Transcript of interview with Ruth E. Hazard by Jeff Crampton, March 27, 1977

UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard i An Interview with Ruth E. Hazard An Oral History Conducted by Jeff Crampton Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard iii The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard iv Abstract On March 27, 1977, collector Jeff Crampton interviewed accountant, Ruth E. Hazard (born June 25th, 1907 in Marshall, Michigan) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The interview takes place at the collector’s home and offers an overview of life in early Las Vegas from 1931 to 1977. The interview concludes with a discussion on local atomic testing. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 1 (Audio begins midsentence)—Where, numbers of them, they were introduced and everything and, and it just gives the history of the bill, and how it happened. Yes. And this here, this is a book that southern gentlemen, Nevada politics, this is Bill Pittman. And he was governor. And there’s a few, some letters in here that Kerry wrote to the man who wrote this book. Let me—let me ask you about these at the end. Alright. With the photographs. Okay. How long have you—? When did you move out here? Since about November 1931. Nineteen thirty-one. And where did you come from? From Michigan. And was it a small town in Michigan? Yes. Was Las Vegas, at that time, compared to Michigan a big city? No. It wasn’t. This town in Michigan was a small town but it was a lot larger than Las Vegas was at that time. Mm-hmm. At that time Las Vegas was a very small town. How did you—? It was. Feel about coming out here? It was—oh, it was exciting because they were building Hoover Dam at the time. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 2 Mm-hmm. And it was during the Depression and the Depression back east and the middle-west and practically every place else, the Depression had hit. And, well people were just out of jobs, they were hungry and everything else, and they had soup kitchens and everything, and so when we came to Las Vegas, why, there was a lot of unemployment here in Las Vegas; a lot of people looking for jobs. And the American Legion— Go ahead. The American Legion office (unintelligible) set up a soup kitchen, to feed people who were hungry. But at the same time the Depression was not as bad here as it was other places. So, that’s why there were—there were so many people that came here thinking they’d get work on the dam. Mm-hmm. So they—they, and a lot of them did, and my husband got a job with the Review Journal selling subscriptions. What was the reason you moved out here from—? Well, that was the reason. That was the— (Unintelligible) huh? That was the reason that we—that we came here, they were building the dam and it was, seemed like an opportunity to get a good job and everything, and they—things were just—we were in the middle of the Depression. Right. How long did it take you to move—to come out here? Did you drive? Or did you go by train? We came— UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 3 Or? By bus. By bus? By bus. Mm-hmm. How much money did you have in your pockets when you came here? Didn’t have very much. Uh-huh. I can’t remember. I don’t remember how much. Not very much. And the first business that he got involved with was with the paper? He was with the—with the Review—he got a job with the Review Journal selling subscriptions. So you got seventy-five cents apiece, for every subscription that he sold. Uh-huh. And at that time it was—as I say, they were building the dam. They were—and subscriptions were easy to sell because everybody wanted to take the newspaper. Mm-hmm. So he canvassed from door to door, selling subscriptions. And then I got a job, with a wholesale plumbing company. And it was only supposed to be a part-time job, and then it turned into a fulltime job. And we used to bid on a lot of the government work. All the—the company bid on every piece of plumbing equipment they can. Pipe and valves and all those kind of equipment that went into the dam. Mm-hmm. And the—and so I worked there for quite a little while, and then my husband ran for the legislature in 1938. And he then was elected. But I—oh, I quit that job before that. And I didn’t UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 4 work for a while, and then I went back to work. And I worked for a couple of attorney’s here. C. B. Breeze and Harold Morris. And then, my husband ran for the legislature in 1938, and was elected, and following the legislature in March 1939, I—we, he got a job at the Nevada Tax Commission and we moved to Carson City. And we lived there for four years. Then we came back to Las Vegas, 1943. And, war was on, and he got a job with Basic Magnesium, as a guard, on the guard force out there. And I got a job with the Clark County Housing Authority. And I worked for the Clark County Housing Authority, and then the Federal Public Housing Administration, and then the Las Vegas City Housing Authority. Then I resigned in 1953, and I didn’t work again. I didn’t think I’d ever work again. But now I am. ‘Cause I have to run a business. When did your husband get involved in politics? Well, in—the first time was—well, he really