Grand Coolie

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Back in the 30's and 40's, the mighty Columbia River, swollen with runoff of winter snow, would flood the farmlands of eastern Washington and Idaho, often times taking homes, lives, and livelihood along with it.  Once the Grand Coolie Dam was built, those floods were all but a thing of the past.  Generating more than enough power for the region, the dam also provides ample water for irrigation, opening up vast areas to effective farming.

 The Grand Coolie Dam

The largest concrete structure when it was built, the Grand Coolie is one of the more significant projects built under the "New Deal", which was the public works initiative to pull us out of the Great Depression.

 Fine Dining

In view of the dam, an excellent (no, seriously, I like the food there) place to eat is this restaurant... I don't know what the name is, though, because its not on any of these signs... I like roadside diners, though, and this one is one of the better that I've been in.  In this view of the Dam, you can see the road that traverses the dam.

Water, Water everywhere

The dam holds back a lot of water - the Columbia is the largest river on the West Coast... if you add all the rest of them up, they don't equal the volume of the Columbia River!

Addition

The section of the dam with the flag on it... that whole "leg", was added some 20 years after the dam was completed.  To hold back the lake from the construction site, a massive ice dam was constructed by placing a grid of refrigerating pipes in the lake, and freezing the water, forming a dam.  The new leg now produces a majority of the electricity produced by the Dam.

500 KV Lines

500,000 volts of electricity stream through these transmission lines, spreading Grand Coolie's energy across the Pacific Northwest.

A New Lake

A HUGE lake was formed with the construction of Grand Coolie... the mighty Columbia, largest river (by more than 10 times) west of the Mississippi, was finally tamed.

Everyday is Groundhog Day

In the fields around the visitor's park live some HUGE groundhogs!

Light Show

Every weekend evening in the summer, the Dam puts on a light show display... I've never seen it, but its supposed to be quite spectacular.

Endless Rainbow

Its sunny nearly every day, and the mist of the over flow creates a rainbow that never seems to go away... 

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