With the country experiencing a Depression
like never before, men from around the country made their
way to the harsh Nevada
desert in 1931 to find work on the Boulder Canyon Project. They lived openly in the desert, or under
makeshift shelters that consisted of canvas, stray pieces of ply board or
cardboard---basically whatever they could find.
Small shanty towns populated by the homeless, “Hoovervilles,” lined the
highway from the Black Canyon worksite to Las Vegas, some forty miles away.
The men did not all come alone; some
brought their families. Although the
exact numbers are unknown, some estimates run as high as forty thousand people:
unemployed and homeless living in an unforgiving climate. Temperatures often reached one hundred-twenty
degrees by early in the morning and did not come down until late in the
night. Nearer the worksite, temperatures
were even higher, and inside the diversion tunnels of the project, for those
that were lucky enough to get a job, temperatures were often up to one
hundred-forty degrees.
But the unrelenting heat was just one of
the hazards of living in the desert for the men, women and children of the
Hoovervilles like Ragtown. Food was
scarce, water sources were often contaminated, and of course, they had the
native 'residents' to worry about: Black Widow spiders. Rattlesnakes.
Centipedes. Red Ants. Scorpions.
On July 26, 1931, four women in Ragtown
died of 'the fever', which was most likely dysentery-related, compliments of the Colorado River, where they drank, bathed, laundered and well, you know the
rest. But it was water, and the
river was, most likely, what kept most of them alive. But nothing comes without a cost, and
although the river was a life source, it was also a danger, and once in a
while, bad wins out over good.
While the men who worked on the project
faced many challenges, I feel it is also important to remember the struggles that
the women and children faced. Therefore,
my upcoming novel, Ragtown, begins on
July 26, 1931. A day when four women
died in the desert Hooverville called Ragtown.
Four women who were just trying
to survive.
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