got involved in politics in about 1933, I believe it was—or ’34. When Al Calen, who was the editor of the Review Journal ran for the state assembly. And he got involved in Al’s campaign because he was working for the Review Journal. And by that time, why, my husband was in the advertising department. And he had charge of the classified advertising in the Review. And then, he also worked in display advertising. And Al Calen ran for the assembly and was elected and so that’s how he—Harry became involved in politics and got interested in it. So then in 193— Excuse me. He served in the 1939 session of the legislature. You can get a little closer. Alright, there you go. And following that session of the legislature, he was appointed to the Nevada Tax Commission, as liquor tax supervisor, and traveled all over the state. Following that—in 1943, he—we moved UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 5 back to Las Vegas, and he went to work for the Basic Magnesium Plant on the guard force. And I went to work for the Clark County Housing Authority. After that I worked for the Federal Public housing Administration and then the Las Vegas City Housing Authority. And during that time, he was with BMI, and then, in 1946, he ran for the assembly again and was elected and he served in the 1947 session, and was speaker of the assembly during that session. And prior to that for, I believe it was in 1945 or ‘06 he was county chairman for the democratic central committee. And in 19—after the 1947 session of the legislature, he became, well prior, really prior to that, he was in the real estate business. And that was associated with C. D. Baker, and—who later became mayor, and was mayor for eight years. He managed C. D.’s campaign. And he was in the real estate for several years. Is that where the partnership of Hazard and Baker—? Baker and Hazard. Evolved? Yes. Baker and Hazard, that’s—it was C. D. Baker Realty for several years. And then, they went out of the real estate business, and they along with some of their associates formed a corporation called Baker and Hazard Incorporated. It’s a Nevada corporation and the—they all, they put their holdings in, we owned pieces of land and properties. And C. D. Baker did and others. And, so we put—oh, we put our holdings in through the corporation, and stock was issued to the families. Mr. Baker had family and stock was issued to his children, and we didn’t have any children, so just—we just received stock between us. And it was issued to—the stock was issued to others who were interested in the corporation. And that corporation still exists today. And that’s what I do now is take care of the management of the corporation. I’m president of it and it’s—we own UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 6 some commercial rentals and I just—and, we have trust deeds of properties that we’ve sold over the past few years. What was the scale of the gambling when you first moved here? Well, when we first moved here, gambling had only been in—had been legal, just since the legislative session. And it was—it was a biggest thrill—well, there were very few gambling places here then. It was just—just a few. And the biggest thrill to us, when we first came here, and we’d go down to these different clubs, of course, it was during prohibition—so the clubs that they had were just, well, they were not really legal. But they sort of closed their eyes to ‘em, I guess. (Laughs) But we used to go Downtown to the—those clubs and the biggest thrill was to stand there and see those silver dollars—stacks of silver dollars. Stacked up and the tables, where people were—they were playing roulette. And they were playing, the shooting dice and everything. And to stand there and see just hundreds and hundreds of those silver dollars and it was just real exciting. And we didn’t gamble. Neither one of us did. And my husband always said that, he—the only gambling he ever did was during the First World War, when he was overseas. And—but we never gambled. And it was a big thrill to see all those silver dollars. Do you remember when they started bringing in entertainment into their casinos? In the hotels? Well, the first—I think the first entertainment I remember was at the El Rancho, after the El Rancho Hotel was built, and Joe E. Lewis, was out there. And that’s not the prize fighter, that’s the other Joe E. Lewis. And Sophie Tucker and then I remember Wayne Newton, he was at the Fremont Hotel after the Fremont had a show there. In fact, he was the—that’s where he—I think he got his first start, was at the Fremont. And his brother was living at that time. And one of the exciting entertainers here was Lili St. Cyr. And she used to—she didn’t take a bubble bath but UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 7 she used to take a bath in the bathtub with a lot of foam and all of the suds and all this stuff. And that create quite a sensations. Because there’s quite a little controversy about whether she should be allowed to or not. But it wasn’t a vulgar act or anything like that. She was very gracious and she was a very beautiful girl. And I just can’t remember some of these old-time, oh. What about the change in land value? Well, it’s just tremendous. It’s just