Grand Coulee Dam is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2012.
It is an episode in the long-running program American Experience.
Here is some basic information about it:
** Produced by Amanda Pollak
** Directed by Stephen Ives
** Story by Rob Raplev
** Telescript by Stephen Ives
** Narrated by Michael Murphy
** Run time: 54 minutes
This film is the story of the great dam that was built across the Columbia River in the state of Washington, in the northwest corner of the US, during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).
Several persons are interviewed in the film.
Here are the names of the participants.
Listed in the order of appearance:
** William Lang, historian
** Blaine Harden, writer
** Margaret O’Mara, historian
** Steven Hawley, writer
** D. C. Jackson, historian
** Richard White, historian
** Paul C. Pitzer, historian
** Wilfred Woods, son of Rufus Woods (1878-1950)
** Colleen F. Cawston, Colville tribal member
** Ed Kern, dam worker
** Mary Henning, Grand Coulee resident
** Stewart Whipple, dam worker
** Lawney Reyes, a writer and a Grand Coulee resident
The project: From idea to reality
The history of the Great Coulee Dam begins in 1918 when Rufus Woods, editor and publisher of The Wenatchee Daily World, suggested that a dam should be built across the Columbia River.
He said the dam could produce electricity for the state of Washington and support an irrigation system that would turn the desert into farmland.
Woods and two of his friends in the little town Ephrata formed a group known as the Dam University and began to lobby for the project at the local, state, and federal level.
But the time was not right. The project was not getting any support from anyone with money, political power or both.
For more than ten years, the Grand Coulee Dam was merely an idea, a project on a piece of paper. But then things began to change.
In 1929 the stock market crashed and the depression began. Four years later - in 1933 - there was a new president in the White House: FDR, who wanted to use large-scale projects to get the US economy out of the depression.
Now the time was right: FDR and the Democrats in Congress liked the project, and they moved surprisingly fast.
Construction of the dam began in 1933, only a few months after FDR had taken office. It was a huge project. Nobody had ever built anything on this scale before. It was also an expensive project.
At first, FDR merely got the funds to build a low dam, but once the project was on the way, there was no turning back, and later he got the funds to build a high dam.
The project was completed in two stages:
(1) A cofferdam was built on the west side of the river. Behind the cofferdam, the left side of the dam was built.
(2) When the left side was completed, they used the same method for the east side of the river.
The work took almost ten years. The dam was officially opened in 1942.
During the war, the dam delivered electricity to several factories in the area that built airplanes and ships that were an important part of the US arsenal.
Electricity was also delivered to Hanford, a top-secret installation which produced plutonium for the nuclear bombs that were developed by the top-secret Manhattan project.
Hanford and its connection with the Manhattan project are not a secret anymore. But the Hanford installation is not mentioned in the film.
For details about Hanford, see the following items:
** On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Site by Michele S. Gerber (2007)
** Atomic Frontier Days by John Findley & Bruce Hevly (2011)
A few years after the war (1951-1953) the government added an irrigation system which turned the desert into farmland.
In 1941, as the dam was nearing completion, the government decided to produce a documentary film about the dam.
The producers realised that it would be good to have some music to go with the pictures. They hired an artist to compose some songs and sing them for the soundtrack of the film.
They chose Woodie Guthrie (1912-1967), who was perhaps an unlikely choice, because he was known for his sympathy with the working man and the poor.
They warned him: no politics in the songs!
In the end, the documentary film was never made, but 17 of the 26 songs Woodie Guthrie wrote were compiled and released as The Columbia River Ballads. Today they are known as The Columbia River Collection.
Rufus Woods lived long enough to see the dam completed. But he died in 1950, so he did not live long enough to see the irrigation system that was added in the 1950s.
Right or wrong?
In the 1920s, when Woods and his friends had lobbied for the project, it had been rejected, even ridiculed.
Many politicians, in particular Republicans, said it was too expensive and they called it a white elephant in the desert.
By 1933, circumstances changed. With the deep recession, a project such as this seemed a good idea.
As the project got underway, some (but not all) of the critics changed their tune.
Around 1940, as the project was nearing completion, critical voices were heard again. The project had been very expensive.
Who was ever going to need the electricity that this huge dam could produce? The white elephant in the desert was mentioned again.
In December 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US entered World War II, circumstances changed again.
All of a sudden, the US needed a lot of electricity to build airplanes and ships and the electricity was available, because the dam was already there.
