In support of the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, the town of Coulee Dam was established to house the workers and service providers required, and later those who would operate the dam. This, the portion of the town in Okanogan County, on the northeast side of the Columbia River, came to be known as Mason City. It was incorporated in 1948 as Coulee Dam, the portion across the river now known as Grand Coulee, with the town of Electric City further west.
The youngest group of towns in Washington state must be the towns which surround the
Grand Coulee Dam, all established in 1933 with the commencement of construction of the dam. At the same time the U.S Bureau of Reclamation built what is now the town hall to serve as the administration centre for the project, which was, incidentally, the largest single project of the New Deal era.
A large building (for a small town) built in the shape of a "Tee", the building houses all the town's offices and records and the State Driver Licensing office, as well as the town police department in the extension at the rear.
Today the town has most of the amenities and facilities to be found in the average small town: police, fire department, ambulance, post office, parks, shopping, churches, a museum - even a great view of the dam itself.
Coulee Dam History
Coulee Dam is a town in Douglas, Grant, and Okanogan counties in the State of Washington. The Douglas County portion of Coulee Dam is part of the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Okanogan County portion lies within the Colville Indian Reservation, and forms the southern limit of the Okanogan Highlands. The population was 1098 as of the 2010.
Coulee Dam was founded by the U.S Bureau of Reclamation in 1933, to serve as headquarters for construction of the Grand Coulee dam. The Okanogan County portion was known as Mason City, location of the head contractor. The Portions in Douglas and Grant Counties was known as Engineers Town and was government owned. In 1942 with the end of the contract in sight, CBI transferred control of Mason City to the Municipal Division of the Columbia Basin Project. In 1948 Mason City was incorporated in Coulee Dam. Government began the process of selling the town to the public in 1957, finishing in 1959.
It is the headquarters of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, and home of one of the world's largest man-made piles of sand, a 12,000,000-cubic-yard (9,200,000 m3), 230-foot (70 m)-high hill remaining from dam construction.
From the Town of Coulee Dam