DeBoer had been a planner for Denver, Colorado, and was to design many towns and suburbs around the Rocky Mountain region. īoulder City was carefully planned through federal supervision as a model community, with Dutch-born urban architect Saco Rienk de Boer contracted to plan it. Their ramshackle edifices were collectively known as 'Ragtown'. Men hoping for work on the dam project had begun settling along the river in tents soon after the precise site for the dam had been chosen by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1930. Its sole reason for existence was the need to house workers contracted to build the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River (known commonly as Boulder Dam from 1933 to 1947, when it was officially renamed Hoover Dam by a joint resolution of Congress).
The land upon which Boulder City was founded was a harsh, desert environment. History Beginnings as federal company town 1.3 Similarity to earlier company towns.
