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Grand Coulee Dam

© Jerri Brooker

The Grand Coulee Dam in Eastern Washington, the largest concrete dam in the United States, draws tourists from around the world each year not only to view the awesome structure, but to see the laser light show and learn of its history.

Built under the Public Works Administration in the 1930's, its 550-foot-high, 1,650-foot-long stucture got its start during the Great Depression under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt after 13 years of fighting between groups at Spokane and Wenatchee ended; they both had their own ideas of how it was to be used and where the dam should be located.

It is surrounded today by four cities. Grand Coulee above the dam and Electric City two miles west of Grand Coulee are in Grant County. Coulee Dam, the town, below the dam lies in three counties: Okanogan, Douglas and Grant. Finally, Elmer City is near Coulee Dam town in Okanogan County.

Building the dam was no less complicated than trying to figure out what county you're in when in Coulee Dam, the town. Well, a lot more complicated, actually.

It was imperative the structure would withstand water pressure 335-feet deep across a width of 4,300 feet. The Columbia River with a sometimes 14-mile-per-hour flow had to be diverted from its post Ice Age channel to a man-made passage while the foundation was laid.

Core-drilling at the site began in 1933. General G.W. Goethals of Panama Canal fame was there to inspect the drilling. After moving the river, a huge conveyor belt moved 15,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock up 600 feet and then down Rattlesnake Canyon to begin the building process. Workers then froze a million tons of wet earth with icing tubes to prevent the mass from slipping into the excavation area - there were no modern methods we use today. Finally, The first level, the lower dam, was completed in 1938.

This must have been an awesome site to my uncle, who lived in a tent there with his family while the dam was being built. He was a small child who left the dust bowl with his family during the depression. His father found work building the dam.

On May 21, 1933, completion of 60-percent of the 10,500,000 cubic yards of concrete needed to fill the dam was celebrated with a poured bucket of concrete. The dam at this stage was already bigger than any other man-made structure on the face of the earth.

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