Editing Floyd Dominy

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[[Image:Floyd Dominy.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Floyd Dominy]]

'''Floyd Elgin Dominy''' (December 24, 1909 [[Adams County, Nebraska]] &ndash; April 20, 2010 [[Boyce, Virginia]]) was appointed commissioner of the [[United States Bureau of Reclamation]] from May 1, 1959, to December 1, 1969, by [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Floyd E. Dominy papers|url=https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah02129.xml|access-date=June 22, 2021|website=rmoa.unm.edu}}</ref> 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]] behind it. He died in [[Boyce, Virginia]], where he had lived since at least 1990.<ref>Marston, Ed (August 28, 2000). [https://www.hcn.org/issues/184/5980 "Floyd Dominy: An encounter with the West's undaunted dam-builder"]. ''[[High Country News]]''. Retrieved May 3, 2018.</ref>

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.<ref>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.</ref> 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]] and other water resources of the west for agriculture and development, in opposition to the growing [[environmental movement]]. He was the director of several projects like the [[Colorado River Storage Project]], Colorado River Basin Project, [[Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program|Missouri River Basin Project]], Columbia River Basin Project, California Central Valley Project, and the [[Mekong|Mekong River Basin]] Project in Thailand.<ref name=":0" /> 

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]]. McPhee arranged a [[whitewater rafting]] trip down the Colorado River with Dominy and [[David Brower]], a prominent environmentalist and founder of [[Friends of the Earth]], and the book highlights their opposing views of the river and its uses. 

== References ==
* [http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=floyd-dominy&pid=142123170 Floyd Dominy's Obituary in ''The Washington Post'']
* [http://www.hcn.org/hcn/wotr/floyd-dominy-the-colossus-of-dams-dies-at-100 Floyd Dominy, the colossus of dams, dies at 100]
* Reisner, Marc (1993). ''Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water'' (paperback). Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-017824-4}}.
* McPhee, John (1971). ''Encounters with the Archdruid'' (hardcover). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. {{ISBN|0-374-14822-8}}.
* [http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=5980 Interview with ''High Country News''. Retrieved November 2, 2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060105032629/http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=5980 |date=January 5, 2006 }}
* [http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=4583 ''High Country News'' article. Retrieved November 2, 2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928040441/http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=4583 |date=September 28, 2007 }}
* [http://www.usbr.gov/history/CommissBios/dominy.html BuRec Bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090120143420/http://www.usbr.gov/history/CommissBios/dominy.html |date=January 20, 2009 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110611140500/http://www.life.com/image/50546247 "Floyd E. Dominy"]. ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]''. February 27, 1963. (image "US Reclamation Bureau official Floyd Dominy (R) inspecting the Arghandab River Dam.") 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080926133416/http://www.ewcd.org/history/ 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]
* [https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1036 Stacy, Ian Robert, "The Last Conservationist: Floyd Dominy and Federal Reclamation Policy in the American West" (2013). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 1036.]

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== External links ==
* [https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv928115/op=fstyle.aspx?t=k&q=dominy Floyd E. Dominy papers] at the [[American Heritage Center]]
* [https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/uwydbuwy~87~87 Digital Collection of the Floyd E. Dominy papers] at [https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/allCollections AHC Digital Collections]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dominy, Floyd}}
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Adams County, Nebraska]]
[[Category:American men centenarians]]
[[Category:University of Wyoming alumni]]
[[Category:United States Bureau of Reclamation personnel]]
[[Category:People from Boyce, Virginia]]


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