The Reclamation Service installs a hydropower plant at the Arizona construction site of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. The power plant was originally built to provide electricity for constructing the dam, but sales of extra electricity helped pay for the project and improved life in the local community. This was one of the first major projects of the newly formed Reclamation Service and demonstrated the economic viability of combining water storage with hydropower generation.

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam is a symbol of the Progressive Era's faith in large-scale government projects to improve society, a theme that is explored in the American poetry of the early 20th century. The dam, named after the president who championed conservation, represents a new relationship between the federal government and the land, one that would be both celebrated and critiqued in the literature of the American West for decades to come.