Student Paper
Bonneville Dam: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
469 Washington State University
Spring 2000
“From the beginning, Bonneville Dam has symbolized hope. In a time when jobs were scarce and hope was virtually nonexistent, Bonneville Dam meant a well-earned day’s pay to thousands of men and women. It meant a rich rebirth for the communities nearby, and for an entire region badly in need of an infusion of federal dollars. As the dam grew out of the riverbed, foot by foot, day after day, it became a towering monument to the triumph of the working man over economic depression.” -U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bonneville Lock and Dam in Celebration of our 50th Year.
Trickling out across the land;
Power house sings and th� generator whines,
And down the hill comes a big power line.
�Lectricity runnin� all around�”1
Thirty miles east of Camas, Washington, Bonneville Dam spans the mighty Columbia where earthquakes have split the earth’s crust, and the river has cut a gorge through the beautiful Cascade Mountains. The dam has stood there for sixty years providing hydroelectric power, irrigation for parched farmlands, and taming a turbulent river for navigation, but that is not why it is important. It is important because it stands for a heroic time, when a radical president, moved by a genuine love and compassion for the common people of his country, inspired them to change their future and to change the role of government in their lives. These seem like noble goals, but Bonneville Dam has been the center of controversy since its inception.
The history of the dam begins with a rousing campaign speech made to the citizens of the Pacific Northwest in 1932, of a great power development on the Columbia River that would forever be a national “yardstick of progress and industry.”2 Electricity was nothing new to the eight thousand who heard Franklin D. Roosevelt that day in Portland, Oregon. The first long distance transmission of electrical power in the world was a direct current line built between Willamette Falls and Portland in 1889 to light the city streets. By 1905, the cities and towns of the Northwest were electrified,3 but the source of that power was privately owned. Fifty-three percent of Roosevelt�s audience received their electricity from the Electric Board and Share Company, owned by J.P. Morgan. After the turn of the century, hundreds of small utilities and municipal systems
had been engulfed by giant monopolies that used their revenues for expansion rather than providing lower costs to the consumer.4It was far too expensive for the individual farmer, rural resident, or small businessman to hook up to power, and to Roosevelt, life on the farms was too hard. Roosevelt proposed government ownership of the source of power, a revolutionary idea in a country founded on the governmental policy of “laissez faire”, which would provide a measuring stick against which power rates could be compared; “a yardstick against extortion against the public.”5 The private companies would be forced to compete with the public and thus keep the prices within reach of the common man, allowing them to buy and use the labor-saving devices only available to the rich. To people locked in the gloom of the Great Depression, the building of Bonneville Dam promised not only immediate relief from joblessness, but a bright, electrified future, free of drudgery and filled with industry and employment.
FDR won the election and became president of a people desperate to be reinvented. Years of depression had created millions of unemployed, had left families stranded in villages and farms because nature could no longer support them, and had driven others to cities that had no work for them. A pall of hopelessness and helplessness had settled over the nation. With his ringing inaugural speech, Roosevelt began his message of metamorphosis and empowerment to his people. He contended that America was not the helpless victim of nature- that no natural calamity had caused the national distress, “�nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it.” 6 He expanded on that theme when persuading Congress to accept his new plans for the country, “�the continuous striving of civilization against nature has harmed nature and nature in turn has harmed us.”7 The problems of the nation were not systematic but personal. Human actions founded in greed had brought about the despair and human action could rectify the problem. With his monumental projects like Bonneville, Roosevelt was determined to give his followers a sense of control, power, pride, and happiness. He was about to embark on the “best kind of building-the building of great public projects for the benefit of the public and with the definite objective of building human happiness.”8
