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Donald Lowry Houghton was a Concreate Engineer for EBASCO Services dam building projects, including the Pelton Dam built for Portland General Electric on the Deschutes River in 1958.
The Pelton Dam was built for Portland General Electric and was, at the time of its construction, the thinnest arch dam ever built in the United States. Though the project was originally commissioned in 1924, construction was disrupted by the Great Depression, as well as the needs of similar construction project along the Columbia River. After the Second World War, the need for electric power in the Pacific Northwest revived the Pelton project, but not without resistance from the Federal Fisheries Commission and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Construction on the dam resumed in 1955 and was completed in 1958.
Donald Lowry Houghton Pelton Dam construction collection contains in house reports, catalogues, blueprints, letters, and documents detailing the construction of the first Pelton Dam on the Deschutes River from 1953-1958, preserved and assembled by the EBASCO Services Concrete Engineer overseeing the project, Donald Lowry Houghton (1922-1981) who served on many damn building projects, including the Niagara. The collection also includes 30 silver print photographs sized 8.5x11" in with accompanying explanatory text leaves.
The reports included in the collection describe the progress of securing the land and land rights, including negotations with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, as well as the progress of building the Pelton complex.