I had an attack of insomia and finally got up at 2 a.m. to write about Hell's Canyon Dam, my perspective at least.

 

Brownlee Dam was built in 1959 and Oxbow dam was built in 1961, all built by Idaho Power Company with contractor Morrison Knudsen. Hell's Canyon Dam was built in 1967. Dad worked on bits and pieces of all three dams and we lived in various places along the Snake River as kids.

My main memory is being in the car as Dad drove and being impressed by the muddy roads, the very large equipment used in construction and being mildly terrified at how much DOWN there was down there. Golly what a gully.

Dad had no problem hitching the Great Lakes ten wide up to a big old truck and hauling it to where ever he needed to be on a job site. However the move to Hell's Canyon defeated his skills and he called on Shorty Tallman to come hitch and haul and squeeze into nearly impossible sites on very high places. He moved us twice, once above Brownlee and once again half way near Oxbow, trailer sites were impossible any further along and there were trailers squeezed precariously into every nook and cranny.

On weekends Dad would take us for a tour of the build. We drove below Oxbow clear past Robinette which was a tiny hamlet that was flooded when Hell's Canyon was built. We were in awe of the steep Kleinschmidt grade, went up the site of the canyon in a a series of switchbacks to Paulette Ranch and the only other route was by Helicopter or 300 miles via the long way around.

One time Mom had to take Dad something maybe his lunch. She actually had to drive halfway up a side hill that was about 45 to 50 degrees. She got us up okay but turning around and getting back down was quite an adventure. She made us get out of the car when she turned it around. She confessed later to being susceptible to a GI hemorrhage as a result. Mom didn't get hysterical very often, I can only think of one other time that involved a breakdown in northern Arizona in the middle of no dang where. She thought we were going to die and had hysterics. Eventually some guys drove up who just happened to have a welding rig and Dad welded some repairs on the springs of the camper and away we went to Flagstaff and got back to Idaho with ten bucks left over. Typical Berglund adventure.

We spent a couple of hot summers in that canyon and found wild apricots to pick and Elderberries were plentiful, also rattlesnakes but never actually saw one. One time there was a summer storm and the lightning was awesome, if you were quick you could almost see lightning strike from one side of the canyon to the other. 

The last trailer park Daggett's I believe, was located next to a stream, not quite deep enough to swim in but one weekend the men got together t0 throw enough junk and wooden doors in to partially dam up the creek, hmmm Daggett's Creek now that I think of it, and we swam until we knew where every submerged rock lay. Mom took moving pictures on her wind up 8 mm Brownie and we watched them run backwards many many times laughing uproariously at the kids diving out of the water back onto the rocks.

We also would drive to Halfway, Oregon occasionally and skirt through to Baker, Ontario and home as a scenic tour. We probably visited the Barnes kids, Vicky and Shorty in Haines. There was a hot springs there and one summer Richard and I stayed with them for swimming lessons and I got a card for some level, one test was jump in the deep end and go like crazy for the swallow end. Good sunburn that year, peeled like a snake. Halfway was also where I got a bad case of blisters from playing on the Monkey bars at a local school, the blisters broke and that was the end of monkey bars.

I remember a lunch that mom got in the habit of feeding us, it was peanut butter and grape jam when mixed together looked remarkably like engine grease. So we called them grease sandwiches and we drank Pepsi to peel the peanut better from the roofs of our mouths.

I also learned the fine art of packing the trailer for a big move. Didn't consist of much, Mom stuffed pillows inside all the cupboards, taped them shut, locked the doors and away we went. I remember her commenting about a glass she had left on the counter that did not fall over during the move.

We admired the big trucks that were dirt movers. Dad called them Yukes and were from the UK hence Yukes. We bugged him constantly about getting us an inner tube so we could make it into a swimming hole which may have prompted the Daggett Creek swimming hole. We were by no means the only kids there, lots of young families.

Also I learned a couple of things while living in Hell's Canyon a neighbor taught me how to sew bound button holes, there after any and all doll's clothes promptly got bound button holes. I believe the same neighbor also gave Mom her recipe for Raisin Spice Bar cake which became a stable for the family table from then on.

I was living California when Hell's Canyon Dam was finished in 1967. I was visiting, Dad had taken off on a ten day hitch but forgot his work books. So Mom and I hopped in the car and schlepped the boots to him it was very dark by the time we got back. Dark I tell you.

If any of my siblings remember anything else, do post.  Thanks. 

PS:   Many years later went on a road trip to the Canyon, stopped for lunch at the parking spot at Hell's Canyon. Parks and Recreation would have spotted the young marijuana plants just popping out of the ground, no idea if they made it through the summer.