When people talk about Hoover Dam, they usually mean the triumph of engineering, the massive concrete wall holding back the Colorado River, or the New Deal project that put thousands to work during the Great Depression. But the dam also has a darker side—one written in blood, sweat, and more than a hundred lives lost.
Among those deaths is a story so strange it feels like folklore: a father and son, both killed at Hoover Dam, on the same date—exactly fourteen years apart.
The First Death: J.G. Tierney (1921)
Before Hoover Dam was even a dam, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sent surveyors to study the Black Canyon. On December 20, 1921, a government surveyor named J.G. Tierney was working in the Colorado River when tragedy struck. He slipped, fell into the water, and drowned.
Tierney became one of the very first recorded deaths tied to what would later become Hoover Dam. His body was recovered, but his death marked the dangers that came even before construction began.
Fourteen Years Later
Fast forward exactly fourteen years—to the day. December 20, 1935. Hoover Dam was finished, the dedication ceremony already over, and thousands of men had left the canyon behind. But one worker remained: Patrick W. Tierney, J.G.’s son.
Patrick was an electrician’s helper working on one of the intake towers. That morning, he fell from one of the towers to his death.
Same family. Same project. Same date.
Coincidence or Fate?
It’s the kind of detail you’d expect from a ghost story—except it’s documented fact. J.G. Tierney, the first. Patrick Tierney, the last.
Between their deaths, the dam claimed the lives of at least 96 others (some historians say more, depending on how you count heat stroke and accidents that weren’t officially logged). The Bureau of Reclamation maintains that Patrick was the final construction-related fatality.
Which means the bookends of Hoover Dam’s death toll are a father and son, linked forever by a concrete giant in the desert.
The Legacy of the Dam
Today, Hoover Dam is a tourist magnet. People snap selfies on the bypass bridge, drive across the state line, and marvel at its sheer size. Few know the strange symmetry in the Tierney deaths—or that behind the marvel was a brutal, dangerous workplace.
The dam is a monument, yes. But it’s also a grave marker, in its own way.
Sources & Credits
- Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Father and son died on the same day, 14 years apart, while working on Hoover Dam”
- Bureau of Reclamation historical records
- Additional research via Newspapers.com archives