Archives West Finding Aid

The Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete dam on the Columbia River in the state of Washington providing hydroelectric power and irrigation water. Initial construction began in 1933 for a “low dam” of reduced size and cost. Congress approved expanding the construction to include a “high dam” in 1935 following a visit by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the construction site in 1934. Concrete was first poured in 1935. The low dam was completed in 1938 after which construction on the high dam began. Construction was completed in 1941. 8,000 people worked on the Grand Coulee Dam project. The Bureau of Reclamation built Engineers’ Town on the west side of the Columbia River to provide housing for workers and their families. The contractor-provided Mason City was built on the opposite bank in 1934 and sold to the Bureau of Reclamation in 1937. Other living areas sprang up around the construction site including Shack Town and the city of Grand Coulee, located west of the dam. The Bureau of Reclamation combined Mason City and Engineers’ Town in 1956 to form the city of Coulee Dam. The city was incorporated in 1959.

The creation of the Grand Coulee Dam created a reservoir behind the dam stretching 150 miles up the Columbia River, 32 miles up the Spokane River, and eight miles up both the Sanpoil River and the Kettle River. In the 1930s, the Bureau of Reclamation began surveying the reservoir zone and marking off the high water line. In late 1938, the Works Progress Administration began large-scale and rapid clearing operations in the reservoir zone. All land below 1,310 feet in the reservoir zone had to be cleared of trees, stumps, brush, and any other object that would obstruct navigation or damage the dam. Towns, railroads, highways and roads, bridges, telegraph and telephone systems, and cemeteries within the zone had to be relocated, destroyed, or razed. Among the towns were Kettle Falls, Inchelium on the Colville Indian Reservation, and the former railroad boom town of Marcus, all of which were rebuilt on higher ground. Over 3,000 residents in the reservoir zone were relocated.

2,626 Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers cleared 54,000 acres of land over the course of the clearing project. The WPA supplied workers and built and operated camps and mess halls. The Bureau of Reclamation supplied clearing equipment and materials. Clearing operations were scheduled to keep ahead of rising backwater, but because dam construction proceeded more rapidly than expected, work was accelerated in April 1941.

More than 30,000,000 feet of merchantable timber was logged by WPA crews and floated down river to the Lincoln Lumber Company. Unmerchantable timber was piled into stacks or placed in furnace pits to be burned. Brush, greasewood, and sagebrush was also burned. Blasting operations were used to clear the reservoir zone of stumps. Up to 25 stumps were wired up and blasted at once. Homes and buildings in the reservoir zone that could not be relocated were demolished and burned.

Workers stayed at temporary camps set up at various locations along the Columbia and Spokane Rivers. Camp Lincoln was built first and followed by Camps Keller, Spokane, Detillion, Gerome, Gifford, and Kettle. Camp Kettle was the largest work camp and became the clearing project headquarters in 1940. Small supplemental tent camps were also used. Larger camps were complete with barracks, a recreation hall, mess hall, dispensary, offices, warehouse, garage, blacksmith and machine shops, sewer and water lines, light and power systems, and refrigeration. Camps were built using pre-fabricated sections so buildings could be dismantled and moved once clearing at one site was completed. The last camp established was Camp Little Falls on the Spokane River.

Camp Ferry was a floating work camp launched in March 1939 and operated until October 1941. It was comprised of three 24 by 64 floating barges with sleeping and dining facilities as well as offices and tool houses. The floating camp was initially meant to house 75 men but by the fall of 1939 was shared by 125. Camp Ferry was designed to allow workers to clear remote locations on the Columbia River and its tributaries. Camp Ferry did not move as often as other floating camps, and men were sometimes stuck at a single remote location for up to three weeks. Camp Ferry was towed to new locations by the barge Paul Bunyan. Paul Bunyan was built by WPA forces and launched into the Columbia River Reservoir on January 4, 1939. Paul Bunyan measured 24 by 64 feet in size and was powered with two 100-horsepower engines. It could haul up to 300 men as well as heavy machinery. Paul Bunyan was the first barge to navigate Rickey Rapids in 1941. Paul Bunyan was considered the flagship of the WPA “Navy” – a group of 21 vessels that assisted in the clearing operations by transferring men and equipment among work camps. Other ships included two 40-foot tugboats, the Nespelem and Wellpinit and the tug St. Thomas which was transferred from Boulder Dam and renamed the Blue Ox . Washington state also provided a new ferry to replace the old Gifford-Inchelium Ferry.

Flooding of the reservoir zone began in earnest in June 1941. Flooding changed the geography of the area. Bridges had to be destroyed. Hells Gate rapids, Rickey Rapids, Kettle Falls rapids, and Little Dalles rapids were submerged. The reservoir was initially called Columbia Reservoir but was renamed Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake in April 17, 1945.

Don G. Abel was the art administrator for the Works Project Administration (WPA) in Washington State from 1936 to 1940. He served on the Washington State Supreme Court from 1946 to 1947.

Frank A. Banks was appointed as the chief construction engineer of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1933.

Carl W. Smith was the WPA administrator for Washington State.

Morgan Fitz was born and educated in Seattle, WA. After serving as a photographer on the Grand Coulee Dam project, he served in the Army Air Forces during World War II. In 1945 he founded Morgan Fitz Photographers in Augusta, Georgia. In 1949 he entered into a partnership with fellow photographer Robert Symms and the studio was rebranded as Fitz-Symms Photography in 1951. Morgan Fitz retired in 1978 and passed away in 1998.

K. S. Brown served as an official photographer for the Bureau of Reclamation in the time period in which the Grand Coulee Dam was constructed.

Many of the photographs in this collection were taken by the WPA, unless otherwise indicated.