Joseph Kine interview, March 02, 1976: transcript

UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 1 An Interview with Joseph Kine An Oral History Conducted by Debbie Nesbit 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 Joseph Kine 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2020 UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 3 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 Joseph Kine 4 Abstract On March 2, 1976, collector Debbie Nesbit interviewed Joseph Kine (born November 16th, 1906 in Elkhart, Iowa) in his home in Boulder City, Nevada. In this interview, Mr. Kine discusses working at Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) as a high scaler. He also speaks about living in Boulder City in its very beginnings as a town. UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 5 Is Mr. Joseph Kine. The date is March 2nd, 1976 at 5 p.m. The place is 639 Avenue C, Boulder City, Nevada. The collector is Debbie Nesbitt, 1322 Pinto Road, Boulder City, Nevada. The project is Local History Project for History 226X: An Oral Interview, the life of a Nevada pioneer. Okay. You have some questions for me, I guess. Uh-huh. How long have you lived in Boulder City? Well, I’ve been here—I come here on the fifteenth day of July, 1931, which would make it about forty-four and a half years, give or take a little. And I’ve been here all the time with the exception of twenty-five months during the war. I wasn’t during World War II. I was away about twenty-five months. Other than that, I’ve been here all the time, since the fifteenth of July in 1931. How’d you happen to come to Boulder City? I was looking for work. I’d been working in Oklahoma mines and lead zinc mines in Oklahoma, and then I worked in the berry fields, picking strawberries down in Southern Missouri. And I left at harvest time to come to Western Kansas, coming through the Western Kansas at harvest and made twenty one dollars and fifty-six there, and that was enough for me to last until I got out here. And then when I got here, I had fifty cents when I got my job. I had fifty cents left, and as I remember, (unintelligible) recall those days. I can’t ever remember worrying about where the next meal was coming from. Just pray you had to be lucky. Well, I guess so. I didn’t have no responsibilities really at that time, just myself. But, I had to eat and because I didn’t have nowhere else to go I had to either make my own, or I don’t know what I’d have done if I didn’t. UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 6 (Laughs) Now we got, you know, relief and stuff. But we didn’t have it then in those days. Did you come out here by yourself? No. My brother-in-law and I come together. We harvested, and of course we drove an old Model T. I paid ten dollars for a Model T before I left and drove it out here. (Unintelligible) at that time. You couldn’t get across the river down here, so we had to go around to (unintelligible) I got in Boulder City about (unintelligible). What was it like when you arrived? Was it just a great big old desert hole or was it a community or what? Well, it was desert all right. And in fact, the first building that I can remember (unintelligible) down after the (unintelligible) tanks are now, along in there. The airport, down in right in that area there. And one of those little boulders, about sixteen to sixteen was housing the post office. And then a little further in, they started to put up the (unintelligible) Lake what is it? Well anyway, they was working on an (unintelligible) and then a little further down, they was building a dormitory (unintelligible) still working on the highway to get down to the dam, and they was, well, they was just working everybody (unintelligible) boxcars, or whatever they could, ’till they could get a place fixed for ’em. It was pretty hot, too. Didn’t have to worry about getting rained on though, it never rained. So that part wasn’t so bad. What did you do? Did you have any kind of cooling system? Any fans or anything? Well the—after not (unintelligible) we didn’t, because we were living in the tents. But that’s the first summer there. But then we got into the house and had electricity, they had little fans to stir the air up a little bit. But there was no—we did not have a cooling system on the time we worked up (unintelligible) this desert cooler. It was a swamp cooler. It was pretty good. We thought they UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 7 were pretty good anyway. What were the working conditions like? Oh, I guess they was about as good as any place in the country. As they progressed along, they got dormitories for the men to sleep in and each man had a room of his own, which was better than they had in lots of places. A lot of places, they had a big room and a lot of men sleep in it. And they had a lot of houses, quite a few houses for the married men. And there were some, of course, who lived in Las Vegas and drove back and forth, and there were some up in (unintelligible) they lived up in Bootleg Canyon, over in McKeeversville, which is now Lakeview, and other spots in the desert. And down at the lake, they had a little camp they called (unintelligible) Camp. Quite a few people was