[9][10] Boulder City was originally built in 1931 by the Bureau of Reclamation and Six Companies, Inc. as housing for workers who were building the Hoover Dam.

The sheer scale of the dam and duration of the project required the Bureau of Reclamation to consider the construction of a semi-permanent town rather than a temporary arrangement.

[11] Boulder City was exceptionally rare as an example of a town fully planned under government supervision.

DeBoer had been a planner for Denver, Colorado, and was to design many towns and suburbs around the Rocky Mountain region.

The plan submitted by DeBoer in 1930 was formal and symmetrical with a park and the Bureau of Reclamation building at the termination of the two main axes.

[12] The plan was deemed too expensive to carry out in its original form and was modified to allow for more regular block sizes.

Nevertheless, its allowance for public space and copious amounts of landscaping earned it the moniker "Nevada's Garden City".

[13] The provision of green landscape was another expression of the Bureau of Reclamation's "mission to reclaim and 'green' the American West.

Managers were housed further down the hill, and dwellings for manual laborers were located furthest away from the public buildings and parks.

[15] The most radically modified portions of DeBoer's plan were in these lower-class residential blocks, where open space and parks were largely eliminated.

There were limits to the number of different types of stores allowed in the city, and all who wished to begin a business were screened for character and financial viability.

[16] On the other hand, there was no provision for schools in the burgeoning city, probably because the Bureau of Reclamation expected that single male workers would populate the town.

Boulder Theatre, established in 1931, meant that workers were not obliged to travel to Las Vegas for amusements.

Such measures were common for company towns dating back to the 19th century, since sober workers surrounded by their own gardens and provided with appropriate entertainment would be more productive during their working days.

In the case of Boulder City, the prohibition of alcohol and gambling was at least partly due to the proximity of Las Vegas, which had a notoriously rowdy vice district.

The nearby city of Henderson, founded in 1943 and based around the magnesium industry, was another early example of decentralization before Clark County had a significant population: "...the region began to decentralize and regroup as a multi-centered area early in its history.

This provision still exists, making Boulder City one of only two locations in Nevada where gambling is illegal (the other is the town of Panaca).

[26] On August 9, 2018, the Boulder City Bypass opened to the public as part of the Interstate 11 project.

[30] Boulder City maintains strict controls on growth, limited to 120 single- or multi-family residential building permits for new construction per year.

The following year, they won a "Supergames" playoff against the 1976 champions from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and a celebrity all-star team.

Boulder City is one of two locations within the State of Nevada where military veterans and their spouses can be interred.

Boulder City High School serves grades nine through twelve and has an average enrollment of 700–750 students.

Boulder City also houses a small satellite campus of the College of Southern Nevada.

In 2019, the city announced plans to lease up to 1,100 acres (450 ha) in Black Hills South as a utility-scale solar facility.