1946 Irrigation Project Traffic Projections

Courtesy of the MHS.

February 19, 1946

Low Bidder On Removal Of US Construction Railroad Press Release

Courtesy of the MHS.

August 30, 1950

Removing Construction Railroad And Miscellaneous Structures

Courtesy of the MHS.

August 17 and 24, 1950

MWAK 2673 At Grand Coulee

Courtesy of the PNRA George Frost collection. Thanks to Aaron Schwarz for digging this one out.

October 24, 1937

Looks to be somewhere adjacent to the yard at Electric City.

CBI 801 at Grand Coulee

Courtesy of the PNRA, George Frost collection. Thanks to Aaron Schwarz for digging this out.

June 2, 1940

MWAK 251 At Grand Coulee

Courtesy of the PNRA, George Frost collection. Thanks to Aaron Schwarz for digging this out.

October 24, 1937

Serial number 909

Constructed on 09-21-04 3 truck Shay 75 tons 13½x15

California Northwestern Ry Co. #32 San Francisco, CA; For:

Northwestern Redwood Co. (California & Northwestern Ry) #1, Willits, CA

Northwestern Pacific RR Co. #32>251 Willits, CA

Hutchinson Lumber Co. (leased) Feather Falls, CA 05-01-22)

Portland, Eugene & Eastern RR #251 (leased) Eugene, OR

For sale: Repaired to make more salable at Tiburon, CA 09-26-25

Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier Co. #251>802 Grand Coulee Dam, WA 04-24-35

Consolidated Builders, Inc. #802 Grand Coulee Dam, WA 03-14-38

M. Bloch & Co. Mason City, WA for scrap 01-12-45

Scrapped 01-45

MWAK 200 At Grand Coulee Dam

Courtesy of the PNRA George Frost collection. Thanks to Aaron Schwarz for sharing this.

October 24, 1937

Serial number 3295

Constructed on 05-27-26. 3 truck Shay 70 tons 12x15

Charles R. McCormick Lumber Co. #200 Quilcene, WA

Clyde Equipment Co. (D) Seattle, WA 04-13-35

Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier #200 Grand Coulee Dam, WA 01-28-36

Consolidated Builders Inc. #200 Grand Coulee Dam, WA 03-14-38

Potlatch Forest Inc. #200 Headquarters, ID 06-13-44

Potlatch Forest Inc. (Washington Idaho & Montana Ry #200) Bovill, ID

Scrapped 1949

first Shay used on five miles from Electric City to dam 5% grade

Smack Through The Middle Of The Columbia Basin

From the "Spokesman Review."

January 26, 1947

Tunnel Construction Scene

Courtesy of the NMAC.

1935-36 timeframe. 

This tunnel was built on a 5% grade, It's located adjacent to the Coulee Dam city hall.

Little Power On The Move

Photos courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society's BPA photo archive.

1945

Locomotive moving by truck due to the track being temporarily out of service due to construction work.

1935 Tunnel Construction Scene

Courtesy of the NMAC.

1935

View looks over what will become the town of Coulee Dam at the granite bluff the tunnel was built through. It featured a 5% grade from end to end. It wasn't actually used, though track led to it, as part of a tail track of a switchback leading to a lower level.

NP Cement Boxcar Unloading At Grand Coulee

Courtesy of the Bonneville Power Administration. 

No date.

Note the fellow with the Fuller-Kinyon vacuum in the doorway, sucking out all the cement powder into the tanks in the background. This car was formerly used for lumber loading, stick by stick, as the small door on the right end shows. After being used for cement service, I doubt it was used for anything else. 

Note one of the fellows on the right is pointing at the photographer.

1938 Queen Of The Columbia Views

Courtesy of the NMAC. 

December 8, 1934

Recently named Queen Lou Turner is seen posing with King David H. Ryan, the contractor who built the railroad. Group scene is inside the Roosevelt Theater.

1941 Grand Coulee View

Photo courtesy of the Bonneville Power Administration.

November 13, 1941

Note the former Spokane streetcar, now a restaurant, just above center on the far right.

Mystery Photo Of Pretty Girls-Or Not

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

December 8, 1934

Recently I had a chance to start to look through the nearly 1 million photos donated to this museum in Ephrata by the Bureau of Reclamation. Most photos in the 1934 cabinet have no caption information, but any person with knowledge of how Grand Coulee Dam was constructed would be able to figure out what was going on. But, that's not really my forte. 

I found the picture, below, that most people looking at construction history of the dam would be stumped with. Why a picture of three pretty girls?

I knew right away, because of the railroad construction to the dam, which is my forte.

Left to right: Princess Mildred Smith, from Wilbur. Queen Louise Turner, from Harrington. Princess Lorraine Morgan, from Grand Coulee Center. 

The winners of the Queen of the Columbia Contest.

To summarize, the Queen of the Columbia was a beauty contest that was timed to coincide with the completion of the railroad to the Grand Coulee Dam construction site. They were to preside over the placing of the golden spike at Grand Coulee.

I wrote up a story on this contest for Them Dam Writers, which I posted back in 2022.  The winner even got to run the David Ryan steam engine, a worn out Climax. 

If you don't want to look at the story I linked to, here are a few newspaper photos I was working with for that piece:

Locomotive Crane At Grand Coulee

 March 1, 1945

1985 CWGG Letter To Employees

It was a letter sent to my uncle, who worked for CWGG at the time.

 

1977 CWGG Annual Report

 

 

Train Crew Named For Run Up Coulee

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

July 30, 1935

Dam Rail Line Hearing Jan 22

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 28, 1933