When completed, the eleven-million-cubic-yard structure built across the Columbia River became the largest single block of concrete ever laid. Still one of the world's largest energy-producing stations, it is at the heart of a dynamic power grid that supplies all of the western United States with energy. The fight for Grand Coulee Dam, and the story of its construction, is a vital and animated saga of people striving for dazzling goals and then working, often against both each other and nature, to build something spectacular--despite the worst economic depression in the nation's history. The dam and the extensive irrigation network it supports stand today as a monument to those dreams and labors.

Accolades freely and frequently lavished on Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project included “The Biggest Thing on Earth!” “The Eighth Wonder of the World!” and “The Largest Reclamation Project Ever Undertaken!” They highlight a monumental construction effort that spanned the 1930s through the 1980s. Now, for the first time, the story of this gigantic undertaking is told in this definitive history.

When completed, the eleven-million-cubic-yard monolith at Grand Coulee on the Columbia River in north central Washington became the largest single block of concrete ever laid and provided an abundance of electricity that helped win World War II. Still one of the world's largest energy-producing stations, it is at the heart of a dynamic power grid that supplies all of the western United States with energy.

The product of a long struggle over how to irrigate the Columbia Basin, Grand Coulee Dam resulted from the visions of eastern Washington residents, people like Wenatchee editor Rufus Woods and members of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce, who saw the undertaking as a dynamic plan to bring prosperity to their region. Yet today the reclamation enterprise--more than half a century after construction began--stands only half finished. Its future depends on the nation's need for food and the willingness of the public to pay the rapidly spiraling economic and environmental costs associated with such large-scale irrigation plans.

The fight for Grand Coulee Dam, and the story of its construction, is a vital and animated saga of people striving for dazzling goals and then working, often against both each other and nature, to build something spectacular. They accomplished their goal against the backdrop of the worst economic depression in the nation's history. The dam, and the extensive irrigation network it supports, stands today as a monument to their dreams and their labors.

Contents
Introduction
I The Land and the People
II The Visions
III The Columbia Basin Survey Commission
IV The Government Investigations
V Washington State's Dam
VI Preliminary Work
VII MWAK's Giant Cofferdam
VIII Making it Bigger and Making it Legal
IX MWAK Pours Concrete
X Paying for the Biggest Thing on Earth
XI Building a Community
XII Henry Kaiser Builds the Dam
XIII Land, Roads, Graves, and Salmon
XIV Selling Grand Coulee's Power
XV World War II and the Break-in Period
XVI Irrigation Comes to the Columbia Basin
XVII Water, Water Everywhere
XVIII To Build, Or Not To Build
XIX The Third Powerhouse
Afterword
Appendix Physical Structures of the Columbia Basin Project
Endnotes
Bibliographical Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index