Grand Coulee of the continental shelf. The web-like formation can be seen from space. Mountains of gravel as tall as 40-story buildings were left behind; boulders the size of small houses and weighing many tons were strewn about the landscape. Grooves in the exposed granite bedrock are still visible in the area from the movement of glaciers, and numerous erratics are found in the elevated areas to the northwest of the coulee. Early theories suggested that glaciers diverted the Columbia River into what became the Grand Coulee and that normal flows caused the erosion observed. In 1910 Joseph T. Pardee described a
Grand Coulee Dam 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 cover costs and claimed the ditchers sought to maintain a monopoly on electric power. The ditchers took several steps to ensure support for their proposals. In 1921, WWPC secured a preliminary permit to build a dam at Kettle Falls, about upstream from the Grand Coulee. If built, the Kettle Falls Dam would have lain in the path of the Grand Coulee Dam's reservoir, essentially blocking its construction. WWPC planted rumors