Grant PUD history

In 1843 Nathan Boone led an expedition from Fort Gibson to explore the Great Salt Plains.

Following the Civil War (1861–65) the Outlet became a rancher's paradise.

Beginning in 1879 settlers called boomers clamored for the opening of the area to settlement.

The original (and much larger) Douglas County had been created in 1883 when the Washington Territorial Legislature formed Lincoln and Spokane counties from a larger Spokane County, then separated the new Lincoln County into Lincoln and Douglas Counties only a few days later.

Although their efforts were thwarted, the publicity that was generated brought the situation to national attention, and the Cherokee Outlet was opened to non-Indian settlers on September 16, 1893.

In 1897 the Gulf Railroad (later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, AT&SF) connected Manchester, Wakita, Medford, and Deer Creek with outside markets.

Attempts to formally irrigate Grant County began as early as 1898, although most efforts were relatively modest.

At 1907 statehood the principal crops included wheat, corn, oats, alfalfa, and forage sorghum, with estimated value of $3.5 million.

Centrally located within the county, Medford became the county seat through an election held on May 27, 1908.

Once the Washington state Legislature formally created Grant County on February 24, 1909, the newly created county government (located in the city of Ephrata) began efforts to attract new citizens.

In 1914, for example, Washington voters were asked to consider a $44 million bond issue that would have created a water pumping system for 435,000 acres in an around Quincy.

In the spring of 1917 this group was discussing how local farmers could better aid America’s soldiers in World War I, when it was suggested that a dam might be constructed on the Columbia River at Grand Coulee, formed some 15,000 years before during the last ice age.

Despite a 1920 legislative study that recommended the gravity plan over the Grand Coulee plan, the Ephrata group and its supporters pushed on and eventually waged the more successful public and political campaign.

On April 24, 1921, the Swaggart Number One, the first oil well in Grant County, was drilled near Deer Creek.

At the turn of the twenty-first century the county reported seven manufacturers compared to twenty reported in 1930.

In 1933 the key piece of the project, the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, was finally approved, bringing much-needed construction jobs to Depression-era Grant County.

In 1934, voters in Benton and Franklin counties approved the first countywide PUDs.

In 1936, soon after the first public utility districts were organized, 34 PUD commissioners gathered at the Grange headquarters in Seattle to form a trade association.

– from A Century of Development – Grant County, Richard Simons, editor, 1937

Grant PUD was founded in 1938 by local residents who envisioned the benefit of affordable electricity for the entire county.

All stops were pulled out to secure passage of the irrigation district measure on February 18, 1939, including a special train provided by the Great Northern Railroad that brought in more than 300 outside landowners.

Meanwhile, the Grand Coulee Dam project was gradually expanded and moved toward completion, with its first generator going on line in October 1941.

The irrigation portion of the project was formally approved in 1943, and digging began soon after.

1945 - Grant PUD moves its offices from Soap Lake to Ephrata, the seat of Grant County.

1949 - Grant PUD works out procedures with Grant County and United States Bureau of Reclamation to provide electrical service to new farmland being developed as part of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project.

1951 - Representatives of the Grant County Chamber of Commerce appeared before the Grant PUD Board of Commissioners and asked the PUD to consider constructing a dam at Priest Rapids.

1; W. Gale Matthews, “Beginnings of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project,” 1952 typescript, Grant County Historical Society, Ephrata, Washington; “A Brief Geological Description of the Columbia Basin Project,” ca.

In 1953, the state Legislature also enacted a law allowing public utilities to form joint operating agencies.

1955 - The Federal Power Commission issued Grant PUD a license to build and operate two dams, known collectively as the Priest Rapids Project.

1957 - Governor Albert Rosellini turned a valve starting the first concrete pour at Priest Rapids Dam.

Built over three years, the dam began generating power in 1959.

1962 - Priest Rapids Dam, with a generating capacity of 956 megawatts, was dedicated.

It was built over four years with the first power generation beginning in 1963.

1964 - The 10th and last generator went into production at Wanapum Dam, which at the time had a capacity of 1040 megawatts.

Then, in late 1965, the United States military delivered a blow to the local economy when it decided to close Larson Air Force Base in Moses Lake.

1966 - Wanapum Dam is dedicated.

In fact, according to a February 1975 newsletter published by Seattle First National Bank, about 90 percent of Grant County’s entire manufacturing workforce was employed in local food processing plants.

1976 - The Ephrata Service Center is completed and dedicated in honor of Bill Schempp’s service to the Grant PUD.

1982 - Vera Claussen was the first woman elected to the Grant PUD Board of Commissioners.

Now known as Energy Northwest, the agency also owns and operates the 1,150-megawatt Columbia Generating Station, the only commercial nuclear power plant in Washington, which began operation in 1984.

1985 - The Quincy Chute hydroelectric project made its first commercial power output.

After two years of court proceedings, the PUD acquired the Clarkston General Water Supply Co. through condemnation and began operations in April 1987.

1990 - The first commercial operation of the Potholes East Canal Headworks hydroelectric project began.

2000 - The Grant PUD commissioners authorized construction and testing of a full-size, prototype of the new advanced turbines to be installed in Wanapum Dam.

2001 - Grant PUD’s new fiber optic network began serving customers.

2007 - Grant PUD Commissioners approved a 20-percent discount for low-income customers who are seniors or disabled.

2008 - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission awarded Grant PUD a new 44-year license to operate the Priest Rapids Project.

In 2010 they continued as incorporated towns.

2012 - Construction began on the Priest Rapids Dam Fish Bypass Unit.

2013 - Grant PUD celebrates the completion of its Advanced Turbine Replacement Project at Wanapum Dam.

2014 - A fracture was discovered on the Wanapum Dam Spillway in February.

2015 - The new Wanapum Heritage Center opened in October.

2016 - Construction begins on the first phase in the renovation of the Crescent Bar Recreation Area.

2017 - The new campsite, boat launch, docks and other features opens to the public at Crescent Bar.