FDR immediately went to Congress to ask for and quickly receive four billion dollars for public projects to “interweave natural resources with industry, labor, finance, agriculture, homes, recreation, and good citizenship. The results of this interweaving will have a greater influence on the future American standard of living than all the rest of our economics put together.” 9 Eager to claim part of this relief for the Northwest, and fearful that other projects had lured FDR�s attention away from the Bonneville project, General Charles Martin convinced his friend, Senator Charles McNary of Oregon to accompany him to Washington D. C. The Northwest was suffering along with the rest of the country from the ravages of the depression. The output of lumber had fallen by two-thirds, and there was no market for the products of the forests, fisheries, or farms. Apple orchards were burned rather than incur the cost of maintenance. The men who had built the bridges, excavated the mines, and harvested the apples were unemployed and homeless. To add to this, thousands of refugees from the Dust Bowl had arrived to add their burden to the economy. Washington State had even endured its own dust bowl, that on April 21, 1931, had begun in Eastern Washington and blackened the sky from Pullman to Aberdeen, and finally spread down as far as Roseberg in southern Oregon.9
Roosevelt had, indeed, cooled to the idea of a dam, fearing the lack of a firm base on which to build the dam doomed it to failure. The army engineers had found sedimentary deposits, not bedrock on the planned site, and FDR was concentrating on other projects that promised a wiser distribution of money and jobs. 10
Martin and McNary were desperate with the knowledge that though blessed with beauty and water, the Northwest lacked large deposits of oil and coal to fuel the future. That knowledge, coupled with the desperation of the times, drove them to demand a meeting with the President over the objections of his staff. They cited studies of good bedrock near the Bridge of the Gods, and anxiously awaited his reply to their pleas. It came immediately to their surprise, with no further questioning. “I can go for 36 million,” Roosevelt said. General Martin recalled how effusive his and McNary�s response was, “By this act you will harness the Columbia and give us unlimited supply of the cheapest power in the country, you will rebuild the Northwest.” The President, he remembered, seemed pleased and responded, “That is exactly what I wish to do.”11
FDR had set stipulations for receiving the money for the project. Most of the workforce would have to be obtained from the relief roles, with preference given to veterans. Further, no regard was to be paid to race or religion or politics when the work was passed out.12Telegraphs went out to engineers all over the Northwest who had never gotten to use the degrees and talents they had. Laborers left their makeshift shelters in the cities they had nicknamed Hoovervilles after a former president. Eagerly, they all gathered at the river near the place a failed fur trader and AWOL soldier, Captain Benjamin L. Eulalie Bonneville had camped a hundred years before. But the tales of his exploits that Bonneville had sold to Washington Irving paled in comparison to the task that faced the young men who came to the site named after him.13
Others of the engineers who contracted to work at Bonneville had participated in building Boulder Dam in Colorado. However, the Colorado River is no Columbia. At normal flow, the Columbia moves more water than the Colorado does at flood stage. The Columbia�s banks are soft and crumble easily. There aren�t any small canyons to trap the water in convenient bottlenecks. The supervisor of canyon excavation, twenty-five year old Edgar Kaiser recalled, “We weren�t really mature enough to see why it couldn�t be done, but maybe that�s why it was done.”14
At the site chosen, the Columbia River flows west in two channels separated by Bradford Island. As the excavations began in June of 1934, the workers unearthed a three-inch silver disc that bore an invitation to George Washington�s second inaugural ball. They found evidence of the many battles fought over the land between Native Americans and the white newcomers to Bradford Island. And sadly, among the skeletons, they found proof of many hangings that had taken place after the battles were lost.15 The diggers weren�t interested in the history of the island, however, they were only concerned that the artifacts they uncovered might cause delays in their work.16 As one jackhammer man stated, “you either worked or went hungry. Anyway a man without a job wasn�t much, was he?”17
“I hammered on Bonneville, Coulee, too.
Always broke when my job was through,
Lord, Lord, well, I got them Jackhammer Blues.
