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Published: October 24th 2014
According to MapQuest, the drive from Coeur d'Alene ID to Pasco WA would be about 175 miles and would take about three hours. I got a mid-morning start under beautiful skies. I crossed the border into Washington, breezed through Spokane and found my way south on U.S. 395. For the most part, the terrain was rolling high plains and not very scenic. In this instance, I’m in total agreement with Rand McNally. Also, I should forewarn my regular followers that, although I usually try to place photographs next to its accompanying narrative, that normal routine just plain ain’t gonna happen this time, folks. We here at KLDG apologize for any inconvenience this might cause our readers.
Irene (my GPS) directed me to the Franklin County RV Park. The area around the RV park is a vast complex including a baseball stadium; an exhibition hall; youth baseball, soccer and football fields; an indoor ice skating arena; a hotel; the RV park; and I probably missed a few. Numerous hotels, eateries and shopping opportunities are nearby. Although cable TV and WiFi are included, the RV park is a place to stay and is NOT a destination park – no playground or pool,
ceramics classes or shuffleboard. It is nestled down in the boondocks on a dead end of sorts so noise is not a problem.
Well, sorta, until Saturday evening when, out of the blue, I hear, “Testing. Testing. One, two, three. Testing.” Fortunately, the sound man got the adjustments just right and wherever this concert was to be staged was far enough away from my RV to make the volume enjoyable! A total of three or four bands played and, while most of the selections were rock, there was quite a bit of country thrown in by a couple of the groups. Admittedly, all of them were pretty good musically and, since I couldn’t understand the words anyway, that was the most important aspect! I have no idea who played but can tell you that it wasn’t Reba!
Let’s backtrack. Thursday, October 2, 2014 found me off to visit the folks at the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau. What a nice facility with a great attendant. I gave her a summary of my interests, my plans (including the drive I planned to take on Friday) and asked a couple of questions about attractions that puzzled me. She answered my
I Wonder How Many Sunrises This Ole Gal Has Seen
Along WA 240 Near Hanford Reach National Monumentquestions, asked a couple of questions of her own and started gathering brochures – including information about areas on Friday’s scenic loop which are far removed from the Tri-Cities. As I was preparing to depart, she asked about my next destination. When I told her Mount Rainier, she grabbed another brochure to help me prepare. Now, THAT, my friend, is a visitor center! I stopped for some lunch and headed back to the Pilgrim to digest and to digest.
Friday, October 3, 2014 found me getting an early start for a scenic drive – as I had promised the lady at the visitor center! My first destination was Yakima and the Yakima Canyon. I stayed off I-82 and took WA 240 through the Hanford Reach National Monument and adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site. I’ll have more about both those attractions later. When I reached WA 24, I turned west toward Yakima and, with a fair amount of difficulty, found WA 821. My GPS kept directing me to I-82 – I know, I should have changed my preferences. WA 821 took me north on the Yakima River Canyon Scenic Byway to Ellensburg WA. In Ellensburg, I
caught U.S. 97 north to Dresden and the Stevens Pass Greenway. There I headed east on U.S. 2 until I reached its junction with Alternate U.S. 97 where I turned north.
I chose Alternate U.S. 97 because that is the route designated by Washington State DOT as a portion of the 400-mile long Cascade Loop Scenic Byway. That route negotiates the west side of the Columbia River to Pateros whereas U.S. 97 (I assume the modernized roadway) navigates the east side. In Pateros, I caught the Okanogan Trails Scenic Byway (now U.S. 97) north to Omak. In Omak, the Coulee Corridor Scenic Byway took me south on WA 155 and WA 17 to Othello. There, I just plain flat ran out of scenic byway and had to take Plain James roads back to Pasco.
As I departed Pasco, the sun was just peeping over the horizon and was casting an interesting array of shadows on the rolling hills along the highway. I stopped for a few pictures along the way before I reached the orchards. There, I met 18-wheelers filled with apples (my nose told me so). That’s a generalization, because who knows how many wheels some of
those rigs have!!! The entire Yakima Valley appears to be one big orchard sublet to sundry species of fruit and vegetables. I saw contraptions of which I still know nothing because there was nobody to ask, and how does one Google a detailed description of a feature?
The drive through the Yakima River Canyon is superb. There are numerous places to pull off the road and have a photo op or just plain enjoy the fresh, morning air. Heading north from Ellensburg, I found myself in a wide river valley with sufficient room for residential and commercial endeavors as well as the Columbia River and a railroad track for most of the stint. On U.S. 2 out of Chelan, I encountered a more forested landscape intermixed with stark rocky outcroppings and cliffs. Then I reached Chelan Lake which was formed by glacial action some 10,000 years ago. The lake sports some interesting statistics: length – 55 miles; surface – 57 square miles; depth – 1486 feet; and deepest point – 395 ft.
below sea level!
