Abstract
The KLVX Steamboats on the Colorado Records consist of documents related to the production of Las Vegas' channel 10's (KLVX) Steamboats on the Colorado documentary between 1974 and 1976. The collection is comprised of correspondence, promotional materials, scripts, a treatment, a grant application, maps of the Colorado River from 1852 and other materials used as research for the documentary.
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Scope and Contents Note
The KLVX Steamboats on the Colorado Records consist of documents related to the production of Las Vegas' channel 10's (KLVX) Steamboats on the Colorado documentary between 1974 and 1976. The collection is comprised of correspondence, promotional materials, scripts, a treatment, a grant application, maps of the Colorado River from 1852 and other materials used as research for the documentary.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged by subject and then chronologically.
Biographical / Historical Note
Prior to the construction of numerous dams along the Colorado River by the Bureau of Reclamation in the first half of the twentieth century, the Colorado River was navigable in certain seasons by large, wide steamboats. Private and military steamers moved up and down the river from 1851 to 1906, transporting goods and persons through a desert region otherwise hostile to many travelers until the completion of a southern transcontinental railroad (the Southern Pacific Sunset Route from Los Angeles, California to Houston, Texas) in 1883.
With the passage of time and the completion of dams such as Boulder (Hoover), Glen Canyon, and Parker, many have forgotten about the history of the steamboats on the Colorado River. In preparation for the nation's birthday in 1976, Las Vegas' KLVX (Channel 10) proposed a half-hour documentary about steamboat service in the Southwest to the Arizona American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and the Nevada American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, which jointly funded the project. KLVX assigned Hank Tester to be the project's producer and contracted with Richard (Dick) Yates of Arizona Western University to write the treatment and script. The budget of the project was projected to be just under $19,000.
Yates and Tester pulled historical facts and photos from repositories throughout the Southwest as well as from the Library of Congress. After shooting concluded in late spring of 1976, the documentary appeared on stations throughout Nevada, southern Utah, Arizona, and southern California.
Preferred Citation
KLVX Steamboats on the Colorado Records, 1852-1976. MS-00201. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were a gift of KLVX via Nevada State Division of Archives in 1990; acquisition number T-129.
Processing Note
Materials were processed by Megan Sharp Weatherly in 2010. In 2014, as part of a legacy finding aid conversion project, Kayla McDuffie revised enhanced the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards.
Subsequently Kayla McDuffie entered the data into ArchivesSpace.
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Separated Materials
A number of photographs were separated from the collection and can be found in the photo collection PH-00156 KLVX Steamboats on the Colorado at UNLV Special Collections.