I hammered on th� river from a sun to sun,
Fifteen million salmons run;
Lord, Lord, well, I got them Jackhammer Blues”18
Construction began on the dam in June of 1934. The Columbia River is so powerful and deep only one-half could be blocked off at a time. Twenty-one huge cribs or “cofferdams” were built out of wood, sixty feet square, and tailored to fit the river bottom. They sank these cribs with rocks and earth, then pumped out the water with huge pumps that sucked five thousand gallons a minute. Even at this rate, it took seven days to get rid of the water in the south cofferdam and four more for the north.19 The sound of the jackhammers began to ring in the gorge as the men loosened the sediment from the river bottom and made the holes in the bedrock that would be filled with concrete to anchor the huge dam. Men covered in mud scurried around dump trucks as they loaded them to haul the four million cubic yards of mud and sand and loose gravel from the site. 20 If modern dump trucks were filled with the amount of earth they moved, and laid bumper to bumper, the line of trucks would stretch from Bonneville to New York City.21
That August of 1934, work having begun in earnest on the dam, President Roosevelt made a triumphant return to Bonneville Dam. He arrived in Portland from Hawaii aboard the U.S.S. Houston. Over 150,000 turned out for the parade in Portland, but he was eager to see the progress on the dam, according to companions, and to see if the people were thriving. He was not disappointed. A whistle blowing, steam shovel salute greeted the president.22 He promised the workers that “the power we shall develop here is going to be power which for all time is going to be controlled by government.”23
Roosevelt was making no secret of his intentions to keep the power generated by his dams forever in public ownership, and despite the cheering throngs he had put to work, his policies smacked of socialism to many in America. “Remember, Roosevelt and his people were the radicals of their day; just like the hippies of the sixties he was advocating public good over the private, and the conservatives reacted just as violently. This was revolutionary stuff.”24 He moved on to Coulee that day, a dam being built upstream of Bonneville, and met more accolades with “�we are going to see electricity, power, made so cheap that they will become a standard article of use, not merely for agriculture and manufacturing, but for every home in the reach of an electric transmission line.”25
The men, encouraged from their President�s visit, and oblivious to the controversy that surrounded them, returned to their work by beginning the construction of the spillway on the Washington side of Bradford Island. The spillway was designed to hold back a seventy-two foot deep pool of water, and by the raising and lowering of its gates, control the flow of water. Next they built the powerhouse on the lower end of Bradford Island to accommodate six hydroelectric generating units, but before they were done, room was made for four more units, each to produce 54,000 kilowatts of electricity. They built three fish ladders, each 16 feet long and 40 feet wide, to form a stairway of pools to encourage the fish to jump. And finally they blasted out the lock from solid volcanic rock to its final dimensions of 500 feet in length and 76 feet in width. 26 The workers likened to filthy insects worked so fast that an engineer concluded that the objective of the project must be to dump as many yards of concrete and to place as much steel as possible in the shortest amount of time. The concrete was poured night and day. An account by Lois Myers, a reporter on the Portland News Telegraph describes the process at night:
of brilliance in the darkness of the night. In the background,
dimly visible, black masses of the steadfast mountains,
undisturbed by this noisy confusion made by puny men,
moving like busy ants about the depths of the river�s forsaken
channel. Nearly 100 feet below sea level they pour tonight-
monster buckets of concrete dangling from twin high-lines
swiftly carried, carefully lowered to find the precise spot
in the excavation for which they are intended. A bucket
emptied of the 16-ton burden swings over to the north bank
for a reload. As it descends a toy-like train runs out on its
track to meet it. Swiftly, a chute leaps out from the car, a
cataract of concrete flows into the yawning bucket�and�
another contibution is on its way to the building of Bonneville Dam.”27
Up to 3000 men worked around the clock in eight- hour shifts in horrible weather and dangerous conditions. There were no hard hats or safety gear. Men chose their headgear for personal expression over safety, the French beret being very popular. Despite the lack of regulation, accidents were few, and only one death is noted. Three men were in a pit fifty feet below sea level at the powerhouse building site, when from above someone tipped over a fire extinguisher. The gases trapped the men below, and only two could be saved. 29
Winter wasn�t easy in the gorge of the thirties. Cars lost their hoods in the strong winds, and “tapioca snow” poured down the canyons and the mountain sides like “grains in a chute.” 30 The snow formed drifts across the highways and railroads 15-20 feet deep, yet many workers commuted from Portland, because some had no place to live by the site, despite the construction boom that had started before work on the dam began.
