{"id":3485,"slug":"grand-coulee-dam-coulee-dam-washington","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Grand Coulee Dam was finished in 1942 — the largest concrete structure on earth, the Columbia River's plug, built by Depression-era crews whose work powered the war's aluminum and the Hanford plutonium. The file's documented spine is the dam's scale and cost: a river stopped by human hands, workers dead in the pour.","The drowned towns and the burial ground's removal are the file's submerged register — the reservoir covering communities and the relocated cemetery, the dam's lake over the valley's dead."]},{"heading":"The workers in the pour","paragraphs":["The lore reports figures at the dam — the workers reportedly seen, the file's ghosts being the construction's own: the men who died building the dam reportedly still at the structure that holds their labor.","The workers' presence is the file's signature — a dam built by the Depression's workforce reportedly keeping its builders, the concrete holding more than aggregate."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Grand Coulee is the archive's mega-works file — the country's largest dam, built over drowned towns and dead workers, keeping figures reportedly still on the structure. The documented dam is the record; the workers are the lore of a project that cost lives.","A dam that buried towns and workers keeps its builders — the file's suggestion being that the pour's dead are in the concrete still."]}],"name":"Grand Coulee Dam","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","INDUSTRIAL","ENGINEERING"],"groups":["hauntings","legends"],"desc":"The 1942 dam—the largest concrete structure in America.","full_desc":"A site in Coulee Dam, Washington, Grand Coulee Dam is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The 1942 dam—the largest concrete structure in America. HauntHunt files it with engineering, industry and local folklore. The presences in its file go unnamed: the dam workers, the record says. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 2 legends and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Coulee Dam","county":null,"state":"Washington","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":47.968511,"lon":-118.97628,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"PNW2 batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3778,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported figures at the dam. Grand Coulee Dam's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. 'Grand Coulee' carries the account. The apparition is the file's anchor — every other report orbits it.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Grand Coulee","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3779,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The workers are reportedly seen. The accounts name only a collective — the dam workers. The reports at Grand Coulee Dam are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. Sources including 'Grand Coulee' keep the claim in circulation. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The dam workers","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Grand Coulee","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1942 dam is documented. A documented history gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that spine. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'Grand Coulee' documents the entry. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from. The report keeps its place in the record.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1942","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Grand Coulee","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Reported figures at the dam. The reports at Grand Coulee Dam are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. The report is preserved in sources like 'Grand Coulee'. As folklore it's unkillable: the story is too good, and the place too fitting, to let go.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Grand Coulee","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}},{"name":null,"summary":"The workers are reportedly seen. Grand Coulee Dam's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. The report is preserved in sources like 'Grand Coulee'. The story outranks the documentation, which is how you know it's folklore.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Grand Coulee","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The dam workers","claimed_identity":"The dam workers","verified":null,"summary":"The workers are reportedly seen. The lore files them collectively as the dam workers. The site in Coulee Dam, Washington gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. The lore has a face now: The dam workers. The file stays open on it. The account stays in the file — reported, retold, unresolved.","behavior":"The workers are reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Grand Coulee","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Grand Coulee","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Grand Coulee Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam","desc":"Dam in the US state of Washington","extract":"The Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhouses. The third powerhouse (\"Nat\"), completed in 1974 to increase energy production, makes the Grand Coulee Dam the largest power station in the United States by nameplate capacity at 6,809 MW.\nThe proposal to build the dam was the focus of intense debate during the 1920s between two groups. One group wanted to irrigate the ancient Grand Coulee with a gravity canal while the other pursued a high dam and pumping scheme. The dam supporters won in 1933, bu","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Grand_Coulee_Dam_Panorama.jpg/960px-Grand_Coulee_Dam_Panorama.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":104,"lat":47.9572,"lon":-118.9785},"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":2,"entities":1,"sources":1}}