Floyd Elgin Dominy (December 24, 1909

Adams County, Nebraska Adams County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 31,205. Its county seat is Hastings. The county was formed in 1867 and organized in 1871. It is named for John Adams, the ...

– April 20, 2010

Boyce, Virginia Boyce is a small incorporated town in Clarke County, Virginia, United States. The population was 749 at the 2020 census, up from 589 at the 2010 census. Geography Boyce is located in western Clarke County at (39.093118, −78.059190), alo ...

) was appointed commissioner of the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operatio ...

from May 1, 1959, to December 1, 1969, by

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

. Dominy joined the Bureau in 1946. He was the assistant commissioner from 1957 to 1958. He was responsible for building Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of

Lake Powell Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It holds of water when full, second in the United States to only the ...

behind it. He died in

, where he had lived since at least 1990. Dominy's father and grandfather were homesteaders, and his upbringing was marked by humble circumstances. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1933 with a degree in agricultural economics.Donald J. Pisani, 2002. "A Tale of Two Commissioner: Frederick H. Newell and Floyd Dominy," presented at History of the Bureau of Reclamation: A Symposium, Las Vegas, NV, June 18. Not long after graduation, he became a county agricultural extension agent in Campbell County, Wyoming, where his enthusiasm for dams endeared him to local farmers and ranchers. Dominy was a strong advocate for use of the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

and other water resources of the west for agriculture and development, in opposition to the growing

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

. He was the director of several projects like the

Colorado River Storage Project The Colorado River Storage Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation project designed to oversee the development of the upper Colorado drainage basins, basin of the Colorado River. The project provides Hydroelectricity, hydroelectric powe ...

, Colorado River Basin Project, Missouri River Basin Project, Columbia River Basin Project, California Central Valley Project, and the Mekong River Basin Project in Thailand. Dominy was a main character in two non-fiction books about water management the American west: '' Cadillac Desert'' by Marc Reisner and '' Encounters with the Archdruid'' by

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American author. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourt ...

. McPhee arranged a

whitewater rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

trip down the Colorado River with Dominy and David Brower, a prominent environmentalist and founder of

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of grassroots environmental organizations in 73 countries. About half of the member groups call themselves "Friends of the Earth" in their own languages; the others use other ...

, and the book highlights their opposing views of the river and its uses.

References

Floyd Dominy's Obituary in ''The Washington Post''

Floyd Dominy, the colossus of dams, dies at 100
* Reisner, Marc (1993). ''Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water'' (paperback). Penguin Books. . * McPhee, John (1971). ''Encounters with the Archdruid'' (hardcover). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. .
Interview with ''High Country News''. Retrieved November 2, 2005

''High Country News'' article. Retrieved November 2, 2005

"Floyd E. Dominy"
''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

''. February 27, 1963. (image "US Reclamation Bureau official Floyd Dominy (R) inspecting the Arghandab River Dam.")
A History of the Emery County Project website that contains a picture of Dominy and other dignitaries getting ready to set off a blast at the Joes Valley Dam groundbreaking ceremony in 1963

Stacy, Ian Robert, "The Last Conservationist: Floyd Dominy and Federal Reclamation Policy in the American West" (2013). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 1036.
;Specific

External links

Floyd E. Dominy papers
at the

American Heritage Center The American Heritage Center is the University of Wyoming's repository of manuscripts, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West (including politics, settlement, Native Americans, and W ...

Digital Collection of the Floyd E. Dominy papers
a
AHC Digital Collections
1909 births 2010 deaths People from Adams County, Nebraska American men centenarians University of Wyoming alumni United States Bureau of Reclamation personnel People from Boyce, Virginia {{US-gov-bio-stub