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DID YOU KNOW THAT * * *
** Marjorie Shingler who used to live up in the present Spring Canyon Park area ran the "Elmer Seaton (formerly the Tom Seaton" Ferry" for several years for Elmer Seaton. Marjorie was a tall muscular woman who did much "man's work" including plowing and haying, but she was "a lady." She is now Mrs. a. S. King presently [1976] living in Rainier, Oregon.
** In November, 1955, the American Society of Civil engineers named Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia Basin Project one of the seven wonders of Civil Engineering in the world.
** The former Grand Coulee High School building had the distinction of being the first school in the United States to be electrically heated.
** In 1936 there were seven places on B Street that had live music every night.
** Construction of the towns of Coulee Dam and Mason City began in the summer of 1934. Mason City was completed by the end of the year.
** The first Sears, Roebuck Catalog Sales Office in existence opened in Grand Coulee in October, 1934, when a bright, enterprising young man whose name was John McQuiston went from door to door with armloads of catalogs taking orders and later a jeweler rented him desk space in his store and John was in business.
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** In 1936 there were 40 grocery stores in the area.
** In 1941 the freight railroad from Coulee City to the damsite brought in a passenger car containing soldiers who were to man anti-aircraft guns around Grand Coulee Dam.
** The "Grand Coulee Booster" was the first daily newspaper printed in the area. The publisher was Bob Ross.
** The name "Delano" for the townsite was chosen in a contest in which Andy Seresun won; the prize, a town lot.
** The Columbia River froze over for 30 days in February, 1936.
** In May, 1972, the first class was graduated from Lake Roosevelt High School. The valedictorian was Gary Jackson and the salutatorian was Sandra Olson.
** The old Continental Hotel, destroyed by fire in September, 1972, was one of the few, if not the last of the old landmarks in Grand Coulee. One of the most famous guests was the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt who occupied a corner suite during his visit here in 1937.
** Mrs. Ella Park had the first school in this part of the country in her home at Fiddle Creek where the Frank Sanford, Srs., now have their home.
** On June 1, 1942, the first water poured over the spillway. Fred S. Rice, Jr., pushed the button that opened the first drumgate.
** On January 27, 1936, the present highway bridge opened to traffic and the Columbia River was frozen over from bank to bank.
** Construction on the Coulee City-Coulee Dam Railroad and the highway from Coulee City both began in April, 1934.
** In May, 1971, the last class was graduated from Grand Coulee High School. The last graduate was Debbie Wyatt.
** The first stake was driven at the damsite on September 9, 1933. Offices for the Bureau of Reclamation were opened on September 25th and excavation for the dam began on December 13, 1933.
** The earliest mail in mailboxes was in Wallace Canyon where Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sanford, Sr., now live.
** On February 11, 1972, the Senior Citizens held an Open House at the Grand Coulee Seniors' new community center.
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** In May, 1972, the Bureau of Reclamation gave a twenty-five acre site to the Grand Coulee Dam School District for a possible future high school. The Board decided to accept the site and hold it in reserve.
** in April, 1973, the local hospital became community owned.
** On September 15, 1974, Steamboat Rock State Park was dedicated with the main speaker, United States Congressman, Thomas Foley.
** The first Grand Coulee School opened October 18, 1909, with Ethel Brewster as the teacher.
** In 1933 the only restaurant was a small shack run by an old lady and her son.
** On November 6, 1974, an early morning fire completely destroyed Grand Coulee's pioneer drug store, Russell Drug. The Drug Store was owned by the Johnson family. Russell Drug was temporarily housed in a mobile home until the store was rebuilt.
