The Colorado, Fourth Pass
Hoover Dam, NV-AZ
Looking 726 feet down from the top of Boulder, er, Hoover Dam (it was renamed the latter in 1947), our fourth and final encounter of the Colorado River. The untamed and volatile nature of the Colorado downriver was one of the primary reasons that the dam was built; the structure ensures a consistent flow of water to agricultural lands and helps bring bountiful electricity to the Southwest and Los Angeles—so says the orientation film we see before our tour of the dam. Michelle, aware of some of the dam’s less honorable side effects upriver, referred to the piece as propaganda.