Boulder Canyon, originally Devils Gate Canyon,The Arizona Sentinel, April 14, 1883 p. 3, col. 2 is a canyon on 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 watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

, above

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on S ...

, now flooded by

Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...

. It lies between

Clark County, Nevada Clark County is located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,265,461. Most of the county population resides in the Las Vegas Census County Divisions, which hold 1,771,945 people as of the 2010 Census, acros ...

and

Mohave County, Arizona Mohave County is in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is the fifth largest county in the United S ...

. It heads at western end of the Virgin River Basin of Lake Mead, at about . Boulder Canyon divides the Black Mountains into the Black Mountains of Arizona, and the Black Mountains of Nevada. Its mouth is now under the eastern end of the Boulder Basin of Lake Mead, between Canyon Point in Nevada and Canyon Ridge in Arizona. Its original mouth is now underneath Lake Mead between Beacon Rock and Fortification Ridge on the southern shore in Arizona.

History

From 1879 to 1887, the Southwestern Mining Company was mining large quantities of salt in the mountains along the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

, and it had leased

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

s of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company to ship it to the mill at

Eldorado Canyon El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

. In April 1883, Captain John Alexander Mellon took a small boat up river to Devil's Gate Canyon to plant six

ring bolt An eye bolt is a bolt with a loop at one end. They are used to firmly attach a securing eye to a structure, so that ropes or cables may then be tied to it. Eye bolts Machinery eye bolts are fully threaded and may have a collar, making them sui ...

s eight inches in diameter, four feet long, made of 1.75 inches (diameter) of iron. These ring bolts were for securing lines from the steamboats as they passed over the dangerous rapids of Devil's Gate Canyon, during their high water runs to the mouth of the Virgin River at Rioville, Nevada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boulder Canyon (Colorado River)

Canyons and gorges of Nevada This category contains canyons in the U.S. state of Nevada. Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the ...

Canyons and gorges of Arizona Colorado River Landforms of Clark County, Nevada Landforms of Mohave County, Arizona