living down there. Married folks. How many hours did you work a week? Well, we worked eight hours a day and seven days a week, which was pretty (unintelligible) to be able to work that much because there wasn’t much else to do. Railroad Pass was out there at that time. That was a really nice casino. We didn’t have big casinos like we have now, but (unintelligible) drinking, dancing, do whatever we wanted. Mildred Kine: (Unintelligible) Really? Yes. And Las Vegas when we come, there’s only about 5,000, and we had about that many workers at the dam for a while (unintelligible) What kind of salary were you paid? I, when I first went to work I made four dollars a day. And then five dollars, and then five sixty, and that was as much as, that was as high as my salary got while I was working for the Six Companies and the dam. UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 8 What did you do for the Six Companies? Well, I did different things. I worked with jackhammers. I worked with drilling tunnels up (unintelligible) high scaling, the beginning of the high scaling almost to the end of it. The high scalers had a rope and they’d go down over the canyon road and (unintelligible) and pick a jackhammer and drill holes, and dynamite it, and after that, (unintelligible) do it over again ’till they got the (unintelligible) the fire house and cut the keyways for the dam. The high scalers did all that work. Was that pretty safe work or was it kind of dangerous? Well, it proves to be safer than most of the jobs because if the scaler people got hurt high scaling, they moved on to some of the other jobs, so it wasn’t as dangerous as it looked like it might have been. What kind of medical care was there? Was there a doctor there or any kind of medical care? Yes. They (unintelligible) I don’t just remember how quick it was now, but in—by December of 1931, they had the hospital built, because I got pneumonia and I was in the hospital during that time. It was Christmastime, I was in the hospital so they built—they had the hospital built. And they had doctors here, they had interns and regular doctors. MK: That hospital was just for men, though. (Unintelligible) Yes. MK: (Unintelligible) All the women and children all had to go to Las Vegas? Why was that? MK: Because they didn’t have (unintelligible) at the hospital. (Unintelligible) Was there any special kind of problem with the (unintelligible) was there anything that UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 9 they had a lot of trouble with? Any kind of special problems? I think they had more trouble with pneumonia than any other lung thing. I think more people got pneumonia here than any other lung thing, and that’s not, that’s (unintelligible) side accidents, of course. Most of the things, quite a few accidents (unintelligible) I think just the sickness, pneumonia, was the worst. That seems kind of odd that pneumonia would be the worst problem in the desert. You think there’d be more things like maybe, rattlesnake bits and stuff like that. Well, during the building of the tunnels, there was a lot of men in those big tunnels and it was really wet in there. You know, the grotto liners (unintelligible) now I don’t know if this had anything to do it or no, but (unintelligible). One of the main things that they’re still trying to tell me, some of them, to where we’re past this stuff. Was there any kind of recreation things or did you just sort of read, or what? Well, no. There wasn’t too much recreation that I can remember. The dam started Railroad Pass. Every Saturday night I believe it was. (Unintelligible) Well yes. Up here we had a pool room, we had a pool room, and the Six Companies had a big beer parlor. (Unintelligible) there was prohibition in those days (unintelligible) and yes, I guess they’ve had quite a bit of cars and things. But there wasn’t too much recreation time, you know, when you’re working seven days a week. Most of the men—were most of the men single or did they have families or? Well, I believe it was about half and half. There was quite a few families like, living in the grounds through the camps as I’ve told you. And then there was all the houses was filled up with married folks. I think it’s probably about half and half. I really don’t know, but I think probably UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 10 about half and half. Half single and half married. I would imagine there weren’t many single women, were there? No, there sure wasn’t. They had boys working in the mess hall, they didn’t have girls there. And they didn’t have hardly any girls that I can remember. They had, in the restaurants that they had here, of course they had some (unintelligible) but other than that, maybe, not very many girls were working in the drugstore or I think most of the people that worked in the Six Companies department store were all just a lot of men. I don’t remember any women. There might have been one or two married women. Very, very few single women. Was there any type of government set up for the community or was it just sort of free for all? No. This was under the supervision of the government, I guess it was, because finally after we had a strike here, they set up a gate out there and they