Private contractors built two-story colonial style frame houses for the top personnel next to the dam. Together with an administration building, an auditorium used for recreation and meetings, they were all painted a pristine white. The houses had hardwood floors, electric refrigerators, three bedrooms and two baths, with fireplaces in the living rooms. The landscaping was finished in the first year, and each house on the “Reservation” as it was called, had a small garden the inhabitants were expected to maintain.31Commercial firms leased buildings built by the government to open dry goods stores, barber and beauty shops, a movie theater, and even a Safeway store. A dairy delivered milk, and trucks spilled in from Portland loaded with other dairy products, meat, poultry, and fruit and vegetables. Soon the engineers and administrators could afford to buy cars. They bought new furniture from merchants in Portland, and puppies from the pet stores, and they had lots of babies. “We had never intended to raise Tommy as an only child, but the depression changed a lot of people�s plans. I had plenty of company because several of the couples were expecting”32 And those that couldn�t conceive, adopted children.
Life on the Reservation was filled with bridge parties, baby showers and even a few weddings. Costume parties for Halloween and dances on Saturday night, and church on Sunday made for a rich social life. They spent their afternoons off fishing for trout from the streams, and their gardens produced far more than they had expected, but even in this paradise there was some scandal.
Mona Bell Hill, the paramour of Sam Hill, who, among his accomplishments built the Columbia River Highway, provided some excitement. A beautiful, adventuresome woman, Mona was a bareback rider with William Cody�s Wild West Show, and such a crack shot, she was made an honorary Multnomah County Sheriff. Ms. Hill was purported to be entertaining several of the engineers, married or not, at her home near the site. A fight broke out at one of the dances when a young engineer�s wife suspected her husband was one of Ms. Hill�s acquaintances. When finally she had to sell the mansion Sam Hill had built for her to the government to make way for dam construction, she went on a 7500-mile trek through Africa alone. She returned unharmed to live until old age in Portland.33 All in all, life on the Reservation was peaceful and idyllic, but this life differed widely from that of the laborers. As often happens when people�s status is determined by their title and pay grade, the two groups, labor and management did not interact, and life was much harder for the common laborer and his family.
North Bonneville, near the Reservation, was built in two months to house some 3000 of the workmen, with 300 buildings and tents.34 West of Bonneville, communities cropped up with names like Shady Nook, Glendale, Wee Cove, Bonnie Vue, and Bonnie Villa, that were largely composed of hand built shanties, but that did not dim the workers pleasure at having jobs. “At the sodden camps near the dam site, hundreds of workers had the happiest of Christmases, they had jobs and presents for their children. These last few years, when everything and everyone seemed idle, it�s a welcome sight.”35
The men who worked the shovels were paid well, $1.50 an hour, the less skilled labor earned 50 cents and hour. And though they had made more before the depression, they talked of how happy they were to be earning 45 dollars a week now after so many months of being idle. They paid 12 dollars a month for housing, and saved nearly a hundred dollars a month.36
Their communities were likened to wild west towns, and the residents to the hardy denizens of that time. Cascade Locks was the only incorporated town among the many, and as such, attracted the majority of workers on Saturday night to Merrill�s Tavern. Those Saturday nights usually ended in a brawl. One fellow, Tiny Mitchell, liked to knock down as many people as he could in as short as time as possible, until a group of fellow laborers beat him into submission. They said he became quite meek after that incident.
One Saturday night, a jackhammer man named Jack Brinkerhoff had had a lot to drink. He got into a fight, and someone hit him over the head with a chair, splitting his scalp from front to back. He patiently waited as the doctor stitched up his head, and turning to leave, tore out every stitch on a coat rack hook. Without a word or sound, he once more endured the stitching, and quietly left the office to return to the tavern. The doctor commented that that was the way the jackhammer men were, they could shake off any injury.
