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THE YEARS OF TRANSITION -- 1957-1976
One man's impressions of the Bureau of Reclamation's impact on the history of the area:
The local organization of the Bureau of Reclamation in the Grand Coulee Dam area played a significant role in the lives of all residents of the area. Perhaps the most important change affecting the lives of area residents since construction of the dam began was the sale of Coulee Dam residences and incorporation of the city of Coulee Dam, both authorized by Congress in 1957. The transfer of property from the government to individual residents was essentially completed in 1958 and the Municipal Division of the Columbia Basin Project was dissolved. The old Administration Building now became the Coulee Dam City Hall and the old post office building, now far larger than necessary for the shrunken community, was taken over by the Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union.
In the following year, 1959, only one of the six divisions of the Columbia Basin Project, now headquartered in Ephrata, still operated at Grand Coulee Dam. This was the Power Field Division, which was the largest of the six. Power Supervisor and chief of the division was Alvin "Al" Darkland who had been one of Construction Engineer Frank Bank's chief assistants from the early construction days. Darkland was to hold his position as Power Supervisor until his mandatory retirement on September 30, 1961, when he was replaced by E. A. "Al" Benson. A little over a year later Benson was replaced by R. K. "Ray" Seely who had started working for the Bureau in the 1930s as a surveying aide. Seely was to supervise operations and maintenance at the dam from that time until his retirement in April of 1974.
With the exception of one major catastrophe, the infamous G-16 fire, caused by a switching error in the main generating unit now known as G-14, which occurred in the fall of 1963, the next years were fairly quiet ones at the dam although morale was fairly low as a result of almost yearly attrition in the overall personnel strength.
I reported to the Power Field Division in November of 1964 after completing 22 years of active service with the United States Army. I was assigned to the position of head of the General Services Section of the Administrative Branch which consisted of such disparate elements as Mail & Files, the guard force, janitors and charwomen, and the personnel clerk, Dona Orr. At that time, all official records of the Power Field Division were maintained in the Ephrata office and final approval of all personnel action requests was made at Project headquarters.
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My instructions as a new Bureau employee were quite specific. I was to meet frequently with members of the custodial and guard forces and do all in my power to get to know them on a first name basis and attempt to lift morale which was at an exceedingly low ebb because of past cuts in strength and the suspicions felt by many of further reductions in force.
The economy of Coulee Dam was relatively stagnant during the first years of my assignment at the dam with the summer tour season the most important economic influence on the community. The population had dropped sharply and the Bureau of Reclamation had lots available for sale at prices in the $300 to $400 range, with water, sewer and electrical connections, curbing and sidewalks installed -- but few seemed interested in buying. Rental rates were low when compared to standard rates in other communities of the State. Movement of the Project headquarters to Ephrata and the transfer of emphasis from dam construction to extension of the irrigation system during the 1950s and early 1960s changed the entire picture of Coulee Dam and many employees suffered from a sense of frustration at what they considered neglect by supervisory personnel and a headquarters 60 miles removed.
The pace of activities began to quicken with passage of legislation in 1966 authorizing construction of the Third Powerplant. For three additional years, operation and maintenance of the Grand Coulee Dam continued to be controlled by the Power Field Division of the Columbia Basin Project while a separate organizational entity, the Third Powerplant Construction Office, began supervising the monumental task of excavating millions of yards of rock and common, removing 260 feet from the east end of the dam, and building a forebay dam and third powerplant. heading the new construction was Roscoe Granger, who was assigned the task after supervising the construction of the Yellowtail Dam.
The last day of April, 1970, was a momentous one for the staff of the Power Field Division. After many months of negotiation which had given rise to numerous rumors and another period of falling morale, the division was reorganized. Renamed the Grand Coulee Dam Operations Office, it was withdrawn from control of the Columbia Basin Project and placed directly under the Pacific Northwest Regional Office (then Region 1). With this change, the Chief of the Power Field Division assumed the title of Operations manager and all of the old branch chiefs found their positions elevated to division chief status. The new office maintained its own official files and Personnel, Safety, and Programs Officers joined the Operations Manager's staff.
For the next four years, the operations and maintenance of the dam and construction were carried on by two co-equal agencies. Then, in April, 1974, the often rumored consolidation of the Third Powerplant Construction Office and the Grand Coulee Operations Office was announced by Regional Director Rod Vissia at a joint retirement party for Operations Manager Ray Seely and Construction Engineer Howard Fink.
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The consolidation resulted in the merging of numerous positions and the inevitable transfers and retirements which follow such mergers. Some Bureau employees viewed the changes with bitterness, others realized the necessity of putting the administration of all Bureau forces at the dam under one head.
By mid-1975 the new organizational entity, the Grand Coulee Dam Project Office, was functioning smoothly. The man selected as Project Manager, Robert E. Evans, was developing a reputation as an excellent coordinator and a man interested in all aspects of the dam operation including the Bureau responsibility to the taxpayers who had paid for the dam and the communities which provided homes and services to the Bureau employees.