didn’t allow anybody to come in unless you had a pass. You was working and had a pass, then you can get it and (unintelligible) they had a gate out there to keep everybody out. It was the law enforcement men I think were all paid by the government, and the police. Either way, there might have been some Six Companies police. I just don’t remember who paid the police here. Was there like a government head, like a city manager or a mayor or something like that? Yes. We had a city manager here. His name was Ely. He stayed on even after the (unintelligible). Well, I guess he come later though, when the government took over us. Before that, they did have a manager, but I can’t remember what his name was. They had someone in charge. That’s right. I had a friend that did a report on Boulder City, and she told me that Ely was a kind of controversial character. UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 11 Well, I guess you’d call him that. He was something else. Let’s put it that way. (Laughs) (Laughs) What do you mean by something else? Well, he was, I guess, he was a fair enough man. I don’t know about that, but he wanted—to me, he wanted more like a dictatorship. He wanted everything just his way. See, that’s what it seemed to me like. There wasn’t, you know, (unintelligible). Did he put any type of curfew? Was there any kind of curfew or anything like that? Yes, there was for a while, there was a curfew. That was later on, though. That was later, after the Six Companies had moved away. But there’s no curfew here that I know of, that I remember anyway. Vegas, or the Six Companies was building the dam, but after they moved out and the government took it over, there was a while where we had a curfew. I don’t remember it lasting very long though. What type of community was it? Was it a (unintelligible) was it quiet? Or was it kind of rowdy and had problems? I can’t remember of any problems to speak of. I think it was running pretty (unintelligible) people were working so hard they didn’t have time to do too much. I believe, as far as I can remember and as far as I know, it was (unintelligible) pretty peaceful. I suppose there were a few company brawls, but not too many. Was there any racial or ethnic problems? Were there anybody there but white people? Oh, yes. We had—I think we had seven colored people working for a while here, but not very long. There was mostly all white, nearly everybody was white here. They didn’t have any problems? There wasn’t any fighting or anything like that? Well, not—you mean racist? Yes. UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 12 No. No, no, no. There was nothing. Was there—well, you’ve mentioned drinking already, but was there a lot of drinking there? Yes. The bootleggers, the bootleggers brought booze in. We had quite a bit to drink it seemed like. Of course, it was a (unintelligible) as I remember it was about three dollars a gallon (unintelligible). But, there’s no tax on it, you know. But they had plenty to drink. The bootleggers brought it in? Well, they brought it in here some way. That was, I think when Bootleg Canyon got its name, was (unintelligible) Was there any gambling in Boulder City? Not in Boulder City. There never was any gambling (unintelligible) maybe they sneak around and (unintelligible) or something like that, but there was never gambling here in Boulder City at any time. There never has been. You already told me about post office and store. How many establishments were there? Were there quite a few or what? Well, there was—Manix had a department store, and there was a lumberyard and hardware down on the highway. And then the Six Companies had a big department store, and then there was the drugstore up over the old drugstore is now. That drugstore was there pretty early. And the pool room was there, and there was some restaurants, and of course the mess hall, the Six Companies mess hall. And pretty early, the theater got here pretty early. And the churches, the Grace Community Church I guess was the very first church to come in here. And then (unintelligible) but that’s about all there was, and (unintelligible) but there wasn’t too much here. A lot of people just went out to Vegas. UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 13 How big was Vegas then, in terms of size? Well, they say it was about 5,000. That included all the surrounding farms they had is something I remember. There was only about 5,000 there, ’cause we had a little (unintelligible). Las Vegas has done its big growing since the war, since 1945. It really got it going after that. It really grew (unintelligible). Can you give me kind of just some boundaries? Do you know like where it ran from, what street? Did you know? Or was it not really set up that way? Yes. (Unintelligible) there was only about Third or Fourth Street (unintelligible) that was way out in the country, then at that time. And what—I don’t remember what street that thing was on. Sixth (unintelligible) that’s Main Street out to about three blocks or something like that. That’s all I figure it was. And it didn’t spread out North or South then just because it was really small when we came here. And some of the Las Vegas people who was in business there used the