[PDF] History And Development Of Grand Coulee Dam eBook

Author : Paul C. Pitzer
Publisher : Washington State University Press
Page : 741 pages
File Size : 49,94 MB
Release : 2021-09-24
Category : History
ISBN : 1636820824

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Accolades freely and frequently lavished on Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project included “The Biggest Thing on Earth!” “The Eighth Wonder of the World!” and “The Largest Reclamation Project Ever Undertaken!” They highlight a monumental construction effort that spanned the 1930s through the 1980s. Now, for the first time, the story of this gigantic undertaking is told in this definitive history. When completed, the eleven-million-cubic-yard monolith at Grand Coulee on the Columbia River in north central Washington became the largest single block of concrete ever laid and provided an abundance of electricity that helped win World War II. Still one of the world's largest energy-producing stations, it is at the heart of a dynamic power grid that supplies all of the western United States with energy. The product of a long struggle over how to irrigate the Columbia Basin, Grand Coulee Dam resulted from the visions of eastern Washington residents, people like Wenatchee editor Rufus Woods and members of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce, who saw the undertaking as a dynamic plan to bring prosperity to their region. Yet today the reclamation enterprise--more than half a century after construction began--stands only half finished. Its future depends on the nation's need for food and the willingness of the public to pay the rapidly spiraling economic and environmental costs associated with such large-scale irrigation plans. The fight for Grand Coulee Dam, and the story of its construction, is a vital and animated saga of people striving for dazzling goals and then working, often against both each other and nature, to build something spectacular. They accomplished their goal against the backdrop of the worst economic depression in the nation's history. The dam, and the extensive irrigation network it supports, stands today as a monument to their dreams and their labors.

Author : Ray Bottenberg
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 44,83 MB
Release : 2008
Category : History
ISBN : 9780738556123

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Washington's Grand Coulee is an ice-age channel that carried the Columbia River when ice dammed its main course. Grand Coulee was long recognized as an ideal place to store Columbia River water to irrigate the arid but fertile Columbia Basin. A dam was proposed as early as 1903, but opposition by Spokane private power interests and the cost of the dam delayed design and construction until the administration of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt, a public power advocate, used the Grand Coulee Dam project to help put the unemployed to work. The result was the world's largest man-made structure, and also the world's largest power plant, costing more than $163 million and the lives of at least 72 workers. The dam powered production of aluminum, atomic weapons, shipbuilding, and much more, contributing mightily to America's victory in World War II. Postwar developments provided irrigation for 700,000 acres of farmland.

Author : Marcia S. Gresko
Publisher : Blackbirch Press, Incorporated
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 31,74 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Grand Coulee Dam (Wash.)
ISBN : 9781567111743

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Discusses the history and construction of Grand Coulee Dam and its many uses today.

Author : Robert E. Ficken
Publisher : Washington State University Press
Page : 477 pages
File Size : 31,82 MB
Release : 2022-01-24
Category : History
ISBN : 1636820603

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Rufus Woods, editor and publisher of the Wenatchee Daily World for more than forty years, has been called the “High Priest of the Columbia River.” From his editorial platform, Woods tirelessly promoted Wenatchee and north central Washington and advocated for Columbia River development. He pegged his brightest hopes on a huge dam to be built in the isolated Grand Coulee region. A founding member of the “Dam University,” Woods--through the World--helped to keep the drive for the structure alive. From 1918 through Grand Coulee’s completion in 1941, he was the leading promoter of the largest dam-building project in American history. Utilizing his newspaper and his extensive political contacts at state and national levels, Woods helped convince President Franklin Roosevelt, Congress, and the Bureau of Reclamation that the grandiose scheme was attainable. Where others despaired, he never faltered. Speaking before the 1942 Grand Coulee High School graduating class, Woods proudly boasted of the accomplishment that he helped see to reality. “So here it stands, a monument to the idea and the power of an idea; a monument to an organization; a monument to cooperation. You, class of 1942, could you come back here in a thousand years hence, you would hear the sojourners talking as they behold this ‘slab of concrete,’ and you would hear them say, ‘Here in 1942, indeed, there once lived a great people.’” Woods got his dam, but not the Wenatchee boom he desired. Possible only because of federal financing, those in control imposed a vast maze of power lines emanating from the dam’s huge hydroelectric plant. Cities like Portland and Seattle benefited from its power much more than Wenatchee. Even so, Woods’s beloved adopted home grew tremendously during his lifetime, and much of that economic development can be attributed to his single-minded efforts.