Grand Coulee the Ice Age Floods. Archeological records date human presence back to nearly the end of the Ice Age, but the raging torrents erased the land of clear evidence, leaving us to question who, if anyone, may have survived. With the end of the last glacial advance, the Columbia settled into its present course. The river bed is about below the Grand Coulee. Walls of the coulee reach in height. Grand Coulee is the longest and deepest of eastern Washington canyons. Its unique characteristics include a lower floor at the head of the channel than at its outlet and the widest
Grand Coulee Dam The dam's powerhouse began production around the time World War II began, and its electricity was vital to the war effort. The dam powered aluminum smelters in Longview and Vancouver, Washington, Boeing factories in Seattle and Vancouver, and Portland's shipyards. In 1943, its electricity was also used for plutonium production in Richland, Washington, at the Hanford Site, which was part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. The demand for power at that project was so great that in 1943, two generators originally intended for the Shasta Dam were installed at Grand Coulee to hurry the generator installation schedule. Water is pumped