garages and things out here. They probably thought, this was the place that was gonna grow, and then turned down the other way, and they was restricted from building here, and Las Vegas was wide open, so Las Vegas just grew. We stayed the same. We had the first airport. They had an airport here before Las Vegas did. But it soon had to move away because all the business went to Las Vegas. Why was there a restriction on building in Boulder City? Well, the government was, had all the land, and they leased the land to the home owners, the people that had the homes out here, five dollars a month for the land that the house sat on here. And there was no place for people to build. And they tried to hold it down, people from building I guess, they got (unintelligible), that’s about all I know. Then it wasn’t—they didn’t really want it to be a city? They just wanted to sort of die out UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 14 or something? Well, I think they just wanted to keep it to operating size for the dam mostly, and the park service. I don’t think they had any intention of it growing into a big city. Did the workers go to Vegas often? Did it take long to get to Vegas? Well no, we had a pretty fair road here pretty quick. We had gravel to start with when we got a road, and it didn’t take so very long to get in there. Twenty-three miles. We could run along and (unintelligible) fifty miles an hour was pretty good speed at that time. But it didn’t take too long to go in and back out to Vegas. We used to—everybody was (unintelligible) once a week anyway. Maybe not that often. I don’t think we ever went that often because I just had an old Model T Ford. I couldn’t get it (unintelligible) until later on, I bought a new secondhand Buick, but we didn’t go too often to Vegas. Did most people have their own cars or was there any kind of shuttle service between here and Las Vegas? Well, they had a little bus that’d come, because when I got married in October, I was on the bus and had come back on the bus, so there was a bus that run back and forth at that time. And then, for the workers that lived in Las Vegas, they drove the (unintelligible) then you had a carpool and they’d come in cars (unintelligible) (Unintelligible) You said you got married in October. When did you meet your wife? Oh, I met her back in Missouri. (Unintelligible) in Missouri before. I’ve known her for quite a while before we’d come out here and got married. I’d knew her at least, oh, since January 1927, I think is when I met her. So you’d been planning to be married when you got out here? UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 15 Yes. As soon as I could get enough money together, I sent her the money and she came out. We was married in Las Vegas. And then did you have a little house up here or something? We lived in a tent the first winter. I brought a tent sixteen by sixteen (unintelligible) and then we lived there till March of ’32 and we got a house assigned to us. And then we moved into the house. A little one room house down on Seventh Street. (Unintelligible) So like, when you lived in a tent, what did you do about cooking and stuff like that? Well, we had a little camp stove in the tent. And while I was living there, (unintelligible) for three days. And there was only two iceboxes in the tent. One was under the table and one was under bed. The rest of the tent was all wet. (Laughs) Oh boy. What did you do about washing and so forth? Wash your clothes? Oh, haul the water. We’d get the water down at the railroad tank. The railroad tank for the water down on the (unintelligible) get the water from the tank. We had (unintelligible) cans, it was ten gallon (unintelligible). The company furnished us those cans. They put ’em up and take ’em over, (unintelligible). That’s what you used for drinking water too? Yes. That’s what we used for drinking water. Drinking water, wash water, and everything. But then when we moved into the house, of course, they had running water in the house. What kind of arrangements were made for children? Were there a lot of children there or, was there a school for ’em or anything? No. There was no schools to start with. They had some schools in the houses and then there was some private school (unintelligible) and they charged so much for the kids to go to school. (Unintelligible) taught over there, then they taught out in some of the Six Companies houses, UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 16 they had schools, in the houses. By the time you had kids and they were going to school, was there a school out here by then? Yes. Yes, there was schools then. And then of course—for the first, they had the grade schools for a while and all the high schools had to go to Las Vegas, to high school. Then they finally got the high school here, and (unintelligible) Do you like the way Boulder City has grown? Well, I’m happy with the way it’s grown. Yes. Oh, yes. I don’t particularly like to live in a very big town. I like it very small, (unintelligible). I really prefer to live in a small town. (Unintelligible) How do you feel about the no gambling law that Boulder City has? I think it’s a good idea, because I don’t believe the smallest town we