THINGS HAPPENING AT GRAND COULEE! [1933]

     [From the Wenatchee World, 1933]

     GRAND COULEE, Oct. 4. -- Let's start off with something good.  Monday was pay day in Lynch brother camp.  To the boys who "reef and tug" at the steel casings being driven into the ground to protect "cave-ins" for the diamond core drilling, it was a true "ghost walk" and, at least some 38 or 40 of Washington's former unemployed were made happy again.
     Al Myers, local restaurant keeper, has completed additional floored space for his estaablishment and in honor of the occasion gave a dance Sunday evening.  It is reported that four ladies and something like 40 gentlemen attended.  "Girls, this will never do!" say the sages here.
     The Fender Lumber and Box company of Twisp has negotiated for space for a lumber yard in the A. A. Elmore townsite and has erected two small buildings for living quarters and offices.  Yes, they are really selling lumber.
     A. A. Elmore shattered all previous records for gas sales Sunday.
     Lynch Brothers are building a huge log raft on the Grant county side of the river at the proposed bridge site.  The raft will support diamond drill equipment for the first test drilling in the river bed.
     Robbins Lumber company of Colville Tuesday unloaded 8,500 feet of lumber by the Elmore gas station and announces that part of this already has been sold.
     Charles Gibbs, pioneer Wenatchee building contractor, is planning the immediate erection of an office and headquarters.  They will engage in the business of building and general contracting.
     J. G. O'Neil, right-of-way engineer for the Pacific Telephone company, reports that his company is already building a fourwire line from Wilbur to the damsite.
                                       ______________________

     WASHINGTON, D. C.,  Oct. 4. (AP) -- Public Works Administrator Ickes today made formal allotment of $1,000,000 in cash to the reclamation service for use on the Grand Coulee dam project in Eastern Washington.  This is one of a periodic allotment of funds until the total of $63,000,000 has been spent.

__________________________________________________________________________

     [The following headline and caption appeared in the Spokane Chronicle in July, 1933, with a picture of my grandmother, my mother, and her two sisters, and Senator C. C. Dill.  In the caption, the ferry is referred to as "the Seaton ferry", a common error.  This ferry was the Grant County ferry, operated by Sam Seaton.  The son's name was Clair, not Charlie.  The actual Seaton ferry, located a few miles upstream, was established by Thomas B. Seaton, and after he died in 1920, was operated first by son-in-law Charlie Dumas, and then by son Elmer Seaton until his death in June of 1933.  At this time Elmer's widdow, Eunice, was operating that ferry.]

Owners of Coulee Dam Site Visited by Senator Dill

     The quiet of the Sam J. Seaton home on the site of the Grand Coulee dam in the Columbia river is soon to be broken by the activities of engineers from the government reclamation bureau.  Today a contract was signed between the federal government and the state, whereby surveys and engineering studies will start almost immediately.  On his inspection of the project, Senator C. C. Dill visited the home of mr. and Mrs. Seaton, on whose farm the north end of the big dam is planned.  The senator is shown talking with Mrs. Seaton and her three daughters.  Little Patsy Ann Seaton is standing in front of her mother, with the older daughters on either side.  Mr. Seaton was "down the river" when the picture was taken, and Charlie [Clair], the son, was running the Seaton ferry.

__________________________________________________________________________

     [The following appeared in the Spokesman-Review in November, 1933.]

FERRY CHARGES UNDER ATTACK

O'Sullivan to Propose Free Operation at Dam Site -- Builders Concerned.

     GRAND COULEE DAM SITE, Wash.,  Nov. 17. -- James O'Sullivan, secretary of the Columbia basin commission, here yesterday said that steps probably would have to be taken soon to provide quicker and faster ferry service across the river.
     Workmen, most of whom are now on the east side, find it expensive to travel back and forth, as they are charged 10 cents each one way, 25 cents if a special trip has to be made.  Sam Seaton, who runs the ferry for Grant county, has no authority to reduce fares.
     Mr. O'Sullivan said he would take the matter up with the commissioners, and, failing there, that the contractors doing the excavation undoubtedly would make some arrangements for taking over the ferry or provide one of their own.
     The engineers and contractors feel that the operation of the ferry should be one of service rather than profit from now on.