Preliminary surveys for a railroad to
the Grand Coulee Dam site were made in 1933 by both the Northern
Pacific Railway (NP) and Great Northern Railway (GN).
The NP considered a $700,000 extension
from Odair, a siding located about two miles from Coulee City, and
running up the floor of the upper Grand Coulee. The GN considered
extending the branch line from Mansfield. Their million-dollar
extension would have gone over the plateau up near Leahy where the
survey branched. One line then went down Barker Canyon to the dam
site. The other went down Foster Creek to the Columbia, then down
the east bank of the river to the damsite. The thinking for this
longer line was it would give them not only a chance for the
construction traffic, but also the future agricultural tonnage from
the fertile bench lands along the river.
The GN had resurveyed the Mansfield
extension, and had the means to start construction at a moment's
notice, if it received the go-ahead. It had previously surveyed to
the river in 1909.
Senator Clarence Dill had asked the NP
to build to the dam, though he knew of the readiness of the GN.
A further plan, which was announced at
a joint conference in Coulee City in September 1933, stated that both
roads would build a joint line up the floor of the coulee. If this
were to happen, the GN would use the Washington Central branch (an NP
line) from Adrian to Coulee City, where the new line to the dam site
would start.
The NP extension was seen as
satisfactory; consequently, they applied for a permit to build. The
permit was granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission on February
13, 1934; however, when the NP asked for exclusive franchise rights,
they were denied by the State Department of Public Works, and so then
the NP abandoned the project, but knew it would still retain the bulk
of the traffic to be handed off at Odair.
Thereafter the Government decided to
built its own railroad, and immediately engaged the NP to locate a
line from Odair to the head of the Grand Coulee, this being
substantially the same route which that company had formerly located.
The GN came to an agreement with the NP
to simply allow an exchange of loads at Adrian, freshening an old
agreement dating back to 1903.
The location survey was completed in
May, and thereafter all engineering work was transferred to the
Bureau of Reclamation. Two engineering sections were established, No.
1 covering the first seventeen miles and No. 2 the last eleven miles.
A contract for construction of the railroad was awarded to David H.
Ryan, who started work on August 9, 1934, and thereafter the section
engineers with their field surveying crews were in constant service
on the railroad project. Considerable surveying was involved on
Section No. 2 in mapping lands at the railroad terminus which were to
be used for storage yards and a proposed steel-rolling site.
Newspaper clipping showing the general
layout of the GN vs NP lines and their proposed extensions to the
dam.
Final construction of the line to the
dam, as surveyed by the NP and built by government contractor.
Older map showing the 1909 GN line
surveyed out to nearly Rex. The line to Leahy would have been built
if the GN had been given permission, then on to the dam.
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