Like Hoover (Boulder) Dam, all dams and reservoirs, even small ones, can generate images that promote purposes beyond their hydrological justifications. Cultural and symbolic meanings, Dr. Arrigo, author of Imaging Hoover Dam, convincingly asserts, can be perceived in advertising, souvenirs, and a variety of artifacts that celebrate the mystique of that particular river-blockage.
We further his thesis with a group of decorated hunks of metal used to support a fellow’s jeans. Most of the iconography of these belt buckles isn’t about flood control or hydropower but perpetuates Americans’ belief in the restorative power of outdoor recreation—increasingly a selling point for dam building. Some reservoirs (lakes) are in fact popular. These unnecessarily decorated useful accoutrements, like much of the other stuff in this post, are not specifically mentioned in his book. Our explanations may not be lifted from his writing either, but we run with his ideas that dam trivia can have hidden meaning.
Hoover Dam is just such an icon. It is often used to embellish products like this Montana Silversmiths Men’s Nevada State Heritage Attitude belt buckle. This firm produces buckles for all fifty states decorated with their best-known symbols. A reference to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas appears in this one with a cowboy and hunter flanking the state seal. Many buckles have been produced featuring Hoover Dam’s iconic flank alone
Though not specifically mentioned in Imaging Hoover Dam, these decorative belt buckles embody his thesis that structures built for economic reasons have cultural significance. Thousands of smaller dams built by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, although not as commanding as Hoover, are promoted for the outdoor recreation their backed-up waters provide.
Bonny Dam in eastern Colorado still stands but its reservoir was drained following a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that forced Nebraska and Colorado to release river water as mandated by the Republican River Compact. The dam exists but in 2011, after years of appeals, the lake behind it was drained to the chagrin of local fishermen. This buckle graphically illustrates the affection locals had for its recreational opportunity in an arid and monotonous High Plains landscape.
Belt buckles with anti-dam iconography are exceptional. This “Free the Snake River” buckle expresses the goal of an active movement to remove four Corps’ dams on the lower Snake River. They were built to allow barges to move more freely and to generate a minuscule amount of hydroelectricity. They block the spawning runs of several species of salmon, including Chinook. Once these fish were a vital economic resource.
In the next to last paragraph of his book, Arrigo muses over the ironic fact ephemeral images of dams may continue to freely “speak” to future generations “long after the dam is gone.” Bonny Dam has been left but its function is “gone.” In his account of dam-removals the author doesn’t dismiss the usefulness of some dams. Images of dams do not always verify their stated purpose. Builder propaganda and product advertising have no obligation to be truthful.
A solution to blocking spawning runs has been to stock reservoirs above dams with hatchery-raised fish. That program created a popular sport fishery in Lake Sakakawea but at a cost—hatchery raised fish have poor reproductive fitness. If they mix with the more genetically diverse wild population, the offspring will do poorly. More than 300 scientific studies verified that hatchery-raised trout are poorly adapted to natural environments.
Dr. Arrigo cautions readers that dam memorabilia can misrepresent reality. This belt buckle celebrating the hatchery solution to the blockage of spawning runs is an example.
This species of salmonids is big but not as gigantic as the monster on this sculptured belt buckle commemorating the popularity of stocking Chinook in the biggest North Dakota impoundment.
Not far from Tuttle Creek Lake (Reservoir) is the doing-OK town of Leonardville, Kansas, population 429. Early on a railroad came through and today it’s connected by highways. Leonardville, unlike ten other nearby small towns, supported the construction of a Corps of Engineers dam. Those other burgs would be flooded, or nearly submerged, by the Tuttle Creek flood control project. Despite strong opposition from the three thousand who would be displaced, the earthen dam was built, and the reservoir began filling in 1962.
The Tuttle Creek plate shows valued recreational opportunities the impoundment once offered to residents. They were benefits,recreational opportunities the impoundment once offered to residents. They were benefits, but they came at a high price.
A Kansas farmer mowed an anti-Tuttle-Creek Dam message into his field.
Water-powered mills were frontier necessities. Families gathered to convert their grain to flour and the small ponds behind the low dams were places the kids played. These low-tech mills were fondly remembered and idealized in popular culture. Artists painted them and sheet music like “Down by the Old Mill Stream” memorialized them. In a limited-edition belt buckle, Chapman, Kansas recalled an “Old Mill Dam” inactive since1903.
The preceding plate-style buckles evolved from Army belts of the mid-1800s. As is evident, this type of buckle affords a large space for decoration. Embellished with Western motifs, they were sported by movie cowboys and awarded to winners of rodeo events. These heavily sculpted ornaments were once exclusively male attire, having had a military origin. Construction, like building dams, was exclusively masculine.