There were other stories of women caught in rooms with the wrong man, and high pitched screaming battles taking place behind the thin plywood walls of the huts they lived in. There was a house of ill repute to provide other kinds of entertainment. Marijuana was widely used, and harvested from roof tops, but not all the laborers lived a wild life.
Another tavern did business in town, the Erickson. There, the laborers and their wives enjoyed dancing and listening to polkas and western music. There was a pleasant church, and a high school and a grade school for their children. They had basketball games and sat in the grandstands and cheered for their sons. They gossiped and threw parties and celebrated their good fortune.37
A late spring flood in 1936 sent the river ripping through the north cofferdam and drowned the construction site. Meanwhile Roosevelt won that year�s election by a landslide and that same election 15 public utility districts were approved by washington State voters. The voices rose in opposition with descriptions of the New Deal as a dictatorship and that the voters for the PUDs were communists and socialists, but the people showed their love for their president by their votes. Though he had many detractors, and many groups opposed him, the people preferred to hear Roosevelt than the detractors.38
Roosevelt returned to dedicate the dam on September 28,1937, three years after construction began. He talked again about how by using nature wisely, the depression could have been avoided, and he promised the widest possible use for the electricity the dam would generate.39 The President had already recommended the creation of the Bonneville Power Administration to distribute the power equitably.40
Fearing the Army corps of Engineers could not be trusted to follow through with Roosevelt�s edicts, the Northwest Regional Planning Commission comprised of state planning board members from Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana, convened. Professor Charles Mckinley of Reed College in Portland recommended three points: a new agency to dispose of Bonneville�s Power, uniform rates throughout the system, and a board to “move the administrative power away from the palace and into the fields and hills” as the President had promised. John Yeon, a Portland designer and architect, became the loudest advocate of the “postage stamp” power delivery system. He concluded that charging the same rates to consumers away from the dam, as to those closer would assure the gorge did not become an industrial area. He further moved that industry would encroach no further into the gorge than Camas, Washington. Together they assured the preservation of the gorge.41
Bonneville Power Administration got off to a rocky and controversial start. Portland General Electric, Pacific Power and Light, and the Puget Sound Power and Light Company, all privately owned, immediately contracted for power to resell at a profit. The BPA, spurred by public opinion generated by the Northwest Regional Planning Commission, and advocates like Yeon and Bonneville administrator, Dr Paul J. Raver, quickly began the construction of the largest transmission system in the world at that time.42
The BPA did not hesitate to continue FDR�s tradition of hiring minorities. The first administrator, as one of his first acts, hired a woman, Doris Keeler as a member of his legal team. She was so revered for her contributions, a power station in Hillsboro was named after her. Soon after he was appointed,Dr. Raver hired Harry Kenin, a politically active Democrat to be his executive assistant. Kenin quietly opened the doors of the BPA to minorities, at a time when labor unions would not allow them membership. Kenin is credited with hiring qualified Blacks, Pacific Islanders, and Asians, and he made it his business to address any charges of discrimination.43
The BPA and its workers were vilified by many and they too, bore the socialist and communist accusations. To off set this, and to appeal to the common man for whom all this had been done, the first public relations officer of the BPA, Stephen Kahn, decided to hire Woody Guthrie, the epitome of the working class, to compose some songs to commemorate the building of Bonneville Dam. Woody was ecstatic about the job. He felt it was a perfect fit for him. It was a project by working class men that would forever benefit those men as well by providing cheap electricity to their homes and workplaces. The joy of the occasion was marred when he found out that in 1941, his brand of leftist politics was not something the hiring personnel even at Bonneville could accept. Kahn hit upon a plan of hiring Guthrie for only 30 days, which was in his power to do. Guthrie responded, “left wing, right wing, chicken wing, I want the job” and quickly left Pampa, Texas for Oregon. In his 30 days of employment at BPA, Guthrie composed 26 songs about the dam, and for his efforts earned $266.00. He performed his songs in a movie made at the time to advertise the dam and focus the public�s attention on the struggle to keep the power it produced in public hands. Feeling Guthrie was too radical, and his message too leftist, the Department of the Interior ordered all copies of the movie burned, destroying most of the records of the songs. Fortunately, a laborer at the BPA fearfully hid a copy of the movie in his basement, that was only unearthed recently, and all 26 songs have been found. The BPA in the fifties decided to honor Guthrie�s contribution by naming a power station after him. To the employees surprise and dismay, this was not a popular decision with the American Legion. Finally, the smallest and ugliest of the stations was named Guthrie Station, but no publicity or fanfare was allowed at the dedication.44
All these years later, one would think the controversy would finally be settled over the dam. Ironically, it is the Democratic Governor of Oregon who is the loudest proponent of breaching some dams on the Columbia River System because of the costs to government they incur.45 Perhaps he should remember the primary purpose of the dams and realize to breach the dams would mean higher electric prices for the people, increased congestion on the freeways because the tugs could not ply the river to Lewiston, Idaho anymore, and great hardship for the farmers dependent on irrigation. 46And perhaps he should remember a Democratic president, who above all, and despite any controversy, put his people above all else.
