Copyright University of Nevada Oral History Program 2002
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John
F. Cahlan:
Boulder Dam. As I told you, there were very
many stories out there that were told and there still are
stories that could be told. There are hundreds of people
who died in accidents at Boulder Dam. At one time, a bucket
supposedly broke loose and buried about fifty people beneath
tons of concrete; oh, that is a bunch of fancy because it
never happened.
However, there were some very spectacular accidents up there.
There was one about high scalers who worked out there- -these
were people that were dangled over the walls of the canyon
on a sort of a boatswain’s chair, and handled the
jackhammer, and knocked off all of the overhanging rock
that might fall- -the loose rock that might fall- -during
the construction of the dam, and after the dam was completed.
And one day, there was a tourist out there that ventured
too close to the edge, and he started slipping over. This
guy that was underneath him saw the guy that was falling,
and he pushed himself away from the wall of the canyon,
and as this guy went by, he grabbed him by the legs and
managed to get him back up onto the top of the canyon. Saved
him a fall clear down to the bottom of the canyon.
But there was this- -another guy that wasn’t quite
so lucky. He was riding a- -they had these big cableways
across the top of the canyon that were used to lower and
raise the buckets of cement that went down. The cement plants
were up on top of the canyon, and they would lower the batches
of cement down by these huge buckets. They were on a big
hook, and they’d just lower ‘em right down from
the top of the canyon. And the guys used to ride these-
-ride the hook up and down and pay no attention to it. It’s
just like construction on some of these skyscrapers. They
never think anything of riding those hooks. This fellow
was on with a big bucket of cement. They were about- -oh,
they just started in to drop when the hook broke. As he
was going down, he waved to the boys goodbye, and they dug
him out of about four or five feet of dirt. He hit down
at the bottom of the canyon, and just dug a big hole in
there. They finally got him, but he, as I say, he never
wavered for a moment. He was just wavin’ the boys
goodbye! |
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