unbelievable. Land that—well, you could buy state land years ago. You could buy state land for a dollar and a quarter an acre. And there are a lot of people that did that, you know. You could buy land, on a state land contract, and you could buy as much as a hundred and sixty acres or you could buy more, I guess. And a lot of people that bought acreage like that, way, way back in the thirties and forties, or earlier, they have held—they held on to it for several years, and maybe they sold it for six, seven hundred dollars an acre, maybe a thousand, and maybe there’s still people who may own some of that acreage. Although I doubt it. ‘Cause it’s, most of it’s all been developed, and it’s—well, you just can’t imagine the increase in the land values and the price of land. And during the fifties and sixties the speculators were in here. And they really—they just bought and sold land, just hand over fist, and were just making all kinds of money. And the—there was a lot of money available, apparently. And so they’ve been—and my husband was in the real estate business and was—he was a real estate salesman. And we have friends who visit us now from back east that he really—because of his selling property to them, and then selling their property to somebody else, they made themselves an awful lot of money. Mm-hmm. And they used to ask his advice on a lot of things like that and—but it was real easy, real easy to sell land. Because the—there was a big land boom, and the way the town has grown and UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 8 expanded, it’s just, it’s just absolutely, well, see you never would believe. If I—if we had only had money—if we’d had a lot of money when we came here, and had had any foresight of what could happen, why we could’ve really ended up millionaires, probably. But we didn’t have any money when we came here. And like a lot of other people, and—and a lot of people who did have some money didn’t have faith in the community. They came here when the dam was built. Then they said when the dam is finished people move out. Then the next thing, the war comes along, and the—they build Nellis Air Force Base out here. And they said, well, when the war is over the towns gonna fold up. There’s nothing here to keep ‘em. Well, of course, the dam brought so many tourists here, just in droves. And then, when the—with the hotels building and more and more tourists were coming in and—so the tourists are really what built the town. Because the people that had—the money that’s come in here to build the hotels, has promoted the tourist business. And now there’s—well, I just don’t think there’s any stopping our growth. I just think that we’re just going to continue to grow and grow. And it’s—and one day, this whole valley is just gonna be built up from one mountain to the other. And it’s—we’ve got a lot of problems, but so does any growing city. In your opinion has Las Vegas changed for the better or for the worst? Oh, I think it’s changed for better. I don’t think that we can say it’s changed for the worst. I just—I just can’t—I just can’t, couldn’t feel that way. You hear we all say, when we see some old-time friends that we haven’t seen for a long time, we say, “Oh, it’s so good to see you.” We haven’t—we never see anybody we know anymore. Because the town is so big and it was kind of nice when it was small and we used to see people often and everything. But all in all when you stop to think about it, you just can’t stop progress. And we—we wouldn’t want to—we UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 9 wouldn’t want to go backwards. So I think we’ve just—just got to look ahead to the future and—try to keep up with the—with the development. Okay. How about the—the fires? The two fires that I had mentioned? Or the—the school fires first? Oh, way back—I can’t remember what year it was but we didn’t live very far from this Fifth Street—it was called the Fifth Street Grammar School. When that fire occurred, it was a—it was a tremendous fire, and it was a big loss, of course, to the—to the schools and to the community. And I remember that fire real well and, but cotton at that time, they—there was an expression of opinion that the cotton, when the cottonwood trees would—when it would shed cotton—well, it was just like a snowstorm. And the cotton was all over the streets and on the lawns and all over. And, they seem to think that maybe the cotton caused that fire. Mm-hmm. And then, the El Rancho Hotel fire was—that was really a great loss. And it was—that was really a big thing. And they, since that time, of course, that hotel has—it never did rebuild or anything. And then, all those little houses that were there, had been moved off, and the land was just sitting there vacant. And it’s—it’s just too bad, because something—eventually something will be built up there, I presume. Did you ever—were you ever afraid of the—the gangster influence in the hotels and the gaming industry? Did—? Was that ever a real fear? Or is that mostly just (unintelligible)? Well, I think a lot of it is—has been exaggerated. I think there probably was a period of time, maybe when—when maybe some of those hotels were—there was some gangster in some of—the mafia was supposed to be in here. And, but—with—our