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"Dog on a Catwalk On the canyon wall, just across from the escalator leading to the new Tour Center at Hoover Dam, is a plaque dedicated to a dog. Puzzled visitors often ask the guides and guards why the plaque is there. The answers to these questions help keep alive the saga of the first and only Hoover Dam mascot. Details of the mascot's birth are a bit obscure, but Morgan Sweeney and LeGrande (Blackie) Hardy agreed that he was born under the Six Companies No. 4 barracks, and they should know. Mr. Sweeney was with the commissariat during construction and Mr. Hardy drove one of the huge transports that hauled the workers from Boulder City to the dam site. After construction of the dam, Mr. Hardy worked as a guide at Hoover Dam. The dog's rough black puppy fur did not smooth out entirely as he matured and he never quite grew up to his outsized paws, but perhaps these odd characteristics helped to endear him to the workers. He was hardly weaned when Mr. Hardy picked him up one morning and tossed him on the transport. When the dog first saw the dam, he knew that was where he belonged. It became his life. The only life he ever knew or wanted. Every morning he boarded a transport and put in a full days work along with the other workers. He inspected everything daily. As the dam rose higher and higher he had to ride the skips, a type of open-air elevator, to cover the ground. When he wanted to board a skip, he barked, and the operators always stopped for him. The mascot would hop aboard and bark again at the level where he wished to get off. Trainers will tell you that one of the most difficult tricks to teach an animal is to get them to walk on any swaying, unstable surface, but Hoover Dam's mascot raced happily back and forth across the swinging catwalks slung across the canyon seven hundred feet above the Colorado River. The Hoover Dam mascot was not a one-man dog. He had no master. He belonged to the dam and everyone connected with it, and they all belonged to him! If he decided to work overtime at his favorite job of chasing ring-tailed cats that infested the tunnels, he hitched a ride back to town in the first Bureau of Reclamation or Six Companies car, truck or transport that happened along. No one ever remembers him accepting a ride from anyone not connected with the dam. How he could differentiate between dam workers and casual visitors no one could figure out, but it is a known fact that he did. Everyone wanted to feed the dog, and being a dog, he found it hard to refuse. He became quite sick. The worried workers then decided that the dog needed supervised feeding. Arrangements were made with the commissary for the dog to be fed and word was passed to all workers not to offer him any more food. The commissary packed a lunch for him every day and he soon learned to carry it in his mouth when he boarded the transport. At the construction site, he placed the sack alongside the workers' lunch pails and went about his business. When the whistle blew, the dog raced for his sack and sat patiently until someone opened it for him. Workers leaving the job frequently stopped at the commissary and left a few dollars with the manager - "Just to see that the dog gets fed well." These contributions soon grew to a respectable sum and a bank account was opened for the Hoover Dam mascot. The money paid for his food, dog license, and some sleeping baskets (which he never used) and silver collars that he detested. Sometimes these collars were stolen by souvenir hunting tourists. The fund also paid for advertisements in the Boulder City and Las Vegas papers, such as this one. I Love Candy But It Makes Me Sick. It Is Also Bad For My Coat. Please Don't Feed Me Any More. Your Friend, The Hoover Dam Mascot One evening, Chief Ranger Peterson was notified that a group of workers was beating a man to death. Chief Peterson dashed to the scene and broke it up. When he learned the cause of the riot, the Chief told the victim he would like to see the job finished but it was his duty to stop it. The Chief escorted the bloody and bruised man to the town limits and told him never to come back. The man had made the near-fatal mistake of kicking the Hoover Dam mascot. After the dam was completed, the dog took it upon himself to see that the rule "NO DOGS ALLOWED LOOSE ON DAM" was rigidly enforced. His ironclad insistence on the letter of the law caused some embarrassment to members of the Guide Force, but these skilled diplomats always managed to convince indignant pooch owners that the mascot actually owned the dam. The Bureau of Reclamation merely built and operated it for him. On a day when the blazing desert sun, combined with a blast furnace wind, pushed the thermometer over the 120-degree mark, the dog found a spot of shade under a truck. The driver never noticed the sleeping dog when he started up and drove off. News of the fatal accident was phoned to town and it was the quietest afternoon Boulder City ever experienced. Later, rough, tough, hard-rock men wept openly and unashamed as they slammed their ear-shattering jackhammers into the hard rock cliff, carving out the grave which was to be the Hoover Dam mascot's tomb. So, in death as in life, the Hoover Dam mascot looks upon the dam he loved for as long as it will stand and when the wind howls around the towers of the dam, the old-timers smile knowingly. It isn't wind. It's the dog baying at the ring-tailed cats."

