Getting Started: 1933-1938

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  • December 13, 1933. Debris Removal Begins
  • 1934. East view of dam site.
  • Supply Train. Coulee City - Coulee Dam Railroad.
  • Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Keir (MWAK), the company that built the foundation for the dam, built Mason City for workers to live in. Named after Silas Mason, MWAK's head, it became the first completely electric city in the nation.
  • Over 15 million cubic yards of earth and rock are removed from the dam site.
  • 1935. Constructing the west cofferdam.
  • 1935. Placing the McKiernan steam hammer.
  • 1936. Cofferdam. You can see how the cofferdam clears a portion of the riverbed for excavation.
  • 1936. Work to get the foundation prepared takes place around the clock.
  • In a year, over 1.8 million yards of concrete is poured. And this is just for the foundation!
  • MWAK builds a huge conveyor belt—the world’s largest—to remove all the rocks and rubble from the excavation site. It is more than a mile long!
  • MWAK engineers decide to freeze a portion of the hill to keep it in place. Workers drive 100 two-inch pipes into the clay and fill them with super-cooled salt brine.

Contact
Grand Coulee Visitor Center
(509) 633-9265
pninfo@usbr.gov


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Last Updated: 9/27/23