Exhibit highlights Boulder City’s early history

By Jean Reid Norman

Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 | 1:55 a.m.

Ruben Munoz, a fourth grader at Martha P. King Elementary, wouldn’t have minded roughing it in Boulder City in 1931. He enjoyed hauling water and thought it would be fun to live in a tent and play tic-tac-toe with a stick.

Classmate Jon Meyer wasn’t so sure. While it would be fun to never have to put shoes on, water might get heavy when carrying it a mile and it could take hours to wash a pound of laundry in a washtub.

The students had a chance to imagine themselves living the life of Boulder City’s pioneers during three days of walking field trips to a newly expanded exhibit tied in with the annual 31ers Reunion.

King’s fourth grade classes, second graders from Andrew Mitchell Elementary and all of Grace Community Church’s classes took advantage of an invitation Oct. 8-9 to see the setup at the College of Southern Nevada campus, 700 Wyoming St.

Volunteers organized by Parks and Recreation Coordinator Patty Sullivan walked students through various activities common during the early days of Boulder City, when it housed workers building Hoover Dam.

Pete Mayes, a Hoover Dam tour guide and retired teacher, told them about how the dam was built, explaining the dangers that killed 112 workers from 1931 to 1935. Barb Morris acted the part of Erma Godbey, matriarch of one of the early Boulder City families, basing her tales on Godbey’s own oral history.

Other volunteers helped the children play jacks, hopscotch and cat’s cradle, wash laundry in a tub, haul water and learn about how the Colorado River was diverted to build the dam.

The idea is to broaden the 31ers Reunion, originally designed to bring together residents who moved to Boulder City in 1931, to include the entire community, said Sullivan, who is also Erma Godbey’s granddaughter.

“We are trying to break that mentality” that it is an exclusive club, Sullivan said.

The exhibits will remain in the college building when the old-timers get together for the annual luncheon on Saturday. The public is invited as well as those who consider themselves 31ers, Sullivan said.

Fourth grade teacher Robin Lee said the exhibit matched perfectly with the children’s studies. The Clark County School District’s curriculum has fourth graders learning Nevada history.

On the way from King to the college, Lee took the children on a walking tour of some points of historic interest, such as pointing out the private home where the first school classes were held, she said.

Since this was the first year of the exhibit, Lee said she wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was pleased and looked forward to making it an annual event.

“The kids are involved,” she said. “They can recognize how hard it was.”

Sullivan said she plans to make the exhibit bigger next year, incorporating some of Boulder City’s World War II history as well as its Hoover Dam construction years.

The hands-on exhibits made an impression on the students who attended this year. After making a doll out of a clothespin and strips of cloth, Breann Sanford had a new appreciation for her toys.

“I didn’t know people made these, that they didn’t have things,” she said.

Classmate D.J. Reese, who has been on the Hoover Dam hard hat tour before, said that while he knew that 112 workers died during construction of the dam, he didn’t know some of them had been run over by trucks.

And he didn’t realize the effort of hauling water.

“No, I don’t think I’d want to do that,” he said.

CORRECTION: This story was updated to correct the dates of the exhibit and address of the college. | (October 12, 2009)