Moving south from Omak, I was again in the high desert for the most part before arriving at the target for this adventure
– Grand Coulee Dam. The earliest known proposal to irrigate the Grand Coulee with water from the Columbia River dates to 1892, and various plans dotted the historical landscape until a proposal to build a dam emerged in the 1920s and generated (sorry) a bitter debate between two groups. One group wanted to irrigate using a gravity canal and the other supported a high dam and pumping scheme. Dam supporters won in 1933, but, for fiscal reasons, the initial design was for a low, 290-foot high dam which would generate electricity but could not support irrigation.
After visiting the construction site in August 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began endorsing the "high dam" design which, at 550 feet high, would provide enough electricity to pump water to irrigate the Columbia Basin. The high dam was approved by Congress in 1935 and completed in 1942; the first water over-topped its spillway on June 1 of that year. Originally, Grand Coulee Dam was constructed with two power plants; however, a third power station was completed in 1974 to increase its energy production. Surprisingly to me, it is the largest electric power-producing facility in the United States and has an installed capacity
In Other Places, Not So Much
Along Alt. U.S. 97 Between Sunnyslope WA and Peshastin WA of 6,809 MW (for those of you who know about those kinds of things).
One source about the dam asserts that power from the dam fueled industrial grow in the northwest during World War II. Another source contends all of the energy from Grand Coulee Dam went to power the Hanford Site (coming up next, stay tuned). Regardless, construction of the dam flooded 13 towns; forced the relocation of over 3,000 people, including Native Americans whose ancestral lands and tribal grave sites were flooded; and blocked the migration of salmon and other fish to their spawning grounds. The resultant reservoir is called, what else, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake. The dam's reservoir supplies water for the irrigation of 671,000 acres.
Knowing that public tours of the John W. Keys, III Pump-Generating Plant are offered at 10 AM, Noon, 2 PM and 4 PM, I was looking forward to my visit. When I entered, I was greeted immediately by a U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation attendant stationed at the information desk. I pointed to the restroom sign and said I’d be right back. Less than five minutes later, the information desk had been vacated. I stood in
front of the desk in full view of 5-6 employees who were in a back room. Folks, the door was wide open, and I can testify that there was no hanky-panky going on in there! After 3-4 minutes, I looked around for an introductory movie, found none and decided to look at the sparse collection of exhibits. The information desk was still vacant when I wandered back that direction. It had been a long day, and it wasn’t over by over a hundred miles; so I left in disgust, went outside and took some more pictures.
In the immediate area near the dam, I found a rugged, yet beautiful, landscape. South of Grand Coulee Dam on WA 155, I meandered along the cliffs towering above Banks Lake and Lenore Lake. I found one intriguing, mystifying rock formation that had me in a tizzy for almost 48 hours. If I tell you now, it would be like sneaking a peek at your birthday presents! A stop at Dry Falls prompted me to experiment with a selfie. Up til two weeks ago, I thought a selfie was … oh well, never mind. Children and spinsters might be reading! Once I neared
Othello, the scenery score dropped markedly. I was tired, hungry and began singing, “I Wanna Go Home.”
All in all, it was a very nice day. I saw some great scenery, discovered some places I’d like to revisit and found some locations to add to the “don’t bother” list. It seemed that no matter the locale, my olfactory senses were stimulated – pine, apples, potatoes, grapes, hay. Do cherries smell? There was every type of produce and fruit imaginable grown somewhere along my journey. For us carnivores, yes, I saw some cattle grazing as well.
Sunday, October 05, 2014 found me heading for the Veterans’ Memorial in Richland WA. My understanding from somewhere was that it was a Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial but no harm done. The parking lot was quite full by my expectations for a Sunday midday, and, as I walked up to the memorial, I saw a U.S. Marine in dress blues. I approached him, we exchanged Simper Fi greetings and I asked what was happening. He said a wedding should be starting momentarily. I guessed that he was the prospective groom which he confirmed. I went to the memorial for a picture or two, hung
around to photograph the beginning of the ceremony and, as I walked back to the truck, began humming, “Another One Bites the Dust.”
I then headed down the road a bit to REACH, also in Richland. I had no idea what the attraction involved but had found out at the visitor center. That gal was on top of it! A reach is a stretch of open water such as found on a river. It turns out that this REACH is all about the Hanford Reach National Monument; and this REACH, essentially, is divided into two parts. The first explains the geology of the area and how the changes produced by those geologic forces affected how man interacted with the environment he inherited. Specific local landmarks are utilized in those explanations to enhance understanding. Oh, yes, the feature I spotted on Friday that puzzled me is called columnar basalt.
