United States Bureau of Reclamation

Constructed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in the depths of the
Great Depression in the 1930s, Hoover Dam was the largest federal project of
its time. Building the dam was hot, dirty and often dangerous work, but more
than 20,000 men, over the course of its construction from 1931 to 1936, were
happy to be employed.

Hoover Dam was originally named Boulder Dam. That's because the initial
planned site was at Boulder Canyon, about 10 miles up the Colorado River
from where it is now located at Black Canyon. The dam was officially named
Hoover Dam in 1947, a name that was restored by a resolution signed by
President Truman.

The Hoover Dam is 726 feet tall and 1,244 feet long. The concrete
arch-gravity structure is 660 feet thick at its base and 45 feet thick at
the top. In all, there is enough concrete (4.5 million cubic yards) in
Hoover Dam to build a two-lane highway from Seattle Washington to Miami
Florida or a four-foot wide sidewalk around Earth at its equator.

This immense structure was built to prevent flooding as well as provide
much-needed irrigation and hydroelectric power to arid regions of several
surrounding states.

Greatly impressive was the fortitude of the thousands of workers that
endured amazingly harsh conditions and extreme dangers to complete Hoover
Dam almost two years ahead of schedule. Its completion, however, was not
without loss. The Bureau of Reclamation has estimated that 107 workers lost
their lives while building the dam.

William Barclay wrote: "Men lost their lives in that project which was to
turn a dust-bowl into fertile land. When the [Hoover Dam project] was
completed, the names of those who had died were put on a tablet and the
tablet was put into the great wall of the dam, and on it there was the
inscription:

'These died that the desert might rejoice and blossom as the rose.'"

When our sins left us in the "desert of death and destruction" (cf. Matthew
7:13-14; Romans 6:23), God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross as
payment for our sins (Ephesians 1:7). Through Him, you and I may have
forgiveness and eternal life.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
God has promised to provide forgiveness and eternal life to those who will:
place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins
in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10),
and be baptized (immersed) into Christ (Acts 2:38).

Jesus died so that those in the dismal and deadly desert of SIN may -
through their trusting obedience - "blossom as the rose" to eternal life.

Won't YOU trust and obey Him?

David A. Sargent, Minister