Nat Washington remembers…

Grant County history

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

These are memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Nat Washington was a prominent figure in the Columbia Basin. Today we begin his story about Grant Coulee. Read on.

Grand Coulee by Nat Washington

Of course, before I go into it I just want to say that I’m real proud to be a member of the Grant County Historical Society and looking around as a member of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society, I know that we, right now, have got probably the most active group in the entire state. And others have maybe got started before we did, but right now it seems to me and also from talking to other people, we’ve got a project going and are doing more as far as I can see than any other historical group in the state.

So it’s just a real pleasure to be here and I hope I can maybe add something that would be of interest and something that would be helpful as far as the tapes are concerned. In talking about a family, and I decided I would, I’ll try to weave a story around the early homesteading in the area, the characters would be my grandfather, Bushrod Washington, my Grandmother, Hemma, my Dad, Nat Washington Senior, my aunt, Aunt Peachy, rather an unusual name, it was an old family name. They gave it to her, it’s a girl’s name, and Uncle Jim.

I could make a whole talk about my mother, that many of you know, but since I’m going to be talking about homesteading, her forte was later on in education. So what I’m going to talk about mostly today is homesteading and, before homesteading, squatting on unsurveyed public domain. Before they could homestead, the land had to be surveyed, so I will be talking about squatting on unsurveyed public domain and homesteading in the Grand Coulee area right next to what is now Grand Coulee Dam in the early 1900s.

That, of course, leads right into the story of my dad in knowing that area and taking a real leading part in the early push, for the Grand Coulee Dam. I never can remember the name of the organization, but it was the first organization to push for the Grand Coulee Dam and he was president of that organization. It was known as the Columbia River Dam Irrigation and Power Association.

There were others that came along, but in the early four or five years, that was the organization that pushed for the dam and during that period of time my father was president of the organization and a real leader.

Mystery photo

Last week’s mystery photo will be revealed in next week’s Bits & Pieces column.

Viewing the International Space Station

Jim Hergert mentioned viewing the ISS to me first and then, a day later, Bob Chudomelka told me. The International Space Station passes over the Columbia Basin from time to time and it is easily seen on a clear night and even on a lightly cloudy night.

I have told several people about seeing the ISS, including my sister, Denise, and friends Rosann Green and Sheri Reynolds.

“Why don’t they teach this in school?” Denise said after seeing it for the first time.

Well, they should, but I don’t know if they do. This is why I’m presenting it here.

What to do?

When the ISS is scheduled to pass over your location, go outside on the scheduled time and check the location in the sky.

Here is an example: On Saturday at 9:46 p.m. the ISS will be visible for three minutes, with a maximum height of 35 degrees. It will appear at 33 degrees above North North West and disappears at 10 degrees above East North East.

It takes a bit of figuring to spot it the first time, but then spotting it is easy. It is the brightest object in the sky and the fastest moving object.

For future sightings, type “Spot the station” in Google and then click on Sighting Opportunities. You will need to type in your country, state and town to see the schedule. This is a fun adventure for the entire family.

More about the ISS schedule next week.