Although the Columbia River carries a huge volume of water through eastern Washington, rainfall in the area is low and the land is very dry. Columbia River Project planners dreamed of a system of dams and channels which would give farmers a steady supply of water to grow wheat, sugar beets and other crops. After the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1942, government surveyors determined that nearly 1.1 million acres of land could be irrigated by the waters in the reservoir. In May 1948, the first water entered the new irrigation system.

This photo was taken near Pasco on May 15, 1948 when the first water from Grand Coulee Dam entered the Columbia River Project's irrigation system.

Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): May 18, 1948
Written on original envelope: Columbia Basin Irrigation Project (first water on soil at Pasco)