to Hoover Dam follows the steep slope of the
valley and overlooks the stunning architectural free-for-all that is taking
place on this expensive real estate. The immense homes here are all very
new, and most of them are built with eager new money and an unrestrained
exuberance, the absolute antithesis to the carefully planned, trim and tidy
government houses on the other side of the hill. If you are lucky, you'll
also find a band of mountain sheep grazing on the broad lawns of Hemenway
Park.
A brief digression from
the highway to tour this magnificent neighborhood is highly recommended,
and at Christmas when these mansions are elaborately decorated, it is
mandatory.
It is seven miles to Hoover
Dam and the Lake Mead Recreation Area from downtown Boulder City.
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