Today, you can tour Bonneville Dam and see the spillway as it controls the river, look down into the powerhouse as it generates electricity, and watch the fish climb the ladders through the viewing windows. As you do, listen for the poignant songs of Woody Guthrie as they are piped over the sound system. View a plaque there written by a female landscaper which states, “We are very proud of what we�ve done here” and think of the people who created this wonderful monument, because they weren�t done providing for us yet. They and their President still had a war to fight.
“Roll on Columbia, roll on.
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
So roll on Columbia, roll on.
At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks,
The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks,
Ship loads of plenty will steam past the docks,
So, roll on, Columbia, roll on.
Endnotes
1 Woody Guthrie, “Columbia Talkin’ Blues, The Columbia River Collection, written and performed in Portland, Oregon, 1941.
2 Philip J. Funigiello, Towards a National Power Policy (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973) 174-175.
3 Gene Tollefson, BPA and The Struggle for Power at Cost (United States: Bonneville Power Administration, 1987) 194.
4 Pat Vivian, Draft-Gaining Power: The Story of Minorities and Women at BPA. (Unpublished draft, 1986) 1-3.
5 Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Volume One, The Genesis of the New Deal, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman (New York: Random House, 1938) 727-742.
6 Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Volume Two, The Year of Crisis, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman (New York: Random House, 1938) 11-17.
7 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “National Industrial Recovery Act”, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Volume Two, The Year of Crisis, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman (New York: Random House, 1938) 246-253.
8 Franklin D. Roosevelt, qtd in Kenneth F. Davis, FDR The New Deal Years, 1933-1937(New York; Random House, 1979) 383-384.
9 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “National Industrial Recovery Act”, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two, The Year of Crisis, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman (New York: Random House, 1938) 246-253.
9 Carlos A. Schwantes, “Uncle Sam’s Response to the Great Depression; WPA in Washington”, Columbia 11 no. 1 (Spring 1997) 14-19.
10 William F. Willingham, PhD, Water Power in the ” Wilderness”, (Portland: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1997) 1-2.
11 Gen. Charles H. Martin, “Bonneville’s Beginnings”, Sunday Journal Magazine, October 30, 1949. M(6-7).
12 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Men and Nature Must Work Hand in Hand: A Message to Congress on the Use of our National Resources, January 24, 1935.” The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Four (New York: Random House, 1935.)
13 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Radio address on Unemployment and Social Welfare” October 13,1932,The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Volume One, The Genesis of the New Deal, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman, (New York: Random House, 1938) 790-791.
14 Gene Tollefson, BPA and the Struggle for Power at Cost, (United States: Bonneville Power Administration, 1987) 112.
15 Fred Lockley and Marshall M. Dana, More Power to You, (Portland: Oregon Journal, 1934) 60.
16 Edward M. Miller, “1934 Motor Cruises�I’m a Dam Builder�Writing to FDR”, The Sunday Oregonian, 27 May 1934, Vol. LIII, 21.