The second major area explores how man has interacted with the environment since his arrival in the Hanford Reach area from fishing by the Native Americans to the utilization of steamboats on the Columbia River to the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam (and the subsequent agricultural irrigation) to the
utilization of the river and the land “to support a new technology that would transform, not just the region, but also the world.”
Enrico Fermi and a team of scientists at the University of Rome reported that they had discovered element 94 in 1934. From the time of its discovery, scientists world-wide were performing research on element 94 – uranium. Plutonium was first produced from uranium on December 14, 1940 and was chemically identified on February 23, 1941 at the University of California, Berkeley. I include these dates because we all know what then happened only 4-1/2 years later. Mind boggling! By the beginning of World War II, the U.S. government became concerned that scientists in Nazi Germany were developing a nuclear weapons program. An intensive research project on plutonium was awarded to scientists at the University of Chicago.
In September 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers placed the newly formed Manhattan Project under the command of General Leslie R. Groves, charging him with the construction of an industrial-size plant for manufacturing plutonium and uranium. Groves recruited the DuPont Company to be the prime contractor for the construction of the plutonium production complex (and Jeff Gordon thought the
Let’s Face It, I’m A Sucker For Old Buildings
Along U.S. 97 Between Ellensburg WA and Peshastin WA most irradiating thing DuPont did was make luminescent paint). DuPont recommended that the facility be located far away from the existing uranium production facility at Oak Ridge TN.
The ideal site would include a large and remote tract of land where the ground could bear heavy loads; a "hazardous manufacturing area" of at least 12 by 16 miles; space for laboratory facilities at least 8 miles from the nearest reactor or separations plant; no towns of more than 1000 people closer than 20 miles from the hazardous rectangle; no main highway, railway, or employee village closer than 10 miles from the hazardous rectangle; a clean and abundant water supply and a large electric power supply. The water supply (the Columbia River) and the electricity (the nearby Coulee Dam) are what set the Hanford Site apart.
In December 1942, Groves’ assistant, Colonel Franklin T. Matthias, and DuPont engineers surveyed potential sites. Matthias reported that Hanford was "ideal in virtually all respects," except for the farming towns of White Bluffs and Hanford. General Groves visited the site in January 1943 and established the Hanford Engineer Works, codenamed "Site W." We are now only 2-1/2 years from the end of World
War II and the site is just gaining approval.
The federal government quickly acquired the land under its eminent domain authority and some 1,500 residents of Hanford, White Bluffs, and nearby settlements were given just 30 days and a small amount of money to evacuate their homes and abandon their farms. Since the War Department had decided the development of atomic weapons had to be done in secret, none of the evictees were given a definitive reason.
After the residents of White Bluffs and Hanford moved away, the War Department began the process of recruiting workers to build nuclear reactors and the processing facilities required to extract plutonium for atomic weapons. People from all over the country came to Hanford, ultimately forming a 51,000 person workforce. Very few of the workers knew what they were building or what function these facilities would perform once they were completed.
The B Reactor at Hanford was the first large-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. It was designed and built by DuPont based on an experimental design by Enrico Fermi. Construction on B Reactor began in August 1943 and was completed on September 13, 1944. The reactor went critical in
late September and produced its first plutonium on November 6, 1944 which was then delivered to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on February 5, 1945. By April 1945, shipments of plutonium were headed to Los Alamos every five days, and Hanford soon provided enough material for the bombs tested at the Trinity site and for Fat Man – the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.
Throughout this period, the Manhattan Project maintained a top secret classification. Until news arrived of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, fewer than one percent of Hanford's workers knew they were working on a nuclear weapons project. After World War II, a short lull ensued before production was ramped up in 1947 to meet the challenges of the “Cold War.” Additional reactors were constructed next to the Columbia River as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began to develop and stockpile nuclear weapons.
In 1959, construction began on the last Hanford reactor, dubbed “N.” N Reactor was a dual-purpose facility which produced plutonium for atomic weapons as well as steam for generating electricity. It was the only dual-purpose reactor in the United States and was so advanced that President John F. Kennedy came
to Hanford in September of 1963 for its dedication.
Starting in the mid 60’s through 1971, the older reactors were shut down leaving N Reactor as the only reactor operating on the Hanford site. The B Reactor was permanently shut down in February 1968. N Reactor continued its mission of producing plutonium and electricity until 1987. Since that time Hanford’s mission has been to clean up the site after decades of weapons production activities.