tax commission and our gaming commission, has such a, are so particular and they—their investigation is so thorough that I don’t UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 10 think that there is the danger of it, that maybe at one time there was the—see Bugsy Siegel, who was gangster, built thee Flamingo Hotel. Mm-hmm. And then, he was killed. And—but whether there’s been very much of the gangster influence here, I don’t think there have been. Because I think that our tax commission, our gaming commission, and—that they investigate those people, so thoroughly that I don’t think it’s the danger. ‘Cause we don’t have—you hear rumors about it, but I really in my opinion, I don’t think it’s too serious. How many (unintelligible) the McCarran era (unintelligible)? Well, Pat McCarran was senator, United States senator for many, many years, and he really ruled the state of Nevada with an iron hand. He was—he was, really he dictated a lot of politics. And he had his—he had a lot of people who were very loyal to him and did everything that he wanted done. And he had a lot of control over elections and all that. And he had some opposition occasionally, but he was—he really was the kingpin of Nevada politics. There was no doubt about it. Because (unintelligible) but they—he really, he really was the kingpin, yes, that was no doubt about it. And he did a lot for Nevada, there’s no—there’s no getting around it. He had a lot of influence in Washington. And there’s a lot of things that Nevada has today that progress that we’ve made and everything that has been—that Senator McCarran really did help us. McCarran Airport out here, of course, was named after him. And he was chairman of the Aviation Committee, and things like that. I don’t remember what all of this—oh, he just had a lot of committee chairmanships. And so, he had a great influence in Washington. There wasn’t any doubt about it. And he kept—he probably kept the Air Force out here, and a lot of things like that and—(unintelligible) his influence. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 11 What is your—you most memorable experience—? Hm. Enjoyable? Or like—I mean, I think you are, not only a memorable experience, but like your contacts with your social clubs— Yes. And your women’s clubs or the— Well, I— The scenery or the land or— Well, I, you know— Taking trips? I think—I think one, I think one of the things that I enjoyed whole lot, was when my husband was alive and he was in the real estate business, we would go out every Sunday, we’d go out on the desert. Mm-hmm. And we would locate pieces of land. That was when he was (unintelligible) within the real estate business. And people would come in and they had a piece of land to sell. So they’d list it to sell—they wanted to sell it. And they’d tell him, it’s the legal description, section so and so, in the south half of the northeast corner, and all that legal description. And then we would take a—we’d drive as far as we could drive on a road, and then we’d get out of the car, and we’d walk and locate pieces of—we’d locate this particular piece of land. Mm-hmm. And if you’ve ever been out in the desert, you could see some of these sections, these section corners and these flags that shows you—you can tell where you can locate—see the surveyor, UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 12 that’s been surveyed, and you could locate pieces of land. And one of the—one of the big sells, when we used to do that, was when—I’d find a—a brass cat. It’s a brass cat, is worth—the four sections come together. Mm-hmm. And that—it’s just—well, it’s really exciting, and I think that one of the exciting parts of our lives was when we’d do that. And always enjoyed going out there and locating that—that, pieces of that land. And then, another thing was when—way back in when the—(unintelligible) of the Dam was dedicated. President Roosevelt, came out here. He was—Franklin D. Roosevelt was president then. And he came out here and dedicated the dam, and we had a parade. And then, in—I’ve been active in the American Regional Auxiliary for a good many years. I’m not very active right now, but I was for a long time. And where the city hall is right now, I believe it was about 1936 or ‘07 that the War Memorial Building was built on that property. The property has belonged to the railroad company. And they—seeded it to the American Regional League, and they built the War Memorial Building, and our—we had a—the day that they laid the cornerstone for that building, we had a big parade, down Fremont Street, down to Fremont Street and up Fifth, what used to be Fifth Street. It’s now Las Vegas Boulevard North. And we marched up there to where that building is, where the War Memorial Building was going to be built, and laid the cornerstone and everything. And—then, after the—then the American Legion moved in there and the American Regional Auxiliary did. And then, when the—after a many years, it was reverted back the city. And the City Hall is there now. And so when they were going to tear down that War Memorial Building, to start City Hall, we—some of us Auxiliary members and some of the Legionnaires, along with Johnny Calen, we were going to have, like, some kind of a UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 13 ceremony over there. When they located that—when they were bulldozing and taking that building down, and we were gonna open that corner (unintelligible). Mm-hmm. ‘Cause we had put documents in there and everything. So what happens, the bulldozers go in there, and they never did find that cornerstone. (Laughs) So we were all very disappointed that, they never—they never found it. But now the City Hall is there. And way back in ’32, or ‘33, don’t remember which year it was. Something like that, but they—the post office that’s Downtown, the Downtown Post Office on Stewart, that building was built. And then, it was—it was just the Federal Building at that time. And I was working for a whole—for this wholesale plumbing company at the time. And the people who—the contractor on that building had forged the names of the bondsmen. They all the—the contractor and the general contractor and all the— Mm-hmm. Subcontractors, they had to be bonded. So this contractor had—he was from Texas. And he had forged the names of the bondsmen and they didn’t discover it for quite a long, for quite a while. But they did discover it and I don’t know what ever happened to him, or anything. But that was a kind of a—that was a kind of a sad thing to happen. But that was a little, you know, just a little excitement. Mm-hmm. That little scandal in the town that we didn’t have very much in those days. (Laughs) Mm-hmm. Hm. Did you ever make any trips up to Carson, back then? UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 14 Oh yes. No. We never went to Carson City until, oh, it was before my husband was elected to the legislature that we were in Carson City, one time. When I was active in the American Legion Auxiliary and I believe it was about ’36 or ’37, ’36, I think it was—that we went to a department convention, up there in Reno. And on our way back, why, we came through Carson City, and went to Lake Tahoe, and visited some people up there, along with some friends of ours from Las Vegas. And that was the only time that—I believe it was the only time I was ever in Carson City until my husband was in the legislature, of course. How about Reno? And Reno—that was the only time I was ever in Reno, too. Were those small towns, compared to Vegas? Hm. Or were they pretty much (unintelligible)? Well, Reno—Reno was originally Reno was a lot larger than Las Vegas. And it’s only been the last few years that Las Vegas has really caught up with Reno. Uh-huh. Well, Reno has always been the larger city, and they always let us know about it, too. There’s been that rivalry between the north and the south, that I just don’t think it will ever be any different, you know. And when they were building the—during the legislature—I don’t remember what year it was that they appropriated money for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, and of course, there was a lot of controversy and jealousy over that. Because they, they didn’t—Reno, of course, didn’t want any branch down here, or anything like that. Was Reno really known for their quickie divorces? UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 15 Yes. Oh yes. Mm-hmm. But our first—I think—our first quickie divorce, our first (unintelligible) was when Rita Gable divorced Clark Gable. Mm-hmm. Came here to get a divorce. And there were a lot of—quite a few famous people that came here, after that. And—but not as many as up in Reno, up there. Reno was the— (Unintelligible)? Divorce capital. I mean, they considered it. Would they throw the rings in the river? Yes. They—in the Truckee River. They would go and throw their wedding ring in the Truckee River. There’s—Virginia Street, the main street of Reno crosses the Truckee River. Mm. And the courthouse, is on Virginia Street, and its right close to the Truckee River. So—what they would do is—what, they would walk over from the courthouse and throw their wedding ring in the river. Do you remember anything about them wanting to change the capital from Reno to Las Vegas? You don’t mean Reno? I mean Carson. Carson City. Is this on tape now? Uh-huh. (Unintelligible) The reason I say that is the—it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve heard very much mention of it, moving the capital to Las Vegas. And from the story, from the publicity, I’ve seen UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 16 about it, they—they seem to think that—that it should be because of our—because we’re such a big city, and everything. Mm-hmm. But would you like my personal opinion? Mm-hmm. I don’t think they should. We have—Carson City has been our state capital. It’s the—practically the smallest state capital in the country. And it’s been our state capital all these many, many years. And I just don’t see any reason why it should be—should be moved. And I think it would create a big—just a lot of controversy around—all around the state. Because the feeling—you get the feeling from the other part of the state and these small counties and Reno and everything, that Las Vegas is—we’re a—we’re a big city now, and that we shouldn’t be selfish and want everything down here. Mm-hmm. And I don’t—I don’t think it would be a good idea. However, if they ever decided to tear down that castle