Grand Coulee, Washington

We were lazy this morning, reading our newspaper and then going to Safeway.  George happily got another Safeway card, so we can get shopping deals.  We bought fruit and granola bars and turkey.  Now we have food for breakfast and lunch.

We drove west on US 2 and found ourselves surrounded by wheat and then hay fields.  It is beautiful land.

 
Photos don't capture the expanse of golden fields as far as we can see.


The land gently rolls.

There were tidy farms that look as if drawn by a child:  red house with green roof surrounded
by a white fence.  We did not see as much irrigation equipment.

We arrived at the Great Coulee Dam around noon.  There were a good many tourists there.  The visitor center is interesting, especially for an engineer.


The dam has three power plants attached. 
Two were originally built, and the third was added in the 1974. 

Here are other facts I learned:
Grand Coulee Dam was built between 1933 - 1942.  It provides power and irrigation for the Pacific Northwest.

The reservoir created behind the dam is Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake, named for the president at the time of its creation.

The dam was important for putting people to work in the Depression and for building projects during WWII.

Grand Coulee Dam is the third largest producer of electricity in the world.

When they flooded the land, it killed off the steelhead salmon that the Colville and Spokane tribes had fished.  This ruined their way of life. They were paid a settlement by the US government in the 1990s and also annually.

Woody Guthrie was paid $266 to write songs about the dam, and he wrote 26 songs.  One is "Roll
on, Columbia, Roll On."  This song plays in the museum and on their movie.

A coulee is a valley or drainage zone.


We ate lunch at the picnic area at the dam.


We walked around the historic Grand Coulee neighborhood.

The houses were built in the 1930s for construction workers. The houses are my favorite: colorful cottages that are pretty much the same size, with shady streets and sunny, small yards.  I don't know
why we didn't take a photo of the houses.



At the top of the hill in the neighborhood are three
historic buildings.  This is the Administration Building from the dam construction.
There are also two buildings that were dormitories.  They seem to be single
family homes now.

Our hotel, Columbia River Inn, is at the end of the historic street tour.  Tonight we can walk
across the street to see the laser light show at the dam.  The first light show was in May of 1989.

Addition:  We just got home from the laser show.  First, they released water from the dam, making a white background.  Then there was a cartoon.  The feature was "Many Voices - One River." In 30 minutes they told the geologic and historic story of the Columbia River and the dam.  It was fully told, including the stories of Native Americans, European farmers, and dam builders.  We huddled in the cool breeze with over a hundred others to watch the show. No one rode off at the end, but it was well done.

Corrections:  We visited Travelers' Rest yesterday in Idaho.
Also the apartment in Spokane was 250 square feet, not 500.  Oops.