A Man-Made Marvel Comes to Life at Grand Coulee Dam
David Walsh
05/08/2014
Grand Coulee has always been the biggest of everything. Now it's bigger than ever on the Silver Screen.
Since April 25, Grand Coulee Dam: A Man-Made Marvel, has been showing to enthusiastic audiences at the dam's visitor center. It's their newest film in the lineup.
The film, produced by the Pacific Northwest Regional Public Affairs Office, is loaded with historic construction footage, photos, and newsreels from Reclamation's legendary hydropower workhorse.
"We aired it five times this past Friday and it's already a big hit with the public," says Ivan Snavely, Supervisory Guide at the visitor center.
The 44-minute film features rarely seen archival footage extracted from deep within the GCPO records vaults.
"The clarity of the footage is amazing," says film editor and co-producer Kirsten Strough. "Those cameras captured all the details, it's really cool."
The film contains narrative segments by Reclamation employees. Civil Engineer Charles Spindler from the Regional Office, retired Civil Engineer Dan Guptil, and retired Reclamation Historian Brit Storey each explain how the dam came together. Guptil who worked on the Third Power Plant describes placing concrete as a critical and intense process.
"...(each) block had to be sandblasted and cleaned with water jets and air jets. So before we okayed that placement, the previous one was clean as a whistle. I mean, it was ready for concrete. No dirt, no grease, no nothin' on it."
He added that Grand Coulee "...made you proud of what you were doing. It was a project that wasn't being done in every state. It was one of a kind."
The film also features insights from distinguished journalists and historians whose reporting and research helped Grand Coulee earn a place in history, including Wenatchee World publisher and newspaperman Wilfred Woods and author Paul Pitzer.
The 95-year-old Woods began reporting about the dam in 1936. He provides many details about the dam’s culture and historical significance. His father, Rufus Woods, was one of the original dam boosters and a driving force behind the dam’s conception.
Author Paul Pitzer, publisher of Grand Coulee Harnessing a Dream spent 10 years researching the project. He offers many insights during the film. “The most amazing thing about Grand Coulee dam – the contractors of this huge project – which in today dollars would be well over a billion dollars – finished on time and under budget!”
Pitzer sums it up with, “The most unique thing about Grand Coulee is its size…its BIG!”
