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 Grand Coulee Dam - Grand Coulee, WA Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 47° 57.618 W 118° 59.197
11T E 351697 N 5313796
The largest producer of hydroelectric power in the country, Grand Coulee Dam was the largest concrete structure in the world when built, containing 11,975,521 cubic yards of concrete. It remains the largest concrete structure in the country.
Waymark Code: WMYCJH
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 05/29/2018
Views: 2
The American Guide Series writers seem to have been quite impressed with the dam, referring to it as " one of the wonders of the world". Their description, beginning on page 332, spilled over to page 335. The dam and environs actually occupied several pages.
Page 332
The route north to Coulee Dam from its junction with US 10 at Almira is upgrade through dry wheatlands and occasional patches of scab rock and sagebrush. Rising slowly, with curves and dips, the highway reaches the Columbia River, then descends dizzily by a winding three-mile grade into the canyon carved by the river to Coulee Dam, now in process of construction. When completed, Coulee Dam will be one of the wonders of the world. It will bring nearer to realization a plan to irrigate a semi- desert area almost as large as the State of Connecticut; and, as a secondary function, it will generate electric current to the extent of 2,520,000 horsepower. The dam is designed to halt the full flood of the mighty Columbia, which drains most of the northwest, back it up into a vast artificial lake 151 miles long, and regulate its flow for 450 miles to the Pacific. Over the giant spillway will plunge a roaring cataract, three times the height of Niagara Falls and several times its volume. By means of the mightiest pumping system yet devised, enough water will be elevated in a vertical lift of 280 feet to fill and keep filled a great natural chasm, Grand Coulee, which will become a balancing reservoir some 30 miles long and several miles wide. From this second man-made lake, canals as long as 100 miles will carry water to the rich volcanic soil of three counties. This prodigious project, begun in 1933 and expected to be finished in 1940, employed at its peak-figure in 1937 about 6,500 persons. It is estimated that between four and five hundred thousand visitors have come annually to watch the construction of the dam; 7,000, it is said, visited the spectacle in a single day.
Page 335
A small vista house, open only in the summer months, is across the river on the east side. In one of the lower rooms of the west side vista house is displayed a model of the dam, constructed on a scale of 1 to 600, showing three stages of the project: First, the Grand Coulee before the work started; next, the site after the completion of the excavation; and finally, the completed dam, with powerhouses and pump .station. The dam will be 550 feet in height, but seems lower because of its length of 4,300 feet and a thickness at its base of 500 feet, which tapers to a crest of 30 feet. Its sides are thrust deep into scarred rock and its base is anchored in bedrock far below the river's bottom. It will be capable of holding a flood of 1,000,000 cubic feet of water per second, although the greatest recorded flow of the Columbia is less than half that volume. The river pours through channels arranged in the center of the dam; on the down side are twin powerhouses.
From Washington: a guide to the Evergreen state
In 1941 the U.S. Government hired folk singer Woody Guthrie to write songs extolling the virtues of hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest. Woodie was paid $266.66 for the month long project and when the month was over he had produced 26 songs, including Roll on Columbia, Grand Coulee Dam and Pastures of Plenty.
The largest river in western North America, the Columbia rises on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia just north of a town named Canal Flats. It flows northward for about 180 miles before turning southward and immediately being slowed by the first of fourteen dams on the river, Mica Dam. Thereafter, it pauses at two more dams, the Revelstoke and Keenleyside dams, before heading for the U.S. border. At Castlegar it is joined by the Kootenay River and, just north of the border, by the Pend d'Oreille River. 151 Miles south of the border it again pauses at the Grand Coulee Dam.
Undoubtedly the largest single project of the Public Works Administration, construction of the Grand Coulee Dam began in 1933, not being completed until 1941, just in time to provide power for wartime industry of the Pacific Northwest. Lake Roosevelt, impounded behind the dam, covers 82,300 acres, stretching 151 miles to the Canadian border, with a storage capacity of 9,562,000 acre feet of water. The lake provides recreational opportunities for a million people each year, with 35 campgrounds around the lake and several more boat launches.
After another 500 or so miles of wandering through Washington and Oregon, the Columbia empties into the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon. A total of 1,243 miles (2,000 km) in length, the Columbia drains an area of 258,000 square miles (668,000 km2) and provides electricity for parts of eleven states and southern British Columbia. The original purpose of the construction of the early dams on the river was for flood control, the impetus being provided by recurring flooding of the river. It was immediately seen that the river could be simultaneously used to provide irrigation water, electricity and recreational areas. The dams break up many sections of the river into lakes which support over 50 campgrounds along its length, with boating and fishing areas up and down the river.
Coordinates given are at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center, an excellent viewing location and the largest of the fourteen hydro dams on the river.
Woody Guthrie's Fertile Month on the Columbia River
In May 1941, folk singer Woody Guthrie spent one month working for the federal government. His job was to travel to the Pacific Northwest and write songs promoting huge hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.
The government faced powerful opposition from private utilities and hoped that folk songs would prompt more public support. Out of this month of work came some of Guthrie's best-known songs.
Riding with Woody
Elmer Buehler, now 96 years old, was appointed Guthrie's driver and guide for the month. Buehler remembers the day Guthrie, not yet a folk-music legend, auditioned for Paul Raver at the Bonneville Power Administration.<
"He sat there on the administrator's desk," Buehler recalls, "and strummed on his 'gee-tar,' as he always said. I don't think he was there over half an hour and Dr. Raver said, 'Well, you're hired.'"
Raver paid Guthrie $266.66. When the month was over, the folk singer had written 26 songs, among them "Roll on Columbia," "Grand Coulee Dam" and "Pastures of Plenty." Guthrie recorded a few of the tunes in the basement of the agency's headquarters.
Songs for the People
Guthrie's songs echoed this optimistic period in the West. Few were thinking of the salmon the dams would sacrifice. Instead, it was all about harnessing nature's power to help people.
Bill Murlin is a folk singer and former Bonneville employee who took a special interest in Guthrie's time with the agency.
He says if Guthrie's tune to "Grand Coulee Dam" sounds familiar, think "Wabash Cannonball." Murlin says Guthrie's gift was lyrics — the folk singer often "borrowed" melodies from other musicians.
Murlin says it's clear Guthrie was struck by the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.
From NPR Music
Book: Washington
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 332, 335
Year Originally Published: 1941
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