FDR was praised for his foresight in building a large dam which could produce the electricity that was needed for the war effort.
Circumstances may change. What is wrong in one situation, may be right in another.
The history of the Grand Coulee Dam demonstrates this point very well.
You may be in favour of a project or you may be against it. But your opinion will often depend on the situation. If circumstances change, you may change your mind.
Positive and negative consequences
A coin has two sides, as we all know. If you look at one side, you will see an image and a message. Perhaps something you like. If you turn it over, you will see another image and another message. Perhaps something you dislike.
But it is the same coin. And both sides are equally true. Which side are you going to choose? The choice can be hard.
A dam is like a coin. There are two sides. Some people see something they like, while others see something dislike. But they are talking about the same project.
This film about the Grand Coulee Dam presents the dilemma very well:
There are positive consequences (benefits):
** It produces power for the nation
** It supports an irrigation system that transforms the desert into farmland
** It tames the Columbia River
** For a few years it created thousands of jobs in the area
There are negative consequences (costs):
** There is no access to one of the greatest salmon rivers in the world
** Huge populations of fish are threatened with extinction
** Local people (mostly Native Americans) were deprived of their most important economic and spiritual resource
** It caused a profound cultural decline, as the water behind the dam inundated towns, sacred spaces, and burial grounds
** 72 workers lost their lives while working on the dam
Some documentary films are one-sided, because they are based on evidence and interviews with experts who have the same view, either positive or negative with regard to the topic at hand.
This film is not like that. It is not one-sided. This film gives a very balanced view of the project, because positive as well as negative comments are presented.
The dilemma is spelled out for us. Some persons focus on positive elements, while others focus on negative elements. Both sides have strong arguments to support their case.
It can be difficult to choose one side over the other. This is evident when both points of view are expressed by one person!
Here are four quotes from the film which illustrate the pride and the desperation connected with this project:
(1) THE NARRATOR
“Its power would help win a war and unite a nation, but its construction would leave a region bitterly divided.”
(2) D. C. JACKSON
“It's supposed to be for everyone. It's easy to say that it's a public resource. But everyone has a different vision of what they think that public interest should be.”
(3) THE NARRATOR
“For some, the Grand Coulee Dam would be an engine of growth and prosperity, for others it would come to symbolize heartbreak and betrayal. In the end, it was an out-sized statement of American power and prestige, a monument to noble ideals and unintended consequences.”
(4) RICHARD WHITE
“There is a way in which people hate the dams and are proud of the dams, ways in which people imagine a Columbia running free, but they could not live without the Columbia's electricity. That river is our most profound dreams for what we can become and our deepest regrets about what we've done. We've woven them together and we're never going to be able to take them apart.”
Pride and desperation
FDR and the powerful people behind the dam had good intentions. They did not want to harm anyone. On the contrary, they wanted to help as many people as possible. They had, as the narrator says, “noble ideals.”
But they did hurt someone. They did cause damage. The Native Americans who lived where the reservoir is today were displaced. The salmon in the river were also harmed.
In the 1990s, the government paid some compensation to the families of the people that had been displaced; this happened about fifty years after the dam was completed. It was a case of too little and too late.
Some engineers tried to build some fish ladders for the salmon, but the experiments were not successful, and in the end, they were abandoned.
These negative effects were not part of the original plan. They were, as the narrator says, “unintended consequences.”
What I like about this film is that it presents both sides of the coin.
One person is impressed by the scale of the project. The keyword is pride.
Another person is appalled by the lack of respect for human and animal life. The keyword is desperation.
Practical and technical issues are covered here. This is hardly surprising, since the topic is the construction of a dam, but this is not the only angle. The human aspect of the project is covered as well, and both elements are taken seriously.
Conclusion
Grand Coulee Dam is an excellent film.
It is highly recommended.
I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
Hail Columbia
By George Sundborg
(1954)
Grand Coulee: Harnessing a Dream
By Paul Pitzer
(1994)
Rufus Woods, the Columbia River, and the Building of Modern Washington
By Robert E. Ficken
(1995)
A River lost:
The Life and Death of the Columbia
By Blaine Harden
(1997 = hardcover)
(1998 = paperback)
(A revised edition was published in 2013)
Images of America:
Grand Coulee Dam
By Ray Bottenberg
(2008)
*****
The Grand Coulee Dam
Built across the Columbia River
in Washington State
(1933-1942)
*****
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