Grand Coulee Dam

The Grand Coulee Dam, which forms Franklin D Roosevelt Lake, is the largest hydroelectric plant in the country and generates more power than a million locomotives.

The Dam is on the Columbia River in both Douglas and Okanogan Counties. The Crown Point State Park viewpoint and the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center and viewpoints are on the Douglas County side of the Dam.

The beginnings of this great dam started with the excavations of the land by the David H. Ryan Company of San Diego on November 20, 1933. The contract to build the dam was won by a joint venture of Silas Mason Company, Inc., Walsh Construction Company, and Atkinson-Kier Company on July 13, 1934. Not the first concrete placement but the first official concrete placement on the dam was done by Washington Governor Clarence Martin on December 6, 1935. The initial completion of the dam was finished in January 1, 1942 and was 4,173 feet long and 550 feet high. Additions to the dam have continued through the years.

The Grand Coulee Dam is the largest power generating facility in the United States and also played a part in defeating the Axis in World War II. The irrigation, created from the dam, covers over 500,000 acres of crops which total in value more than half a billion dollars each year.