In order to dissipate the heat produced by Hanford's nuclear reactors, Columbia River water entered the reactor at 30,000 gallons PER SECOND at between 50 and 70 degrees F (depending on the season) and LESS THAN A SECOND LATER left the reactor at 170 degrees F! From 1944 to 1971, pump systems drew cooling water from the river, discharged the water into large tanks known as retention basins for up to six hours to render safe those isotopes with a short half life and then returned the water back into the river. Longer-lived isotopes were not affected by this short retention time, and radiation was measured downstream as far west as the Washington and Oregon coasts. Radioactive water was released into the Columbia River
Banks Lake
Along WA 155 Between Coulee Dam WA and Soap Lake WA every day the reactors were operational. These releases were kept secret by the Federal Government. Are you as surprised as I?
In 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology entered into a legally binding accord to clean up the Hanford Site – the Tri-Party Agreement. The original 670 square mile site included buffer areas, some of which has now been returned to private use and is currently covered with orchards and irrigated fields. In 2000, large portions of the site were turned over to the Hanford Reach National Monument. The Hanford Site now occupies 586 square miles, roughly equivalent to half of the total area of Rhode Island.
While most of the current activity at the site is related to the cleanup project, Hanford also hosts the Columbia Generating Station, a commercial nuclear power plant, and various centers for scientific research and development, such as the LIGO Hanford Observatory - an interferometer searching for gravitational waves. The LIGO Observatory at the Hanford Site is one of the attractions I asked about at the visitor center. When I asked, “What is it?” the attendant shrugged her shoulders and opened her hands
Dry Falls Has A Very Interesting History
Along WA 155 Between Coulee Dam WA and Soap Lake WA – palms up. We laughed and agreed she had a homework assignment for that evening! Okay, now,
you go figure it out!
With all of that having been said, I got to visit neither facility. The B Reactor offers public tours on set dates during the spring, summer and fall but had just conducted the last tour only days before my arrival. The LIGO Observatory offers tours twice each month. Now that I have that information (which, in my own defense, was not available when I checked the web), I’ll be better able to plan my next trip through the area. Thanks to y’all who stayed with me through the nuclear holocaust. I read at least twenty times that much and, since I found it so novel and interesting, I had to share at least an overview. The time frames are what intrigued me more than any other aspect!
Monday, October 6, 2014 found me out for another scenic drive. This time, I started southbound on U.S. 395 before turning west on WA 14 at Plymouth to navigate the north bank of the Columbia River. The terrain along the Columbia is what I describe as high plains or high desert depending on
what’s in my visual field at the time or reflects my mood at the moment. LOL There are the rolling hills of the high plains and, in places, the sage brush of the high desert. One thing for sure, there are wind generators! With all the kenetic energy in the Columbia, who wouldda thunk it? After I turned north on U.S. 97, the scenery value increased, and I got my first peek at Mount Rainier. Pretty spectacular even from afar.
When I reached the intersection of U.S.97 and WA 22, I was planning to turn east but saw a sign indicating there are murals in Toppenish. Turn signal negated, straight ahead, please. My first stop was the visitor center, and I could see a few murals from its parking lot. Inside I found a great Toppenish ambassador and very helpful attendant. Paintings of many of the murals adorn the visitor center lobby so, if one is short of time, a nice sample can be enjoyed quickly in miniature form. I got a mural guide, drove around town for a bit, photographed some, enjoyed others and then headed back to Pacso. For those passing by Toppenish on I-82, I would
suggest at least a brief stop in the visitor center and a quick drive around the downtown area.
Another scenic drive made the agenda on Tuesday, October 7, 2014. This time, I was off to the east to Clarkson WA and its sister city across the state line, Lewiston ID – my destination of the previous week had I not lost my cell phone. See my Coeur d’Alene ID blog for those details. Originally, I was going to add this route to the drive from Monday but thought better of one long drive and split it into two days. It worked out well as I wasn’t pressed for time and was able to stop “to smell the roses” in Toppenish and to get my oil changed in Clarkson. And, for those in contemplation, yes, Lewiston is named for Lewis and Clarkston is named for Clark. Pretty clever!
I must admit the landscape was much the same as I had seen on Monday, except I went through several neat small communities and was treated to a couple of historic courthouses. At one point I stopped for a photo op and found a truckload of apples dumped alongside the road
– why, who knows? The further east I ventured, the fewer the orchards and the greater the wheat and alfalfa fields. Again, I cannot say the area is splendidly spectacular, but it is pretty in its own right. All in all, I had a very nice and productive day (I really needed to squeeze in an oil change before heading for Mount Rainier).
I had a nice time in Pasco WA and would like to return briefly to see the B Reactor and the LIGO Hanford Observatory. I’m confident I’ll be passing through the general area again and will have to do a little better job of planning the next time. For most tourists, there is not a week worth of activities in the Tri-Cities WA area. Truthfully, there wouldn’t be for me either except this was a reconnaissance mission of sorts and, in that regard, mission accomplished!
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