"There is some explanation of why the change was made in the location of the dam in Black Canyon rather than Boulder Canyon. As I recall, we discovered that the upper end of Boulder Canyon would he right in the vicinity of a fault. Also, because of this great big storage capacity in the Las Vegas Wash basin itself between the two sites, it turned out it was less expensive... At Boulder Canyon there were no locations for a spillway... [Also] I discovered it was [possible] to actually build a railroad from the main line [in] Las Vegas to the top of the dam site... As I've said many times, the Lord left that dam site there. It was only up to man to discover it and to use it."' - Walker Young "There was a circle of newsmen with cameras taking a picture of the secretary of the interior when he got off the Union Pacific train on the main line of the Union Pacific at Boulder Junction. Big crowd. They were all equipped the circle of news photographers holding off the rest of the crowd. When the secretary was ready to drive the silver spike, circled around behind him were senators and congressmen and publishers... He missed his first blow at the spike missed it completely... [Then] Ray Lyman Wilbur took another swipe at it, and he landed it and drove in the silver spike. "2 - Elton Garrett For decades developers, engineers, and farmers dreamed of damming the mighty Colorado River to tame its wild runoff for domestic use throughout the Southwest. Following several studies, government investigators chose sister canyons edging Nevada and Arizona as likely dam sites. The project was named for one Boulder Canyon before Black Canyon (above) proved the better choice. On September 17, 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Layman Wilbur announced the official name the Hoover Dam and drove the first spike for a rail line to Black Canyon. Directly behind Wilbur stands Bureau of Reclamation engineer Walker Young. Looking on are dam builders Charles Shea (fourth from right), of J. F. Shea, and Utah Construction's Henry J. Lawler (second from right).