Dam builder preserved memories

In the summer of 1931, waist deep in the Great Depression, Lee Tilman headed south from Ely in search of work with one of the only employers that seemed to be hiring at the time: the Boulder Canyon Project.

Thanks to that journey, he spent the rest of his long life telling every dam story in the book, and enjoying every minute of it.

More than 75 years after he helped build Hoover Dam, then the tallest dam in the world, Tilman died at his home in Boulder City on Dec. 15. He was 94.

Over the years, Tilman granted hundreds of interviews about his days at the dam, where he drove a truck and worked various other jobs. He appeared in numerous documentaries on PBS, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel, and became the go-to source for reporters and history buffs alike, said Dennis McBride, former executive director of the Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum.

"He had this totally rare combination: a talent for storytelling, fabulous recall, and a generosity that he would talk to anybody anytime he was able to do so," McBride said. "People knew when they came to Boulder City to find Lee Tilman."

When a laser light show was projected onto the face of the structure to mark the 75th anniversary of Boulder City in 2006, it was Tilman who threw the switch.

When the National Park Service sent a remote-control submarine to film a 1930s gravel plant at the bottom of Lake Mead, it was Tilman they invited along to observe. He wasn't there in a ceremonial role, either; he was there to work.

"He was helping them identify what they were looking at," said McBride, now curator of collections for the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas. "It was marvelous."

Tilman was born April 14, 1913, in Gooding, Idaho. He grew up in mining towns in Idaho, Utah and eastern Nevada before heading south.

He spent his first night in Southern Nevada crouched under a mesquite tree during a monsoon downpour near what is now Sam Boyd Stadium.

In addition to driving a truck during the construction of Hoover Dam, Tilman got a job with the Civilian Conservation Corps helping to remove buildings from the soon-to-be-flooded St. Thomas town site. He also took part in an effort to collect American Indian relics before Lake Mead was filled for the first time. Some of the pottery he helped rescue is still on display at the Lost City Museum in Overton.

In 1934, Tilman married Noma Jean Yelland, a third-generation Nevadan from White Pine County. Their union would last 71 years, until her death in 2005.

After Hoover Dam was finished, he got a government job there as an electrician's helper. He remained with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation until his retirement in 1969.

In a 2003 interview about the historic Boulder Dam Hotel's grand opening, a then-90-year-old Tilman said this: "At the time, the hotel was used by very important people, and I certainly wasn't a very important (person)."

But if he wasn't one then, he certainly became one, said McBride, whose oral history of Tilman is on file at the Boulder City public library and UNLV Special Collections.

"He was someone I would say was larger than life," McBride said. "Certainly for Boulder City and the Hoover Dam, he was larger than life. And he outlived everybody."

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 12 at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Boulder City. A reception for family and friends will follow from noon to 3 p.m. at the Boulder Dam Hotel.

Tilman was preceded in death by his wife, Noma; three brothers, Jack, Carl and Jim; and one granddaughter. He is survived by sons Rick, Tim and Paul; daughters Dawn, Kathleen and Nomalee; 11 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.

Donations can be made in Tilman's name to the Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0350.