Boulder Dam (later called Hoover Dam) was fundamentally the conception of Arthur Powell Davis. A month before he died, Arthur Powell Davis was appointed Consulting Engineer on the dam project. Mr. Davis had his vision back in 1902. He died in Oakland, California, on August 7, 1933, and is buried in St. Paul's Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., along with his wife, Elizabeth B. Davis. The Davis Dam is named after him.[5] Like other progressive Republicans, Arthur Davis had deep faith in the role of experts (he himself held a degree in civil engineering), worshipped efficiency, and viewed the federal government as a major instrument for social and political reform.
See also
An American Engineer in Stalin's Russia: The Memoirs of Zara Witkin, 1932–1934. "Arthur Powell Davis, the distinguished American reclamation engineer, ...worked in old Russia under the Czar and also for the Soviet Government for several years prior to 1932, engaged in designing a giant irrigation project in southeastern Russia." (p. 51)
