White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1934-08-09
PERFECT DAY AND
WELL-OILED ROADS
ADD TO PLEASURE

The sun was high In the sky but
it was cool and clear with light
breeze smelling deliciously of rain
washed sage as we neared Grand
Coulee. Everything had holiday air.
Flags were flying from every service
station and across the streets of the
towns, and everyone who had stayed
home was dressed in Sunday best.
walking around, waiting for the Presi-
dent to go by. Banners in Soap Lake
and Ephrata screamed in red letters
for the high dam, but their message
somehow seemed negligible in compar-
ison with the words, "The President is
coming"
Soap Lakes streets and sidewalks
were janmed with waiting people. A
carnival and fair were in progress and
added to the air of hustle and gayety.
AS we went through, a few cars passed
us, headed for Ephrata where they
would join the Presidential procession.
At every corner were state patrol
men, mounted on their motorcycles,
directing traffic and ready for any
emergencies.
It is about fifty miles from Soap
Lake to Grand Coulee and they are
miles of unexpected beauty. The oiled
highway followed the border of Soap
Lake to its end and from then on
there were a series of small lakes
overwhelmingly lovely in the early
morning sun. Lake Lenore and Blue
Lake, over which sea gull hung, and
in which the encircling hills were re-
fected in a mauve and lavender beauty
beyond description, unreal somehow,
looking like piece of changeable
taffeta. A long climb and then we were
at Dry Falls. Newspaper photographs
had given us the impression only OF
a rocky cliff and a hole in the ground
effect. It wasn't until we looked down
on horses grazing in ta1t emerald green
swamp grass-horses that looked about
as large as half grown turkeys-that
we fully realized what sheer drop
the once tumbling waters had cut. The
painted with the fiat, bright green
paint used on park benches. We drove
back onto the highway and on toward
Coulee. The road was perfect, we'll
graded, wide, oiled; not bit OF dust
in the air in spite of the fact that
thousands of cars had preceded us over
it during the space of three or -four
hours. The rock formations were fas-
chatting. Huge out-croppings with
evergreens clinging anonymously tc
them. What a paradise for biologists
We began to pass little signs adver-
Using Electric City, the town OF the
future, city of homes, and flnall,
we recognized it as one of the man!
groups of half a dozen settlements
Little groups of buildings, implanted
squatting at the sides of the road, eacl
one with service station and a lant
Office bedecked with flags Turing tn
passers-by with pictures of irrigated
acres when the dam will be completed
In the last five miles traffic becam
much heavier, but it was all goinl
one way, was dotted with patrolmen
and there was complete absence o
dust so driving was still no task. Sud
denly we topped rise and there it al
was, spread out before us. We coul'
see, then, what Grand Coulee is
huge contorted bowl with the river
small and blue at such distance
threading its way along the bottom
And automobiles and people swarmin
on it's sides like ants. A sharp turn t
the left and our car was parked wit
acres of others on top of hill fror
which the brush had been pulled an
burned 1t looked miles down to tn
alnpitheatre, but actually it was n
more than three steep blocks down
Jack rabbit trail. We went immediatel
to the enclosure In front of the plat
form where the President was to spea
and presented our invitations. We wer
afraid that if we stopped to eXplor
he might arrive before we were SETTLED
as it was past ten. We were thrille
to get seats in the second row of tn
center section, as we had had no HOP
of being so close. Except for barker
selling iced drinks everything was ver
quiet The crowd was waiting, expet
tant. Overhead huge red monoplar
roared and circled. The hills surround
ing the ampitheatre were solid wit
people sitting on newspapers or Law
rock among the sagebrush, like a
enormous flock of sheep at rest.
A group of twenty army tents ha
been set up in the bowl for emel
gencies, and nurses and stretch'
bearers mingled with the crowd, bl
there were very few calls for the
services. It was still cool and the arer
was SO large that for all of the tho'
sands of people milling around 1t ST
was not crowded.
After a few numbers by the Graz
County Band, broadcasting was begt