Grand Coulee Dam On", "Pastures of Plenty", and "Grand Coulee Dam". The surviving songs were released as "Columbia River Songs". The film "Columbia River" was completed in 1949 and featured Guthrie's music. Guthrie had been commissioned in 1941 to provide songs for the project, but it had been postponed by WWII. Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had only two powerhouses. The third powerhouse, completed in 1974 to increase energy production,
Grand Coulee Dam interest in irrigation projects. The Bureau of Reclamation, desirous of a major project that would bolster its reputation, was focusing on the Boulder Canyon Project that resulted in the Hoover Dam. Reclamation was authorized to conduct a study in 1923, but the project's cost made federal officials reluctant. The Washington state proposals received little support from those further east, who feared the irrigation would result in more crops, depressing prices. With President Coolidge opposed to the project, bills to appropriate money for surveys of the Grand Coulee site failed. In 1925, Congress authorized a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study