"We, In these years of the 1950's, when Hoover Dam is a bright spot in modern history, can hardly imagine that in 1855, more than 100 years ago, Brigham Young, that great leader of the Mormon people, already had his mind set on the development of the Colorado River.

The Mormon Missionaries, sent out by the Church to settle at Las Vegas, left Great Salt Lake City May 10, 1855, and the first of them arrived in Las Vegas June 14th. After a bower was built, in the shade of which they could conduct religious services, the preliminaries of founding a Mission were attended to. Captain Rufus Allen announced that he had been commissioned by Brigham Young to take a party of exploration to the Colorado River to see if it was navigable and usable by the Mission.

Sylvester Hulett and George W. Bean were appointed to go with him. They started from the Las Vegas Mission June 18th and returned June 22nd, reporting that the heat was so intense as to make further stay impossible. That incident shows however, the importance our earliest colonists attached to the Colorado River.

When I first saw Las Vegas, February 13, 1905, I was already inoculated with the idea that the Colorado River could be dammed and enough electrical power developed to supply the entire southwest with energy that would help create a great industrial center in Southern Nevada and California. The chief obstacle to the building of such a dam was, of course, lack of money.

Others had the same idea, but were not willing to waste their time and money in the long tedious effort required to put it to work.

The very first effort made in Nevada toward promoting the dam was the adoption of a resolution by the Republican County convention in Califorente during the fall of 1906. Henry Robbins of Goodsprings was a delegate from the southern portion of Lincoln County and I met him when he stopped in Vegas on his way to the convention.

Talking over a bit of politics, I suggested to Henry that it might bring Las Vegas some attention if he would get the convention to adopt a resolution asking the Federal Government to finance and build a dam and power plant at, or near, Boulder Canyon in the Colorado River.

At the convention Henry Robbins introduced the resolution and, as none of the delegates knew anything about the subject, it was passed as a courtesy to the southern portion of the county. That was our first step into the muddy waters of the Colorado.

There was no noticeable activity on the proposal until 1909 when a hundred or more residents of Tonopah and Goldfield made up an excursion, chartered a train on the Las Vegas and Tonopah railroad, and paid us a visit.

It was a grand thing for Las Vegas to have those mining 'nabob' deign to look at us, and, we made the most of it! Frank Clark was hoping to colonize quite a large acreage of land southeast of Las Vegas and he took a group of the Tonopah men out to see it. During the trip something was said that water from the Colorado River to irrigate the land.

Henry S. Schmidt, Tonopah businessman, was impressed with the idea and, after he returned home, talked with his friends about it. The result was that Henry got a little party together, with one member of the group being a surveyor. They pitched camp on a vacant lot within the townsite, bought some provisions and a guide, and made the difficult trip to Boulder Canyon. During the next several years surveyors made other trips to Boulder Canyon and, about the latter portion of the year 1913, made application to the Secretary of the Interior for a permit to build a dam in Boulder Canyon. This application was approved, but only with the proviso that surveys of the proposed damsite in Boulder Canyon be tied in with existing land surveys in that region. Henry and his surveyors came again and made the necessary surveys, which were approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and a permit to build a dam was granted to Henry C. Schmidt.

When the permit was filed in the office of the Clark County Recorder Las Vegas was jubilant. We felt that the long battle was won, especially when Schmidt announced that the Rothschilds of Paris, then rated as the wealthiest group in the world, agreed to finance and build the great dam and said they would begin actual work on the project in October of that year.

This was in May, 1914. Then, as some of our readers may remember, World War I sent the armies of Germany thundering through France in the latter part of August spelling death to our great project. However, every year Schmidt took the necessary steps to keep the permit alive until about 1920 when he gave it up. But his memory lives in the minds of all who were interested in the Boulder Canyon project in those early days. It was due to his efforts that hope for a dam was kept alive and all of our ambitions were bolstered by remember what Henry C. Schmidt had accomplished.

In next week's Fabulous Las Vegas I shall tell you something of the next major effort by Las Vegas to put life into our dream of a great dam on the Colorado, which did finally result in the construction of Hoover Dam on a scale of grandeur, the like of which, we never before dreamed."