(above: The Transcontinental Excursion pauses at Inspiration Point) There was once a Harvard professor named William Davis who had the idea to host what he called a Transcontinental Excursion in the year 1912. Based on a model of the learning tours done in Europe, Davis planned to get a group of various types of scientists... Continue Reading →

Slowly, the horse and rider made their way up the mountain trail of the cascades. There was no one to break up the sounds of nature. The horse was loaded with all kinds of odd looking packs and bundles, strapped to it back behind the saddle rested an old wooden camera tripod. The sun was... Continue Reading →

And many people did. In the 1950s there was a gift shop at Dry Falls where you could get a bottle of soda to cool off on a hot summer drive. These pictures from an old Dry Falls landfill show part of the selection. The bottles are all thicker and with ornate glass. The logo... Continue Reading →

My mom, when she was 11 lived in Sun Lakes with her parents who owned the store / gas station. One day, when the old man wasn't looking my Mom and her friend snatchd a couple of his half smoked cigar butts out of the ashtray and made a grand escape on their peddle bikes... Continue Reading →

For a while my Grandparents, Oral and Jean Willard, ran a gas station down in Sun Lakes, on the shores of Park Lake by the swimming area. It was the 1950s and my mother was a pre-teen. She didn't like the coulee region at first and missed the trees of Springdale and the home ranch... Continue Reading →

The glorious Grand Coulee Scenic Highway was probably a marketing ploy devised to push the much needed highway on taxpayers, tourists and uneducated politicians. The Scenic Highway itself comprised of three different highways; starting as a branch off the North Central Highway near Soap Lake, it ran down the lower coulee past Sun Lakes, up... Continue Reading →

Let's take a quick trip down the Speedball Highway from Coulee City to Mason City on a warm September night in 1946. The Speedball Highway was contracted around 1933 and was in construction and use by 1934.The highway ran up the coulee from Coulee City to the bridge in Coulee Dam, and originally was constructed... Continue Reading →