got, that we’d have a real nice place. I’m afraid we’d honky tonks and anyway, (unintelligible) lots of money and that’s where we get the characters coming in looking to make a quick dollar. And we’d have more crime, I believe, when there’s lots of money floating around than we do in a small town because the people who is looking for an easy dollar isn’t attracted I don’t believe, as much to a small town, just to the bigger places. Do you think that’ll ever change or do you think it’ll stay this way? No. I think it’ll grow gradually bigger and bigger as time goes on. I don’t see how we can help it, because we’re running out of land other places and (unintelligible) and stuff. And then this being a little, secluded town out here will attract certain people that which otherwise would attract. (Unintelligible) maybe not real fast like, grow up fast like other towns, but I believe it will gradually get bigger and bigger (unintelligible) UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 17 What about the gambling? Do you think there will ever be allowed gambling? Well, yes. I believe the new generation of people that’s coming in (unintelligible) the same as liquor. For years and years, liquor wasn’t allowed here, and then finally they got it on the ballot and finally it was (unintelligible). And I believe that after all this new generation’s come on, I believe that they’ll probably get gambling in here. I don’t know what happens (unintelligible) like they have out on the Strip in Las Vegas. I doubt it because there is not enough people to support it, I don’t think. But (unintelligible). Okay. I can’t think of anything else I can ask you. So, you know, while we was building the dam, there was a group of people—they called ’em concrete puddlers. They had big hip boots on ’cause the cement was dumped into the forms, why, men would get in there with vibrators with the big boots on and settle the cement down there, tamp it in good, so they made a good, strong job. One of these fellows got canned on day. He was riding home on the transport. You turn around the corner up at where (unintelligible) is, and he looked back at the dam and he looked at it, he said “I hope it leaks”. (Laughs) (Laughs) He had a bad mood and he wanted the dam to leak. Well we know it never has, has it? No. (Unintelligible) As I was coming out here on the Model T, I thought that there would be trees around the river. But, wherever I’d been before along the riverbanks, there had always been trees. And I was expecting to see trees as I got out here. And when I was getting (unintelligible) we got into a somewhere across (unintelligible), well we’re getting closer now. We’re gonna have some trees. But then we hit the desert and it (unintelligible) more and more all the time. We got down to the UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 18 river there, it was real desert. But as we’d come through Kingman, we come through Kingman on Sunday, and wrote back home, and told her to send out mail to Needles and we’ll pick it up in Needles. So we drove down Sunday to Needles and had to stay there all night. So we drove out of town a little ways to get to Needles (unintelligible) like it is now, and we stopped to make a bed, make camp there. And we put our blankets down on the ground, and would you believe, we laid ’em right on a little ant hill. And pretty soon, the ants began to crawl all over us. And it was dark by now. But anyway, we soon got a flashlight or something and discovered that the ants was crawling all over our beds. So we got up, we shook the blanket real good and moved it, waited till morning, and then when the morning come, we went back up to town and (unintelligible) got our mail and come on out to Boulder City, and just come through Searchlight. We stopped in Searchlight for a little while. Searchlight was bigger than it is now. There were more people there. And they had a sign up over the post office. It said “This is our post office. We don’t sell beer here.” And we went, after we left Searchlight and come down, we hit the outside edge of the dry lake there. And there was a bootlegger there in a little shack selling beer. And while we were sitting there, waiting a little while, talking to him, there was a car come from Vegas across the mountain, not around the dry lake here, but across a road that cut across the (unintelligible). The road was quite a bit south of Railroad Pass. This man had some watermelon juice. So the bootlegger bought a watermelon and he gave us all a piece, and it was so hot, the watermelon was so hot, you could hardly eat it. But it really, really tasted good. Then, of course, we came down into Boulder City, we got here about five o’clock (unintelligible) as I’ve already told you. Why was Searchlight bigger then? What kind of industry or whatever was going on down there that it was so big? UNLV University Libraries Joseph Kine 19 Oh, they had some of the mines was running there at that time. And it was just people working there, there’s people that working there in the mines. (Unintelligible) But there was at that time. There was mines in the area. (Unintelligible) (Unintelligible) (Unintelligible) (Laughs) (Unintelligible) (Tape one ends) (Tape two inaudible)