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Line 56: The contract to make the Boulder dam was awarded to [[Six Companies\|Six Companies, Inc.]] on March 11, 1931,<ref>Construction of Hoover Dam: a historic account prepared in cooperation with the Department of the Interior. KC Publications. 1976. ISBN 0-916122-51-4</ref> a joint venture of Morrison-Knudsen Company of Boise, Idaho; [[Utah Construction Company]] of [[Ogden, Utah]]; Pacific Bridge Company of Portland, Oregon; [[Henry J. Kaiser]] & W. A. [[Bechtel Corporation\|Bechtel Company]] of Oakland, California; MacDonald & Kahn Ltd. of Los Angeles; and J. F. Shea Company of Portland, Oregon. The chief executive of [[Six Companies]], [[Frank Crowe]], had invented many of the techniques used to build the dam. During the concrete-pouring and curing portion of construction, it was necessary to pipe refrigerated water through tubes in the wet concrete. This was to remove the heat generated by the chemical reactions that solidify the concrete. (Otherwise, the setting and curing of the mass of concrete was calculated to take about 125 years!) ~~Obviously it didn't cuz that would just take too fukin long.~~ Six Companies, Inc., did much of this work, but it discovered that such a large refrigeration project was beyond its expertise. Hence, the [[Union Carbide Corporation]] was contracted to come on board and assist with the refrigeration part of the dam project. Six Companies, Inc. was contracted to build a new town for construction workers, to be called [[Boulder City, Nevada\|Boulder City]], but the construction schedule for the dam was accelerated in order to create more jobs in response to the onset of the [[Great Depression]], and the town was not ready when the first dam workers arrived at the site in early 1931. During the first summer of construction, workers and their families were housed in temporary camps like Ragtown while work on the town progressed. Discontent with Ragtown and dangerous working conditions at the dam site led to a strike on [[August 8]], [[1931]]. Six Companies responded by sending in strike-breakers with guns and clubs, and the strike was soon quashed. But the discontent prompted the authorities to speed up the construction of Boulder City, and by the spring of 1932 Ragtown had been deserted.<ref>

Hoover Dam: Difference between revisions