VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Hoover Dam was Built to Provide Water and Power to Vegas
Posted on: June 30, 2025, 07:18h.
Last updated on: July 4, 2025, 08:34h.
- Contrary to popular belief, the Hoover Dam was not built to provide either water or power to Las Vegas
- Las Vegas only ended up needing water and electricity because the dam happened to be built near it
Today, the body of water created by Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, provides nearby Las Vegas with 90% of its water. However, the reason the dam was built had nothing to do with Las Vegas.
In fact, Las Vegas didn’t start drawing water from the lake until it nearly depleted its own underground water supply in 1971. That was 35 years after the dam’s completion.
Dam Lies
Hoover Dam — which, by the way, was never officially named Boulder Dam — was built to control flooding along the Colorado River.
Southern California’s Imperial Valley had by then become one of the most profitable agriculture centers in the US. But whenever the snowmelt or rainfall feeding the Colorado River was heavy, it made the waterway jump its banks.
This flooded and destroyed hundreds of farms and dozens of towns, causing millions of dollars in damage. Over and over again.
It just so happened that the most suitable place to build a dam was determined to be along its closest approach to Las Vegas — between the narrow, steep walls of Black Canyon, hundreds of miles upstream from the reason it was built.
It was a happy coincidence for Las Vegas, since its construction from 1931-36 helped transform the city from a sleepy railroad stop to the thriving metropolis it is today. But it was just a coincidence.
Current Events
As for hydroelectric power, this is certainly a beneficial byproduct of the dam, and aided in getting its construction approved. However, though the Hoover Dam’s 17 generators put out enough electricity to supply a city of 750K people, that city is also not Las Vegas.
In 2023, the last full year for which data is available, only 16%-18% of Hoover Dam’s electric power made it to Las Vegas, where it accounted for only 3% of the electricity used by the region, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Most of Las Vegas’ electricity (56%) came from natural gas-powered power plants — though the contribution of solar in 2023 was an impressive 25% and rising.
The lion’s share of Hoover Dam’s hydroelectricity (57.7%) goes to power California, as determined by a compact signed just before the dam was built — back when LA had 1.2 million residents and Las Vegas had 5,000.
In fact, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP), along with Southern California Edison, operated the dam’s generators for 50 years, as part of a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation that ended in 1987, when the bureau took over its operation.
DWP still owns and operates a seven-bedroom, 3,500 square-foot lodge on a hilltop overlooking Lake Mead, as well as a nearby operations center, to house mechanics and patrol crews who maintain the transmission lines emanating from Hoover Dam and terminating in downtown LA.
Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.
Last Comments ( 8 )
Psmith...did you read the article? That's exactly what it said. Water & electric for California not LV...I am confused at what your nasty comment means.
Population needs to supply its own water. No water from the river reaches the end save a trickle.
You tell him Jean!
The dam, built over 100 years ago, also was not supposed to supply water and electricity to tens of millions of people, or the entirety of California's farming footprint of the 2020s! It was for a few million people. And a few fruit farms. So before you point a finger at NV, whom gave up the most to have that placed here amongst its population, look at your own state. The dam has to supply water to a state who proclaims sanctuary to millions of illegals, whilst draining water from the east neighboring states to sustain themselves, and every other delinquent illegally here. All the while, dumping their own states winter water melt directly into the Pacific Ocean.
Mr. Cory Levitan and Editor of Casino.org your such an ignoramus. I highly suggest in the future you do your research prior to posting false information. Upon becoming Secretary of Commerce in 1921, Herbert Hoover, (who was our 31st President from 1929 to 1933) proposed the construction of a dam on the Colorado River. In addition to flood control and irrigation, it would provide a dependable supply of water and ekectricity for Los Angeles and Southern California.
Las Vegas was started the same time the damn was built. It was a town started for the employees of the damn work being preformed.
Even on the tour (I just went on it a couple years ago) they said it was built to help provide water and electricity to las Vegas due to their growing needs but that it wasn't the only reason it was built so I trust your website pretty much 0 at this point
I've sat on the hover dam my self 1991 I was going to Las Vegas at that time.