Floyd Elgin Dominy (December 24, 1909

Adams County, Nebraska Adams County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 31,364. Its county seat is Hastings. The county was formed in 1867 and organized in 1871. It is named for John Adams, the sec ...

– April 20, 2010

Boyce, Virginia Boyce is a town in Clarke County, Virginia, Clarke County, Virginia, United States. The population was 749 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 589 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 census. Geography Boyce is located in west ...

) was appointed commissioner of the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

from May 1, 1959, to December 1, 1969, by

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

. Dominy joined the Bureau in 1946. He was the assistant commissioner from 1957 to 1958. He was responsible for building

Glen Canyon Dam Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, United States, near the town of Page, Arizona, Page. The high dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powe ...

and the creation of

Lake Powell Lake Powell is an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It is the second largest artificial reservoir by maximum ...

behind it. He died in

, where he had lived since at least 1990.Marston, Ed (August 28, 2000)
"Floyd Dominy: An encounter with the West's undaunted dam-builder"
''

High Country News ''High Country News'' is a monthly independent magazine based in Paonia, Colorado, that covers environmental, social, and political issues in the Western United States. Syndicated stories from ''High Country News'' have appeared in ''The New York T ...

''. Retrieved May 3, 2018. Dominy was a strong advocate for use of the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

and other water resources of the west for agriculture and development, in opposition to the growing

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...

. He was the director of several projects like the

Colorado River Storage Project The Colorado River Storage Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation project designed to oversee the development of the upper Colorado River basin. The project provides hydroelectric power, flood control and water storage for participat ...

, Colorado River Basin Project, Missouri River Basin Project, Columbia River Basin Project, California Central Valley Project, and the

Mekong River Basin The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annuall ...

Project in Thailand. Dominy was a main character in two non-fiction books about water management the American west:

Cadillac Desert ''Cadillac Desert'' (1986), is a history by American Marc Reisner about land development and water policy in the western United States. Subtitled ''The American West and Its Disappearing Water'', it explores the history of the federal agencies, ...

Marc Reisner Marc Reisner (September 14, 1948 – July 21, 2000) was an American environmentalist and writer best known for his book ''Cadillac Desert'', a history of water management in the American West. Early life He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, th ...

and Encounters with the Archdruid by

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth ...

. McPhee arranged a

whitewater rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

trip down the Colorado River with Dominy and

David Brower David Ross Brower (; July 1, 1912 – November 5, 2000) was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies (1997), Friends of the Earth (1969), Eart ...

, a prominent environmentalist and founder of

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

, and the book highlights their opposing views of the river and its uses.

References

Floyd Dominy's Obituary in ''The Washington Post''

Floyd Dominy, the colossus of dams, dies at 100
* Reisner, Marc (1993). ''Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water'' (paperback). Penguin Books. . * McPhee, John (1971). ''Encounters with the Archdruid'' (hardcover). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. .
Interview with ''High Country News''. Retrieved November 2, 2005

''High Country News'' article. Retrieved November 2, 2005

"Floyd E. Dominy"
''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

''. February 27, 1963. (image "US Reclamation Bureau official Floyd Dominy (R) inspecting the Arghandab River Dam.")
A History of the Emery County Project website that contains a picture of Dominy and other dignitaries getting ready to set off a blast at the Joes Valley Dam groundbreaking ceremony in 1963
;Specific

External links

Floyd E. Dominy Papers
at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

American Heritage Center The American Heritage Center is the University of Wyoming's repository of manuscripts, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West (including politics, settlement, and western trails) and ...

Select Digital Collection of the Floyd E. Dominy Papers
at th
AHC Digital Archive
1909 births 2010 deaths People from Adams County, Nebraska American centenarians Men centenarians University of Wyoming alumni United States Bureau of Reclamation personnel People from Boyce, Virginia {{US-gov-bio-stub