Pay day! Employment peaked at 8000 workers. Area population high of 15000.
Drilling in preparation for blasting.
Sand being loaded into 20 yard buggey to haul to washing and screening plant.
Mack Truck being loaded by electric shovel. Equipment such as this moved over 22 million cubic yards of rock and overburden from the dam site - excavation at the gravel pit is not included in this figure.
Gravel pit looking West. Early development.
Looking into gravel pit. Sand pile is waste sand being accumulated. Total waste reached over 10 million yards and is still there.
Over 10,000 feet of conveyor belt in one piece 5 feet wide. Conveyor - 5965 feet long. Used to move aggregate from gravel pit to mixing plant.
Government (across river) and contractors town. Two of 13 towns in the area at peak of construction. Conveyor belt from gravel pit in foreground.
East mixing plant. 100 feet high 44 feet wide. Fully automatic. Material enters at the top of structure an a few minutes later is dropped out of the bottom as concrete. 16,000 cubic yards daily. Note pipe in front that goes to top - cement is blown thru this pipe from silo one mile away at 100 mph. Mixing plan was torn down and rebuilt as dam rose.
Donkey Engines returning to mixing plant hauling 4 - 4 yard buckets for concrete.
Trestles starting from East die of Dam. Bed rock is actual base of Dam.
Cement silos. Note compresser plant at left - generated air to blow cement to mixing plant.
Base of dam. Coffer dam is in background. 4000 foot conveyor belt (above) used to move aggregate across river.
Placing concrete (mud) with bottom dump buckets hauled from mixing plant. Note men using vibrators - difference in elevation of block being poured.
Concrete being placed at base of dam. Note concrete is poured around trestles which were left in Dam.
Looking from East end. Both trestles, coffer dam and West side mixing plant.
High trestle and overhead cranes - cranes have 115 foot reach.
River bottom. Trestle, coffer dam and cribs for pours.
Cleaning Bedrock in prepartation for pour.
Outlet tubes for spillway section of Dam. 8 feet in diameter. One of 60. 3 rows of 20 each at different levels of spillway.
From back side of Dam. High trestle reinforcing steel from outlet tubes in foreground.
Mixing plant. Overhead cranes (hammer heads) Trestle. Outlet tubes visible in face of spill. (2 of 3 rows)
Holes in rock wall for moving water up to Banks Lake reservoir for distribution to irrigators in SE Washington. Holes are 13 feet in diameter, 860 feet long and raise water 280 feet to reservoir.
West Powerhouse.
Drumgate being placed at top of Dam. 11 drumgates 28 feet high, 135 feet wide.
Looking down river.
18 generators. 9 each power house. (3rd power house built later in 70s) Power houses 2 city blocks long. Generator weighs 1500 tons. 90 railcars to haul on unassembled generator to dam site.
Pumps in pumping plant. 12 pumps - 6 completed by 1954. Water pumped up to 1.7 mile canal which delivers water to Banks Lake. Water irrigates 1,029,000 acres.
Aerial view in 1954. Dam 4300 feet long. 3000 feet at base. 500 feet wide at base, 30 feet wide at top. 550 feet high. 12 million cubic yards of concrete (3 times Boulder Dam). 8 miles of interor inspection galleries. Canal on North end of Banks Lake center to top.