** on June 23, 1974, the local airport was dedicated with the main speaker Fourth District Congressman, Mike McCormack.
** Columbia School was established by the U. S. Government in 1935.
** On New Year's Day, 1935, the first steel piling was driven for the west cofferdam.
** Grand Coulee's first newspaper, "Grand Coulee News" (Vol. 1, No. 1), was published on November 3, 1933.
** The first telephone in Grand Coulee was at the Grand Coulee News newspaper office -- a pay phone.
** In 1882, Douglas, Grant, and Lincoln Counties were formerly Spokane County, and Cheney was the county seat.
** The school known as District No. 55, Columbia River View, was located near where the present library in Grand Coulee is located. It was later located at a place called "Buckley Springs," and the next move was to the townsite of Osborne in late summer of 1933.
** In 1934-35 the first class was graduated from Grand Coulee High School.
** The former Grand Coulee High School, now Grand Coulee Dam Junior High School, was first used after the Christmas vacation in January, 1948.
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** Granger Road, a street in the East heights of Grand Coulee, was named in honor of Roscoe Granger by Sid and Ida Bartels. It overlooks lake Roosevelt and the Third Powerplant. Mr. Granger was connected with some of the first surveys on the Columbia Basin Project in 1927 and was appointed the Construction Engineer for the Third Powerplant at Grand Coulee Dam in 1967.
** Mead Circle in Coulee Dam was named in honor of Dr. Elwood Mead, a Commissioner of the U S. Bureau of Reclamation in the early 1900's. His younger daughter, the late Sue Mead, was married in Boulder City in the 1930's to Edgar Kaiser, son of Henry J. Kaiser. Lake Mead, which is the reservoir formed by Hoover Dam was also named for Dr. Mead. Sue and Edgar Kaiser lived in the home later purchased by C. D. and Vera Newland, owners of the Green Hut. It is located at No. 1 Civic Way, Coulee Dam, Washington.
** The Grand Coulee City Park was purchased in 1948 by a group of ladies known as "The Grand Coulee Women's Civic Club" which was organized for that purpose with Lucy Heidt as president. They earned $1,100.00 from selling subscriptions to The Star and holding a carnival, thus enabling them to purchase the property which had been used as a horse corral. They landscaped and developed it into the lovely place is is for tourists and local people. In 1972, the Club raised over $1,500.00 in rummage sales and donations of cash and labor to install an automatic watering system and repair vandalized buildings and plumbing. Mary Granger was president and noted that the watering system cost as much as the entire park 24 years earlier. The local Lions Club put the play equipment in the children's section.
** Ernest Lyle, his wife and four daughters brought the first dairy herd to the folks here in the early construction days of Grand Coulee Dam. Lyle's party spent 22 days trailing their 22 animals from Lewiston, Idaho. They stayed off the highways with their herd, a 1904 Dodge, a saddle horse, and a team pulling the wagon. At first their cattle were kept at Bill Canady's place.
** Constantino H. Vlachos of Grand Coulee has gained local and national attention through the years for his inventions, his amazing Mother of Pearl religious carvings and his store of clippings and stories to tell. His 1940 green Packard car was ridden in by President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942. The pair accepted his invitation to ride in the car on roadways near the White House after Vlachos had delivered a cake, some New Jersey Red apples and some specially made initialed cigarettes to President F. D. R. for his birthday on January 30.
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** Joe Wicks, now of Okanogan, first city attorney of Grand Coulee, once stated: "It is interesting to note that Grand Coulee came into existence as a third class city. I know of no other such incident in the State. Two other communities were incorporated that year -- East Wenatchee and Nespelem as fourth class towns."
** The first child born at the dam site after its construction was started was Robert Benjamin Butterton who was born at the family home on July 20, 1934. The family lived on Elmore Heights on the flats above Grand Coulee.
** Harry T. Westphal, the first school teacher in "Grand Coulee" began teaching in a one room building above B Street in old Grand Coulee, on January 1, 1935. At first he had 17 pupils distributed over 8 grades and was paid out of WPA funds that amounted to &17.50 per week.