building, that old, old, castle building up there, and that fence and things, I’m going to be very upset about that, and I’m gonna really write letters to ‘em about that. But I don’t think they’re going to do that. I believe that the present session of the legislature will appropriate the money to restore that old capital building. Because it really is a historical landmark. And it should be preserved. Because other states have their—preserve their old capital buildings or tourist attractions and we should do the same thing. Did it take you long to adjust to the desert and the scenery and—as compared to the environment from Michigan, when you first came out here? Well. UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 17 Did you like it or didn’t you? At first—at first—see, we came here in the fall, and it was—still it was real nice and warm here. And well we’d come from where it was cold. So, it was—it was still warm and the only thing that I—I didn’t like—wasn’t crazy about the mountains, too much. They—these old black mountains—that’s what people said. These old black mountains. But when you—after you live here for a while, why, it grows on you, and you just, you just love ‘em, and even though you look at Sunrise Mountain, and you look at Mount Charleston from a distance, and all these others mountains, there’s no growth on ‘em. They’re not green like the mountains you see in Utah, and— Mm-hmm. Colorado, and a lot of those other states. But there’s a lot of beauty to ‘em, and just like the desert. The desert is just—when we first came here—in, the first summer we were here, we had no air-conditioning of course. And at night, we could just sit outdoors, look out and look at the moon and the stars and it would, it would cool down, just as soon as the sun went down, it would cool down, and this des—old desert, it was just beautiful. Just—just, really, very romantic. Mm-hmm. (Laughs) How long did it take you? How long was the trip down here? Well. Do you remember? I think it took about five days—four or five days. I can’t remember now. See, we—we came to Ogden, Utah. We were there for a little while before we came on down here. Uh-huh. What made you decide—the dam—to leave Ogden and come here, was it—? UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 18 Because of the—because of the building of the dam. Uh-huh. And the Depression and everything, you know, with—the Depression, they—they didn’t have the Depression down here. And as a matter of fact, they had some unemployment, that’s true, and they had a soup kitchen to take to feed the people who were hungry. But they didn’t have—or there weren’t a lot of them, and really and truly, I don’t think that you can say that Las Vegas has ever had what you call a Depression or—there was a while there when real estate started, they thought there would be a recession, a few years ago. But it didn’t—it really didn’t happen like people were afraid it was going to. Did you ever have second thoughts on coming out here? Or were you glad you did? No. Mm-mm. No. I’m very happy that we came here. I’m very happy here. I—I don’t believe I’d ever want to live any place else. And I just—I tell everyone about our—you take our year round climate, you just can’t beat it. If—Boulder City sprang up, didn’t it? When the dam was built? Well, when the—during the building of the dam, there was—they developed Boulder City, and it was a government owned town. And the people who worked for the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Par and Light, they had beautiful homes out there. And it was a government town and it was very well maintained and it was—they had beautiful lawns and everything. And the Bureau of Reclamation Building was lovely and they had nice schools and all that. But then, the people who worked on the dam— Mm-hmm. We’re not living in Boulder City. The general—the common laborers and people like that, they were living in Las Vegas. And they were going—driving back and forth, or they were living in UNLV University Libraries Ruth E. Hazard 19 down in McKeeversville, which was a, oh it was a sort of a tent city, or something. Or they were living between Las Vegas and—first, when we first came here, course the road out to Boulder City was just a, just sort of a dirt road, almost. Mm-hmm. And—so it wasn’t easy to—I think that—I think that the people, the men who were working on the dam, I think they went back and forth in buses, from Las Vegas, a lot of them did. And I can remember those—oh, that was that building of the building of the dam, with hard work, and those poor old guys, were high scalers. They were really hard workers. Okay. I’d like to know a little bit about the—the photographs that I asked you about before. Oh, okay. Well, I’ve got, oh I’ve got lots of old photographs, has been taken over a period of time. And political, most political, and V. S. W. autographs. Mm-hmm. And, so I’d be glad to bring ‘em out to let you see ‘em, see if there’s any you want. How ‘bout the books? Well, now here. Here’s the books. Here’s—(Someone knocks on the door)—Come in. (Laugh)—represented in Congress. This was June Scrudam? James G. Scrudam. And he was representative in Congress for—until he died. Or no, no, he didn’t die in office. He was a—h