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Grand Coulee Dam
There was this big thing coming, and I thought it would never happen in my lifetime. George Schiffner
Rufus Woods, a Wenatchee newspaper editor, spurred enthusiasm for building a high dam. When his tireless boosterism coincided with the advent of the Great Depression, government officials recognized that such a project could supply jobs, irrigation, and power generation.
New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps camp
at Grand Coulee Dam,
c. 1937. Photo courtesy of Roberta Quick
Workers from all over the country migrated to the dam site as construction began in 1934. When Grand Coulee Dam was finished it was the largest concrete structure in the world and harnessed one of the most powerful rivers.