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"Boulder City, Nevada - Little Niggy: Dog of the Dam Field Report by the Roadsideamerica.com Team Address: Boulder City, NV [Show Map] Directions: Close to the parking deck on the Nevada side of the dam. Add to My Sights | Show My Sights Vacation and road trip planning caution: Visitor tips may not be verified. Call attractions for most current hours and admission. Send Updates. Boulder City, Nevada - Little Niggy: Dog of the Dam Faithful friend of the dam-builders, and damn dog of the politically correct. Roadsideamerica.com Report... Boulder City, Nevada - Dam dog: His name shall not be spoken I was at Hoover Dam a few days ago. They have a nice plaque for the Dog of the Dam, but have removed all reference to the name "Nig" or "Niggy." I asked 7 different ranger dudes/dudettes "What's the doggies name?" I learned they are under strict orders not to say the name, even when asked. Political correctness lives on at Hoover Dam. [Joel, 01/05/2003] Boulder City, Nevada - Nig the Dam Dog - Vague Recollection Little Niggy the Dam Dog: WOW, finally I have proof of "Nig". My wife and I were at Hoover Dam about 12 years ago when I was drawn to the brass plate on the wall like a fly to a bug zapper. I noticed that there was no mention of the dogs name on the inscription. That's when I saw the corner of the slab on the ground. It was 99% covered with dirt. It took some digging, but there was the name "Nig." I have told the story many times but now have proof of my find. I understand that there is a new guest building where "Nig" was and his memory except for stories is lost, could this be true? [Mike Moseley, 10/03/1999] Boulder City, Nevada - Little Niggy I was out at Hoover Dam on 3/23/97. It seems that Little Niggy's name was deemed too offensive to appear anyplace. There is a plaque which describes his short but happy life as the Dam mascot, but no mention of his name. The slab under which our fine four-legged friend is presumably interred is sans inscription: not "Little Niggy", not "Nig", not anything. To be honest, I'm not sure that "Nig" is any less offensive than "Little Niggy", but to deprive the beloved mascot of his name? [Rob, 03/23/1997] [RA: Perhaps you didn't look hard enough. We visited there again last summer, and it said Nig. It's written in welded metal and is hard to find and hard to read. But it's there!"

Thus be he remembered, kind of a sad tale actually

2/26/2008 11:30:47 AM

Fry's dog?

2/26/2008 11:35:16 AM

Sad? Not really. Yeah his life ended early, and that is sad, but this dog had a swingin' life. Can't complain about that.

2/26/2008 11:37:57 AM

i mean i can just imagine the mess under the wheel of that truck

it probably changed ther view of niggy a lil bit, wanted to bury him as quick as possible i bet

2/26/2008 11:39:17 AM

i saw a dog get completely rolled over by a tractor... it made the tractor tilt and it ran off... i'm sure it died later though

2/26/2008 11:41:29 AM

damn, he prolly died as soon as i left your sight

like crashed motorcyclist that get up and start runnin and fall back down

2/26/2008 11:47:22 AM

wouldn't suprise me if they eventually say his name was "Lil Nicky"

2/26/2008 11:49:58 AM

Cracka stole my dog!

[Edited on February 26, 2008 at 12:44 PM. Reason : /]

2/26/2008 12:43:56 PM

You know it's a good story when it has "the old-timers smile knowingly" in it.

2/26/2008 1:47:07 PM

bttt for niggy nig

2/26/2008 4:02:27 PM