Lake Name History: O'Sullivan, Woods, Clapp

[MarkFromSea]

Since the weather is so lovely today, I was reading something and came across this tidbit of info:

An attorney from Ephrata, Washington, named William M. Clapp proposed in 1917 that the Columbia be dammed immediately below the Grand Coulee.[8] He suggested a concrete dam could flood the plateau, just as nature blocked it with ice centuries ago. Clapp was joined by another attorney, James O'Sullivan, and by Rufus Woods, publisher of the Wenatchee World newspaper. Together, they became known as the "Dam College".[9] Woods began promoting the Grand Coulee Dam in his newspaper, often with articles written by O'Sullivan. The dam idea gained popularity with the public in 1918. Backers of reclamation in Central Washington split into two camps. One side, known as the "pumpers", favored a dam with pumps to elevate water from the river into the Grand Coulee from which canals and pipes could be used to irrigate farmland. The other side, known as the "ditchers", favored diverting water from northeast Washington's Pend Oreille River via a gravity canal to irrigate farmland in Central and Eastern Washington. Many locals such as Woods, O'Sullivan and Clapp were pumpers, while many influential businessmen in Spokane associated with the Washington Water and Power Company (WWPC) were staunch ditchers. The pumpers argued that hydroelectricity from the dam could be used to cover costs and claimed the ditchers sought to maintain a monopoly on electric power

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bodofish]

Lot O history there. I've covered a bunch of that in a couple threads on Rufus and Billy Clapp. Both very historical lakes and I might toss in Roosevelt while we're at it. Proof of concept for the 8th wonder of the world.

[natetreat]

And the holocaust for upriver salmon and steelhead. It's very sad to think about the 1500 miles of salmon spawning habitat the we lost because we didn't have the foresight to put in a fish ladder. Not to put a downer on the history, the dam is very cool. My great uncle worked on that project and my grandad work at lake cushman. Cheap electricity and the irrigation to keep us with fresh local produce is very nice.

[Bodofish]

100% agreed!!! What really boggles my mind is the fact that even after everything that was learned from the early dams was tossed right out the window when the Dams on the Snake were built by ID......

[MarkFromSea]

Yep! Tough on the salmon, good for a lot of other stuff. I was focusing on the names of the "pumpers" that ended up on lakes created by them. A fish ladder would have been icing on the cake.... I suspect, based on what I read, that the Grand Coulee was a tough sell, it failed initially when the public voted it down, settled on a shorter dam until Roosevelt toured the site and said essentially "build it bigger!" At least at one time, possibly still is, largest concrete structure in the world. I'm effing impressed that something built 70 years ago is even close to being number one in that class! It's mind boggling that they accomplished it..... That's like landing on the moon for the generation or so later.

[natetreat]

According to Wikipedia, it is the largest concrete structure in the world still. Ten years to build, it is an amazing work of engineering. What was that show, world biggest engineering stuff? That big dam and tunnel in iceland, the work that has to go into that is crazy!

[Bodofish]

There's the Gorges dam in China that is, with out doubt the largest and there's one in South America, both have a hydro capacity about twice that of Grand Coulee. One in Turkey also but Grand Coulee will always be the 8th wonder of the world. With out the US's engineering prowess, much of it gained building the Grand Coulee (and Hoover) none of the other dams would be standing. It's still a marvel at it's age.

[MotoBoat]

And the holocaust for upriver salmon and steelhead. It's very sad to think about the 1500 miles of salmon spawning habitat the we lost because we didn't have the foresight to put in a fish ladder.

Correct me if I am wrong. On one of the public tv stations. There was a documentary of the building of one of the dams. On the Columbia River. In that documentary, fish hatcheries were implemented to solve the fish passage problem a dam would create!

There was knowledge of the wild fish passage issue a dam would create. So, the foresight was there, before the dam was built. Perhaps the hatcheries were deemed the least expensive options, as compared to building a fish ladder? And, the wild fish was a pawn for Hydro electric power, and the irrigation for food crops.

In swims the hatchery brat, to fill the void.

[MarkFromSea]

Sacrificial lamb seems more appropriate...... But hey! We got a $1.6 million dollar light show out of the deal!

Here's some comparisons to Hoover: http://www.usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/pubs/factsheet.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MarkFromSea]

This one is for you Moto: http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/grandc ... actsonfish" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's a pretty comprehensive article on what they considered. In summary: The runs would have been destroyed even with a fish ladder and yes, hatcheries, such as Icicle Creek, were installed to mitigate the impact. The benefits to the many outweighed the needs of the few.

3 times the power with 4 times the concrete of Hoover......

[MarkFromSea]

I traveled down part of the Yangtze in 1982, I believe it was Wuhan to Shanghai, 2 or 3 days. 35,600,000 cu yd of concrete for 3 Gorges on the Yangtze(recently completed, 2010ish) and 11,975,521 cubic yards for the Grand Coulee. Wow!

[Bodofish]

What makes me the happiest is seeing someone who is interested in history at all..... Mark...

For anyone that hasn't heard my rambling before:

Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Read hard, read fast, read often!

[MotoBoat]

What makes me the happiest is seeing someone who is interested in history at all..... Mark...

For anyone that hasn't heard my rambling before:

Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Read hard, read fast, read often!

Then, thoroughly enjoy clearing the column with correct answers, when the subject arises on "Jeopardy"!

[Bodofish]

I'm usually pretty good at clearing the board except for, "what is popular culture?". Don't really care about much of anything that graces the pages of People magazine........

[MarkFromSea]

I was more of a Time/Newsweek kid till the internet came along...........

[Bodofish]

I was more of a Time/Newsweek kid till the internet came along...........

Yeah me too. No shortage of reading material growing up Time, Smithsonian, New Yorker, SA as well as the Times and PI with the NYTimes on Sunday. Never had much of a TV so I had to find other ways of entertaining myself...