Other Projects by
GWLA Members:
Collection Guide
All Collections
Columbia River Basin
- Frank A. Banks Collection
- Cloud Seeding Documents
- John N. Cobb Photo Collection
- Columbia River Basin in Oregon Collection
- Early Washington Maps
- Grand Coulee Dam Collection
- Kimble Northwest History Database
- Pacific Northwest Stream Survey Photograph Collection
- Seattle Power and Water Supply Collection
- Tollman and Canaris Photo Collection
- Government Reports on the Columbia River
- Water and Watersheds Initiative
Contributed by Washington State University
Frank A. Banks was the Bureau of Reclamation engineer who supervised the construction of the Owyhee, Grand Coulee and other dams on the Columbia River. Included here are selected photographs, maps, and architectural drawings from the Frank A. Banks Papers Collection.
Contributed by the University of Washington
A collection of 43 publications about the effects of cloud seeding, weather modification, and related information regarding the Columbia River Basin.
Contributed by the University of Washington
Three hundred and forty images ca. 1897-1917 of salmon and other local fisheries, whaling activities, clamming and oystering industries along the Pacific Coast and Alaska.
Columbia River Basin in Oregon Collection
Contributed by the University of Oregon
A collection of government documents, books, articles from Scientific American, Harper's Bazaar and Sunset, 1939 aerial photographs of the Bonneville Dam, maps of the Columbia River Basin, and poems.
Contributed by Washington State University
The collection includes an historical timeline of events leading to the formation of Washington State and topographic quadrangles from the U.S. Geological Survey dated from the late 1800 to the early 1900s.
Contributed by the University of Washington
Photographs and pamphlets of the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, built during 1933 to 1942 as part of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project for the development of waterpower, irrigation, and flood control. Also included are a look at the recommendations for and against building the dam, images of land clearing activities by the Public Works Administration, and the dam construction itself.
Kimble Northwest History Database
Contributed by Washington State University
The clippings of the Kimble Northwest History Database and accompanying background documents tell the story of how the Grand Coulee Dam was first imagined and proposed and the subsequent decades-long political and social conflict that took place from Olympia, Washington to Washington, D.C. News stories from Seattle, Wenatchee, and Spokane relate the history of the time, and Congressional committee hearings and reports detail the debates from the 1920's to the 1960's about the authorization and management of the project.
Pacific Northwest Stream Survey Photograph Collection
Contributed by Oregon State University
An archival collection of photographs taken during the period 1934-1945. The collection also contains an interactive map to view the rivers, counties, and hydrologic units within the basin. The survey, conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Fisheries, covered 6200 kilometers of the more than 390 streams comprising the Columbia River Basin and is the earliest and most complete quantitative documentation of anadromous fish habitat in the Pacific Northwest.
Seattle Power and Water Supply Collection
Contributed by the University of Washington
Historical photographs and pamphlets documenting the construction of hydroelectric power and water supply facilities built in Washington State from the late 1890s to the 1950s, including the Snoqualmie Falls Power Plant, the Electron Plant the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, and the Cedar River water supply system.
Tollman and Canaris Photo Collection
Contributed by the University of Washington
Sixty-one photographs, ca. 1897, depicting salmon fishing activities and some of the first salmon canning companies in Washington State along the Columbia River and in Skamania and Pacific Counties. Includes images of horse seining, fishermen tarring nets, fish wheels, and crabbing.
Government Reports on the Columbia River
Contributed by Washington State University
State and federal documents, reports, and surveys regarding irrigation, dams, and water in Washington state during the early 20th century.
Water and Watersheds Initiative
Contributed by Oregon State University
This collection includes the seminar series publications, published research reports, special reports and Tualatin River Basin reports published by the Center for Water and Environmental Sustainability (CWESt) which operated from 2000-2005 and the Oregon Water Resources Research Institute (OWRRI) which operated from 1960-2000.
Signature Collections
Colorado's Waters Digital Archive
Current selections focus on the Colorado, Platte, and Rio Grande river basins and feature studies on water resources development and water supply. These reports and accompanying maps define water concerns and issues of the past that are valuable to informing present and future water management. Subsequent additions to the Digital Archive will relate to various aspects of water in Colorado and contributions made by Coloradoans to water activities and may include additional reports, correspondence, diaries, photographs, case files, and other materials.
Galloway-Stone River Expedition, 1909
Documentation of the three-month river expedition river expedition of Nathanial Galloway, Julius Stone and Raymond Cogswell, generally considered by historians of the Colorado River to be the first river trip undertaken purely for pleasure. The collection consists of diaries, photographs, and a short history.
Documentation of the three-month river expedition river expedition of Nathanial Galloway, Julius Stone and Raymond Cogswell, generally considered by historians of the Colorado River to be the first river trip undertaken purely for pleasure. The collection consists of diaries, photographs, and a short history. http://westernwaters.org/index.php/browse/bySet/4
Hoover Dam
After years of surveys and countless hours of planning, the United States government announced the Boulder Canyon Project. Consisting of a dam in the Black Canyon area and a canal to irrigate the Imperial Valley, the Boulder Canyon Project was the first of its kind in US history. The arid southwest would finally be made farmable and productive for the US economy. The Bureau of Reclamation had constructed previous dams throughout the American West, but none of this magnitude. The dam was to be built directly in the path of the powerful Colorado.
John Muir Papers
Muir was instrumental in the establishment of Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Mt. Rainier. Approximately 75% of the extant papers of Muir are housed at the University of the Pacific, Holt-Atherton Special Collections.
Karl Bodmer
During the years 1832 to 1834, the German naturalist Prince Maximilian zu Wied led an expedition to the Upper Missouri region of North America. The description of this journey, Travels in the Interior of North America, published after his return to Europe, provided one of the most significant collections of ethnological information available concerning the nineteenth-century American Plains Indian.
Powell's Exploration of Colorado River
During his expeditions John Wesley Powell compiled data and a number of sketches describing the landscape. This collection contains various writings and geographical publications to which Powell contributed.
Audio Video Collections
Water is for Fightin' [full record]
Contributed by The University of Utah
In Utah and the arid West, life revolves around water. Land use decisions, land development, law, politics, and economic growth have all been shaped by water or the lack thereof. As demand for land and water increases, Westerners must not only be able to determine and protect rights to water, but also to preserve the sanctity of their rivers, lakes, and streams. Water is for Fightin' offers the perspectives and insights of nine experts who are working to protect our waters.
Water: Lifeblood of the Southwest [full record]
Contributed by the Southwest Waters Committee of the Sierra Club
"Population growth, dams, and irrigation projects have dramatically transformed the waters of the Southwest. Alterations along the Colorado, the area’s biggest river, have been severe and numerous, but all waters of the Southwest will be increasingly impaired unless we change our ways. This video provides an overview of the impacts and challenges. Some actions and tools are suggested to ensure that our limited waters are used more wisely."
Soaking the Desert: The Story of Water in Utah [full record]
Contributed by KUER at The University of Utah
KUER reporters set to find out whether Utah truly needs the Bear River Dam, or whether conservation could be the answer. What they found was another story entirely……..the story of a water system bloated with inefficiency and waste, that unnecessarily costs taxpayers millions of dollars and forces them to pay for the water use of everyone else on the system…..The state's conservation plan deliberately bypasses many proven conservation techniques other Western states adopted two decades ago. And tax subsidies hide layer upon layer of a vast water bureaucracy from public view. No activist nor state official really knows how much money and water could be saved if the system functioned efficiently. And no one who has the power to change it is committed to doing so. This is the story you'll hear in this three part series.
