Las Vegas Myth Revisited: Hoover Dam Corpse
Editor's Note: Vegas Mythbusters releases a new entry every Monday, with a bonus Friday Flashback edition. Today’s entry in our ongoing series originally appeared on July 22, 2022.
A host of alternative facts about the gambling capital of the world continue to resonate in pop culture but have little to do with reality. Hoover Dam is home to one of the largest dams.
Building Hoover Dam in the 1930s was a dangerous job; the death toll was high. But there are no bodies inside this 4.4 million cubic foot concrete behemoth, despite what your cousin Josh whispered to you as you toured the facility.
While the Hoover Dam was built between 1931 and 1936, ultimately transforming Las Vegas from a small town into a large city, approximately 100 unfortunate construction workers lost their lives. One of them was even buried alive in the concrete of Hoover Dam, according to former Nevada archivist Guy Rocha. But his remains did not remain there.
Hoover deserves death
On November 11, 1933, a wall collapsed and hundreds of tonnes of wet concrete tumbled from the face of the dam onto impoverished Western Australia. Jameson. When Jameson's construction crew worked 16 hours to exhume his body, it wasn't just to comfort his grieving family and friends.
There are several logical reasons why workers wouldn't stay in the concrete. First, the dam consists of many concrete slabs. Each slab takes several hours to cure before the next one can be cast. So if someone dies during the process, there's plenty of time to recover the body.
Second, organic materials, such as human bodies, can cause significant problems with the structural integrity of concrete. As the object breaks down, air bubbles form in the concrete. Over time, this will lead to unacceptable structural deficiencies that could destroy the dam or compromise its integrity, Rocha said.
Dam awakens imagination and confusion
The myth of the buried Hoover Dam stems from the massive structure that towered over Las Vegas for nearly 100 years.
"Hoover Dam was such a massive engineering project that had such a huge impact on the region," said David Schwartz, a Las Vegas historian and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. So influential that it captured the imagination of many people for a long time.”
Hoover Dam may also be confused with Fort Peck Dam in Montana. Here's bad news for those hoping to rest near buildings on the Missouri River: The bodies of six of the eight workers killed in a catastrophic landslide on September 22, 1938 were permanently Buried inside.
Rocha explained that Fort Peck was an earthen dam, so decomposing bodies were not considered structural defects because the loose earth around them would slowly collapse.
Unlike Hoover Dam, nearby Lake Mead hides some morbid secrets. In May, two bodies were found on the exposed ground, one of which was believed to have been attacked by a mob.
Look for "Las Vegas Myths Busted" every Monday Access
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Source: www.casino.org
