Sara Denton loves life, laughter, and wonderful adventures. She is the mother of four children, a Distinguished Nevadan, lover of books and art, political campaign organizer, community activist, and friend. Sara is one of the founders of Boulder City’s most successful philanthropic fundraisers, Art in the Park. Denton was born in Paducah, Kentucky, into a family of readers and thinkers. Therefore, when the opportunity arose, at 18 years of age, to move the Washington, DC to work in the Signal Corps, she seized the opportunity. From the vantage point of her apartment, she could see the Secret Service assisting Franklin D. Roosevelt into his limousine at the back door of the White House. His polio was hidden from the public but this diversion allowed Sara and her friends to greet and be greeted by their hero. While in DC, Sara worked for General Hayes and one day struck up a conversation with a young soldier, Ralph Denton. Soon they married and moved to his home state, Nevada. After several years in Elko, NV, the Dentons moved to Las Vegas where Sara worked in the campaigns of Grant Sawyer, Howard Cannon, and Alan Bible. Moving the family to Boulder City though, was the wisest relocation by the family because the children grew up in a caring community with good schools. And the city provided the opportunity for Sara’s creativity to flow in many directions including travel, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and community building efforts. This interview is filled with laughter. I enjoyed the conversation.
Description provided with image: "L-R Mary Lou Williams, sister of the late Nanelia Doughty; Norton Williams; Susan Jarvis, Special Collections Librarian. The occasion is donation of papers of the late Nan Doughty to UNLV Special Collections. July 29, 1987." Another description provided on an accompanying sheet of paper: "[July 29, 1987, L-R: Mary Lou Williams; Norton Williams; Susan Jarvis]. Currently being processed, the Nan Doughty Collection, donated by her sister, Mary Lou Williams, contains a century's worth of correspondence from the Bradford-Shockley family. The Bradords and Shockleys were intimately involved in mining and land development in Nevada, New Mexico, California, and Oregon, and had been New England shipbuilders in the early 19th century. May Bradford Shockley was the United States' first female surveyor: her letters detail life in Tonopah, Nevada in the early 1900s. her husband, mining engineer William Shockley, traveled the world, and his correspondence describes, among other places, life in and around Candelaria, Nevada in the 1880s. The collection also includes hundreds of early Nevada photographers, mining documents, and maps."
The Bureau of Reclamation Photographs of the Hoover Dam and Boulder City, Nevada depict the construction of the Hoover (Boulder) Dam and the development of Boulder City, Nevada from 1869 to 1974, with a bulk of the materials dating from 1929 to 1940. The photographs primarily depict the construction operations in Black Canyon, including digging tunnels, pouring concrete, building the power plant, and inspections by Bureau of Reclamation engineers. The photographs also depict Boulder City, including schools, workers, and dormitories. The collection also includes photographs of St. Thomas, Nevada, Lake Mead, Nelson’s Landing, Nevada, and an archaeological excavation near Lake Mohave, Nevada.