** The grandchildren of Coulee Dam Fire Chief and Mrs. Roy Terou will always have all kinds of information concerning the Grand Coulee Dam area through the many valuable scrapbooks the pair have compiled over many years. One scrap book alone covers just clippings of the Coulee Dam Fire Department activities.
** Ben Schaefer, long time groceryman during the construction days started with a partnership grocery in Grand Coulee in 1934, and wound up in 1949? or 1941? with another store on the Heights and a third one in Electric City. At the "center" grocery store his partner was Harry Shafer, whom Ben later bought out. Ben Schaefer spoke of "living by credit," and giving lots of "credit." Like most merchants he was hard hit financially between contracts. The State did issue "food script" to keep the workers from starving, but it took one and one half months for him to redeem these from Olympia.
** Doc Pournelle, former owner of our local radio station, was an avid gardener and flower lover. He planted at his own expense and labor many empty lots and hillsides with flowers, shrubs and trees so that colorful gardens flourished in many formerly weedy spots for several years in Grand Coulee. A few of Doc's trees have survived him though most of his flowerbeds are long forgotten or are now otherwise used.
** Hal Marchant who called himself "The Columbia River Garbage Man" for many years ran the debris collecting devices on lake Roosevelt. He was also a diver, provided barges and boats, did soundings, took water temperatures, maintained navigation aids, and studied currents. Doing anything marine was his way of live though it was by seaplane he was able to get about for he was not only involved with activities at Grand Coulee Dam,
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but at Chief Joe, Wanapum, the Hanford Works, and other places used his services. He did hydrography for the Coast and Geodetic Survey and once charted entire Lake Roosevelt. This took 11,000 miles of sounding lines. Mr. Marchant retired from this business and moved to the coast.
** Chief Justice of Washington State Supreme Court, Robert T. Hunter, served as Grand Coulee's second city attorney -- before the Hunters moved to Ephrata when he became Superior Court Judge.
** The former Joe Uram residence in Grand Coulee was built mainly from rocks and other materials which have "something to do with the dam." Other places also provided material such as Omak's pink and green thulite intermingled in the stone walls along with green, brown and yellow shades of opalized wood from Vantage, and pieces of quartz and dolomite from Keller. The huge stone fireplace is decorated with drill cores which are also used elsewhere in this sturdy building. The Van Cello's completed and now live in this beautiful home on the Heights. Their spring water is also famous.
** The athletic field at Grand Coulee Dam Junior High School is named "Ludolph Field" in honor of Cliff Ludolph, a fire chief of Grand Coulee, who was killed in an auto accident. The local firemen requested this honor for Cliff, a younger brother of the present Grant County Commissioner Bob Ludolph.
** Lou Hutsell of Davenport used to tell this story about when Pete Whitelaw was a little boy. Pete and several other Indian boys who were attending school at Fort Spokane, ran away from school and walked home to Nespelem. They were soon gathered up and taken to Almira and put aboard the train to Davenport. Lou was driving the stage to Fort Spokane at the time and he offered to haul the kids down for twenty-five cents a head. The man in charge of returning the boys to school decided that was too much and made the kids walk back to the Fort Spokane school. Lou related he got a great kick out of visiting with Pete Whitelaw in later years and remembering things like that. Pete Whitelaw was very much liked and respected by everyone and admired for the trouble he went to in planting the streams in the Nespelem area or backpacking a can of fish to inaccessible spots.
** After consolidation of the Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam School Districts in 1971, the students chose the name Lake Roosevelt High School and "The Raiders" for the high school located in Coulee Dam.
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** Grand Coulee's High School's basketball team defeated Ilwaco for the 1960 Class B State Basketball Championship in Spokane and was given a rousing reception when they arrived home as "State Champions." The coach that year was Jim Savitz and team members were: Don Kurth, Bob Pachoas, co-captains, Wayne Snyder, Ken Hoke, Ben Flowers, Ray Rice, Terry Mort, Mark Rauch, Bill Trefry and Jim Green.
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