The Evans', Hamilton's, Johnson's, and Ogburn's successfully bid on a guided trip by Wilf Woods on the geological history of North Central Washington including a special tour of the Grand Coulee Dam. Wilf's father was instrumental in the creation of the Dam and one of the lakes created by the Dam is named after him – The Rufus Woods Lake.
The major geological features of North Central Washington were formed by as many as 100 flash floods caused by ice dams failing and walls of water over 300 feet high surging into our valley. Wilf is so knowledgeable and did an excellent job of explaining how it happened and showing us evidence of all those activities throughout our tour. We thoroughly enjoyed our day with him.
One of our first stops was to the home of some friends of Wilf's who have a “killer view” to the north on the Columbia River above Crescent Bar. We learned about "erratics" and "eskers" and a host of other geological things, and Wilf held our attention all day.
By the way, the Grand Coulee Dam is one of the largest concrete structures ever build and is the largest hydroelectric facilities in the United States. When the Dams in China and Brazil are completed it will drop to the 4th largest hydroelectric facility in the World. The Grand Coulee Dam was built to irrigate the Columbia Basin and that is still its primary duty although it generates over $1 billion annually in revenues from its electricity generation. We were told that when the Dam was in full operation, the equivalent of twelve Colorado Rivers flows through it each day. Thanks Wilf for a wonderful day!
