On July 7, 1930, official site preparations began for the monumental construction of the Hoover Dam. Among the thousands of workers flocking to the canyon were courageous teams of Native American men—including Apache, Navajo, Crow, and Yaqui workers—who were specifically hired to serve as the project’s legendary “high-scalers.”
High-scalers had one of the most perilous jobs in engineering history; they swung out over the 800-foot chasm on fragile ropes, using crowbars and dynamite to blast away loose rock. To protect their heads from falling stones before hard hats were officially invented, these clever workers dipped ordinary cloth baseball caps in tar and let them bake in the desert sun to create makeshift, hardened safety helmets.
Image of Native Americans employed on the construction of Hoover Dam as high-scalers. This group includes one Yaqui, one Crow, one Navajo and six Apaches, 1932 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
