Despite the stifling summer heat, a hostile terrain, and a seven-day workweek, thousands found employment at the Hoover site. Most dramatic were the high scalers. Some 800 feet above earth, the high scalers swung from ropes while using dynamite and jackhammers to prepare the canyon walls for the pouring of the concrete. During these and other risky operations, around 70 men lost their lives (though none, as legend would have it, were buried within the concrete). The first bucket of concrete was poured in June 1933; the last, on February 6, 1935.