17 Bud Williams interview, “Life of Woody Guthrie” film edited by Bill Merlin in association with the University of Oregon., premiere at BPA, May 25,2000. BPA library, Portland, OR.
18 Woody Guthrie, “Jackhammer Blues”. The Columbia River Collection, written and performed in Portland, Oregon, 1941.
19 William F. Willingham, PhD. Water Power in the Wilderness, The History of Bonneville Lock and Dam, (Portland: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1997) 16-29.
20 Plaque at Bonneville Dam, Oregon side visitor’s center.
21 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Lock and Dam, In Celebration of Our 50th Year,1984, standing file Oregon History Museum, Portland, Oregon.
22 Gene Tollefson, BPA and the Struggle for Power at Cost, (Portland: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1987) 18-30.
23 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Extemporaneous Comments, August 30,1934”,The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Three, The Advance of Recovery and Reform, 1934. (New York: Random House, 1938).
24 Pat Vivian, Writer and historian for BPA, interviewed May 25,2000.
25 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Extemporaneous Comments at Grand Coulee Dam, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Three, The Advance of Recovery and Reform, 1934 (New York: Random House, 1938)
26 District Engineer, United States Engineer Office, Portland, Oregon and the Bonneville Power Administrator, Department of the Interior, The Bonneville Project; Improvement of the Columbia at Bonneville, (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government printing office, 1941) 6-30.
27 Lois Myers, editorial,The Portland News-Telegraph, November, 1935.
28 Plaque, Oregon side visitor’s center, Bonneville Dam.
29 Lorena Scott Fisher, The Bonneville Dream, (United States: Lorena Scott Fisher, 1991) 113-114.
30 ibid. 82.
31 Hugh A. Scott, “Reminiscence: on Bonneville Dam and the Boom Era”, Oregon Historical Quarterly 88 no. 3 (1987): 206.
32 Lorena Scott Fisher, The Bonneville Dream, (United States: Lorena Scott Fisher, 1991) 88-90.
33 Ibid. 61-65.
34 The Sunday Oregonian, Dam Town Offers Much of Interest”, Feb. 24, 1935.
35 FH Chapman, Director of the First National Bank of Portland, KFJR Portland radio address, standing file, Oregon History Museum, Portland, Oregon.
36 Edward M. Miller, “1934 Motor Cruises�I’m a Dam Builder�Writing to FDR”, The Sunday Oregonian, 27 May, 1934, vol.LIII no 21.
37 Hugh A. Scott, “Reminiscence: on Bonneville dam and the Boom Era”, Oregon Historical Quarterly 88 no. 3 (1987) 265-278.
38 Albert Fried, FDR and His Enemies, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999).
39 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “We in America are Wiser in Using Our Wealth on Projects” Address at Bonneville Dam, Oregon, September 28.1937, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937 Volume, The Constitution Prevails (New York: Macmillan Company, 1941) 387-392.
40 Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The President Transmits to the Congress, and Approves, Recommendations for the Future Administration of the Bonneville Power Project, February 24, 1937. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937 Volume, The Constitution Prevails (New York: Macmillan Company, 1941) 95-97.
41 National Resources Planning Committee, “Regional Planning”, (Washington, D.C.: 1936) vol. Xxiv, 178-196. Standing file Bonneville Power Administration library, Portland, Oregon.
42 Henry M. Hanzen, “Power; a Dramatic Story of the Crusade for Public Power” not dated, deep files of Multnomah County Library, Portland, Oregon. 33-40.
43 Pat Vivian, “Gaining Power; the Story of Minorities and Women at BPA-Draft”, October 28, 1986,2-5.
44 Bill Merlin in cooperation with the University of Oregon, “Life of Woody Guthrie for 30 Days”, film viewed at premiere at Bonneville Power Administration on May 25, 2000, not distributed as yet.
45 Governor John Kitzhaber, “Comments to the Seattle City Club”, September 17, 1999.
46 George Frampton “4 Dams Will Stay For Now”, The Oregonian, 19 July, 2000. 150(50,217) A(1).
