Photo courtesty of the Bureau of Reclamation.

Grand Coulee Dam, constructed from 1935 to 1941, became a showcase of the government's New Deal public works and recovery program during the Great Depression. The dam provided hydroelectric power which fueled the Northwest's industrial boom in the 1940s and spawned the government's Columbia Basin Project in the 1950s.

Optimists hoped that the Project would wet a half-million acres of dry land and create a hundred thousand small family farms in central Washington. Replacing dust and rock with vast tracts of irrigated land conjured utopian images of a green oasis, drawing people of all backgrounds to Washington State to work on construction or to farm.