My photo.
June 22, 2026
A pair of Aeroflite CL-415s were assigned to fight the Garred Road fire, west of Coulee City, WA on 6-21 and 22, 2026. There is speculation of how the fire started, likely a broken wire in the powerline from the Chelan Falls powerplant to the Banks Lake powerplant.
The CL-415 is a derivative of the piston engine CL-215 which has been in service since 1970. The aircraft is purpose built and designed specifically for aerial firefighting and is capable of delivering around 1600 gallons of water to a wildfire in a short period of time. It’s equipped with Pratt and Whitney PW123 turboprop engines.
The plane is flying in the transition area between the upper and lower Grand Coulees, marked by the Dry Falls cataracts, part of which can be seen in the view.
Dry Falls is around 400 feet from top to bottom, with some cliffs on the west side being another 800 feet taller. My view is part way up that 800 foot side. The top of the falls blends into a scoured plateau at least a mile and a half wide, with noticeable pits and eroded areas from the large flows of water here.
Tourism took off at Dry Falls in 1928 with the building of the Vista House and opening of Dry Falls State Park. Things haven’t changed that much since then, though the road to the site is now paved, and a more modern interpretive center was built nearby. One feature early guests noted was the “Great Sphinx” the “island” of basalt that never fully eroded during the floods. This is the layered chunk of basalt in the center-right of the image.
To do my best to make this a railroad photo, at the very upper edge of the burned section, lower right of the image, is the grade of the Central Washington Railroad. This was a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific, which was banned by charter from building branch lines. This was easily sidestepped by incorporating companies, fully controlled by the NP and it’s officers, to build lines everywhere.
The “CW” built to Coulee City in 1891, but graded a further 10 miles out of town, including through this image. Here is my photo location.
If you peek at the map link, you might be saying “Dan, I see 2 grades below your spot.” You would be correct. The CW was NOT the first railroad here. That would have been the Seattle, Lake Shore, & Eastern.
The SLS&E was an upstart line based on the west side of the state that built a few important lines there in the 1880s, including a connection to Canada at Sumas, WA. The promoters would have preferred to just have a bunch of money put into their pockets, but figured bilking a cheaply made line by overcharging for it’s building, via the construction company would do okay too. They could then look for a real railroad building west at that time and hopefully unload the whole thing for another tidy sum. The then building west Great Northern looked promising.
This part of then Washington territory was part of the Northern Pacific land grant, and the NP was alarmed that the SLSE was building a line into this area. It then whipped up the Central Washington and sent it’s crews west from Spokane to firm up it’s grip, backed by the NP wallet.
The SLSE wheezed and gasped as it surveyed and then built it’s line from Spokane west. It didn’t quite make Davenport, about 30 miles from Spokane, before running out of money. Citizens of that fine burg were coerced to fund the cost to their town. The survey crew made it across the state, running the line to Coulee City, up the west wall of the Grand Coulee and then off to Waterville. Next stop was down to Wenatchee, the townsite of which was owned by the principal owners of the SLSE! Next was up over the Cascades via Cady Pass and then to a connection with the Sumas line in the greater Everett area.
The grading crew were sent west to the harder parts to build, as money was already tight. Grading was started west of Coulee City and a careful look at the map will show their very incomplete grade sort of following the CW west of town, then it disappears for a bit. Another section reappears, following the CW, as that line headed south to gain elevation via a great loop, while the SLSE built inside of this loop, partially. This explains the second grade that can be seen below the one in the photo. More of the line can be seen further north of here, in bits and pieces.
To finish this story, the SLSE went bankrupt, the GN being uninterested in any of their line, save for their bridge across the Spokane river at that town, while the GN built their own. The NP bought the SLSE, figuring this would be the best way to get control of the line, and being bankrupt, it was a bit cheaper this way. Not too many months later the NP realized they had been fleeced, as the property had to be fully rebuilt to NP standards, while one of the SLSE owners became western council for the GN at Seattle.
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