The late sixties and early seventies had seen a great change in the housing picture. The "takeline" for the third powerplant had forced the removal of nine businesses and 57 residences. Residential property, once abundant, began to grow scarce. Prices for empty lots rose from $400 to $900, then $1,500, and up to $3,000 and above. A four-bedroom home in old "Engineer's Town" (west Coulee Dam) sold in early 1967 for $17,000. A few years later, its mirror image on the opposite side of the street sold for $24,500. In order to assure housing for its key personnel, the Third Powerplant Construction Office entered into a contract under which a number of mobile homes were placed south of Electric City to form a temporary community referred to by its occupants as "The Great Train Wreck".
Electric City became the scene of a great housing boom and the municipal government began a campaign to eliminate the many substandard structures which made this area such an eyesore to visitors to the area.
During these years, the Indians of the area became far more assertive than they had been in earlier times. After rejection of a move to "terminate" the Colville Reservation, the Indians began to demand that the Colville Agency, which had been moved into the old field engineers' building in the industrial area in 1961 be returned to the old agency grounds near the Indian village of Nespelem. The Bureau of Indian Affairs made the transfer in 1971 and the building is now used to provide office space for the personnel and safety offices (to be transferred into the Grand Coulee Project Office Administration Building after consolidation of Bureau of Reclamation forces in the area). The move was decidedly popular to craft workers as it made these offices more accessible to them.
The Bureau communications facilities at the dam had from early construction days been important to the local, county, and state police authorities. A highly sophisticated communications system was installed in 1971 which linked municipal, county, and state police and made radio-telephone communication possible between key personnel. A number of communications clerks were added to the force at this time to man the new system. The head of the guard force and his key crew chiefs all received deputy commissions from Okanogan and Grant Counties in 1971.
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Conservation, area beautification, and tourism received increasing Bureau recognition during the early to mid 1970s. In 1971 the discharging of treated sewage from the Grand Coulee Dam directly into the Columbia River was halted and all sewage from the plant was directed into the Coulee Dam sewage treatment facilities. Guides began to distribute trash bags to tourists and numerous containers were placed around the area at points of tourist congregation for the convenience of visitors to the area. Beautification of the areas under Bureau of Reclamation control was intensified and continues to be an important Bureau activity at the time of this writing.
The Bureau was not alone in its efforts to improve the appearance of the area and to provide facilities to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to see the dam each year. The State of Washington spent millions of dollars to build a new park on Banks Lake, Steamboat Rock State Park, which offers complete facilities for trailers and recreational vehicles, imaginative playground equipment, boat launching ramps, swimming beaches, etc. The National Park Service spent these years expanding the existing Spring Canyon National Recreational Area which replaced the old and very popular National Park Service marina Park, closed when construction of the Third Powerplant began.
The late sixties and early seventies saw the erection of two new and modern motels -- the Coulee House and the Ponderosa -- and the demolition of the "permanent" tour center which was dedicated in 1957 and demolished in 1968. In 1972 the Green Hut was closed and removed early the following year to make way for a new visitor arrival center. This restaurant had been a landmark for many years and many local young people, working as busboys and waitresses had earned the money for their college education there.
On October 11, 1975, just ten days less than five years after the first concrete had been placed, the start-up of the first 600-megawatt generator, at that time the largest hydro generator in the world, was celebrated and Grand Coulee Dam moved closer to the day when it would regain its preeminence as the largest hydro power producing complex in the world.
The most important activity of the Bicentennial Year in the area of tourism was the beginning of construction of the Visitor Arrival Center. Its completion and the opening of tourist facilities incorporated in the third Powerplant and forebay dam will do much to restore the Grand Coulee Dam to its position as premier tourist attraction to the Northwestern United States.
The one event occurring in 1976 which more than any other will assure the continued economic growth of the entire Inland Empire was the signing of contracts in Ephrata on Friday, August 27, 1976, which removed the last obstacle to the construction of the Second Bacon Siphon and Tunnel. Ultimate completion of the over one million acre Columbia Basin Project, now only half complete, is now assured.
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It is interesting to note that the cost of the first Bacon Siphon and Tunnel, the contract for which was awarded in September, 1946, was $3,494,420. The contract for the Second Siphon and Tunnel is in excess of 32.5 million dollars. Even in 1968 when the Bureau first contemplated the construction, it estimated the cost at only ten million dollars.
Of greater local significance in coming years than construction of the siphon and tunnel will be expansion of the feeder canal, slated to begin during 1977, installation of the last four reversible pump-generators in the Pumping-Generating Plant, presently scheduled for completion by 1981, and the beginning of the Third Powerplant extension. The Bureau of Reclamation hopes to have Congressional authorization for this construction before the end of this decade and power from the first unit of the extended plant on line just beyond the mid-1980s.
The future of the Grand Coulee Dam area is exceedingly bright. There will be periods of retrenchment and of temporary reverses, but this writer visualizes a period of many decades during which those with the courage to invest in the future of the area will win great monetary and spiritual rewards.
Fred J. Meyer
August 30, 1976
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