Transcripts For CSPAN3 James OSullivan And Grand Coulee Dam 20170903

Washington. It was founded in 1887 by jesuit priests. Join us as we take a look at the James Osullivan papers and learn about his role in the development of the Grand Coulee Dam. James osullivan can remember where it all began in an old jalopy tires blew out like firecrackers and the radiator steamed up with the regularity of a geyser. James stepped out and said someday this is going to be the garden of eden. Water will flow onto the soil and the desert will bloom. Cap was people will, here and our great migration and rich farms and busy settlements will rise out of the sagebrush. James osullivan was born in 1876 in michigan. He went to the university of michigan and studied law and graduated in 1902. Afterword, he started a law practice but found out there was not much there. He left to go to Washington State and go to seattle. He had married in 1905 and they came out to seattle, washington, to start a law practice. He did not have enough work there, seattle was not booming at that time. There was no need for lawyers. He went back to working with his dads business, that was construction. He went to teach on a faculty in bellingham, washington which we now know as western Washington State university. In 1910 he left for a small town in the central state of washington where he got his law bar acceptance. He started practicing law. Here is a picture of him in his law office where he did cases dealing with land claims and land fraud cases. Water reclamation was important to James Osullivan because he saw these farmers needed to work with these terrible conditions. They did not have enough water to keep their crops arrive. To keep their clubs are alive to keep their crops alive. I have pictures. This is the Columbia Basin area. There is nothing here but sagebrush. This was taken in the early 1930s. In this picture, you can see that dust storms took over and made it hard to grow crops in these conditions. We received his collection of materials from James Osullivans widow, pearl, and her daughter kathleen in 1958. In 1949. Ed luckily he had kept notes everything he had he kept. In 1929, he started the Columbia River development league, the idea was to promote the idea of the larger dam, the tall dam. He worked with local farmers and was able to get the support of the bureau of reclamation to support this idea and get government help. In 1933, the Columbia River Basin Commission started, and he was voted as the general secretary, which was the leader of this organization. His job was to go to the federal government and get funds. During this time of promoting the dam idea, James Osullivan had limited funding. He was on a shoestring budget. He was getting some money from these commissions who were charging farmers or asking farmers to donate money to help out with this idea. It was a grassroots effort until the state and federal government got involved. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt started donating 20 million, another 20 million in 1934, another 20 million in 1935. Roosevelt thought it was important to reclaim this land, farmers, and the money generated from that would help the state and federal government. They wanted more people moving to the area to establish it and not have it be a wasteland. There was more for the state of washington. If you have a greater population and more farmers. The benefit for the American People is that this dam would create power that would generate buildings and construction and people in seattle and all over the northwest and beyond. It made electricity a lot cheaper for the northwest residents and beyond that area. To build such a large structure, you need to hire a lot of men. There was not a city that could handle that many people, so they built their own city for this building. The Construction Company was called mason walsh, and they built the town of mason after the first name. We have pictures of what that looked like. Here is an aerial view of the town. The city supplied all their needs. There were high school games, it is now part of coulee city itself. Here is a map of the town of mason. You can see the center there, the main circle with roosevelt avenue going through it. We have housing on either side. We have streets named after trees and after flowers. On this side you have cedar and birch and fur and spruce. When the Grand Coulee Dam was completed it was considered one of the largest concrete in the world. One of the largest concrete structures in the world. It was started in 1933 and finished in 1944. It is 500 feet tall and 4200 feet long. After the dam was completed, he retired, he had spent his whole life working on this project, and he died in 1949. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to spokane, washington, to learn about its rich history. Learn more about spokane and other stops at cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend every weekend. We continue with our look at the history of spokane. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Next, author tom mcmillan talks about gettysburg natives who fought for the confederacy. He describes five men who moved south to virginia