Black Canyon of the Colorado Black Canyon of the Colorado The Black Canyon of the Colorado is the canyon on the Colorado River where Hoover Dam was built. The canyon is located on the Colorado River at the state line between Nevada and Arizona. The western wall of the gorge is in the El Dorado Mountains, and the eastern wall is in the Black Mountains of Arizona. The canyon formed about 15 million years ago during the Miocene Basin and Range uplift. Black Canyon gets its name from the black volcanic rocks that are found throughout the area. Just south of the Hoover Dam on
Steamboats of the Colorado River Quartette Landing and Eldorado Canyon in Nevada, the landings and the mills there were abandoned. The town of Nelson was founded near the head of the canyon nearest the road to the railroad, the post office of Eldorado was closed in August 31, 1907 and moved to Nelson. In 1906, Santa Fé railroad built the Barnwell and Searchlight Railway to the west to tie Searchlight to its subsidiary California Eastern Railway at Barnwell, California. Also in 1905, the Arizona and California Railroad bridged the Colorado River at Parker, Arizona, cutting in half the last profitable section of the river for