At the new pavilion that allows tourists to look over the entire Hoover Dam from the AZ side, if you look up and to the right, you will see a WWII-era pillbox that protected Hoover Dam.
This sign is located in the new pavilion with the binoculars that allow tourists to look over the entire Hoover Dam from the AZ side.
If you look up and to the right, you will see what looks like a squat structure with a slit window. That is a WWII-era pillbox that protected Hoover Dam.
The sign reads as follows:
"HIGH ON A LONELY HILL
The onset of World War II led to tightened security.
Hoover Dam was considered critical to the war effort because of electricity generated in the water stored in Lake Mead.
America's enemies knew how significant the dam was, too. As early as 1939, a plot to bomb the intake towers by foreign agents living in Las Vegas was uncovered and prevented. A few more minor incidents occurred during the war, but the dam was never seriously threatened.
The pillbox on the hill above you was one of four camouflaged fortifications that were armed with machine guns and manned around-the-clock.
Three of the original for pillboxes were dismantled. The remaining structure was stabilized, and rehabilitated by the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service in 2012.
Gordon B. Kaufmann, who created the dam's architectural design (above), suggested stringing steel cables and armor plating across Black Canyon to protect the dam from bombs. Alan Tupper True, designer of the dams floor inlays, propose camouflaging the dam in building a “decoy dam” downstream. Neither idea was implemented.
After the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, no private vehicles were allowed across the top of the dam without a military escort for the duration of the war.
The city of Henderson grew up around the Basic Magnesium Plant that used one quarter of electricity generated at Hoover dam during World War II. Magnesium is used to build airplanes and incendiary devices."
For more on this interesting piece of history, see this article from the Arizona Republic: (
visit link)