The Bonneville Dam, constructed in the Columbia River Gorge, was completed in 1937. Construction took four years and was a New Deal public works project. President Franklin Roosevelt visited the site during construction and spoke at the dam’s dedication ceremony.

Inspired by the public power movement, planners intended the dam to provide cheap electricity to common citizens and remove control of power sources from private companies. Roosevelt hoped the dam would draw settlers away from the crowded east coast and drought-stricken Midwest to the Pacific Northwest, America’s “Last Frontier.”

Construction required one million cubic yards of concrete. The federal government created the Bonneville Power Administration to distribute power from the dam. The BPA produced the film “Hydro” and hired folk singer Woody Guthrie to promote the dam to the public.

With a capacity over half a million kilowatts, the dam was a major power source in the Second World War. Nevertheless, the dam was controversial from its beginning. Construction of the dam resulted in the destruction of thirty Native American villages. Environmentalists wanted the area around the Columbia Gorge to remain unspoiled. Biologists issued warnings about the dam’s impact on salmon as early as the 1930s. Engineers constructed fish ladders to alleviate the dam’s impact on Columbia River salmon.

In the 1980s, a second powerhouse was constructed at the dam and the Bonneville Dam Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Jeremy Hatcher.