Currents and Undercurrents: An Administrative History of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, Washington

McKay, Kathryn

For thousands of years, the upper Columbia River sustained the people living within its watershed. Early people established camps and homes along the river, followed in more recent times by others who also built houses and communities along the banks of the wide, flowing river. By 1941, however, the federal government had dammed the river at the north end of Grand Coulee, creating a man-made reservoir named Lake Roosevelt that inundated homes, farms, and businesses and disrupted the lives of many. But government officials also envisioned the new lake's potential to attract visitors and residents for a new purpose — recreation — and National Park Service representatives began to plan for recreational use of the area. Park Service employees of the 1940s, from people in the field on up to the Director himself, argued the merit of including "national recreational areas" within the National Park System. After considerable hesitation and disagreement, the Park Service determined that Lake Roosevelt was nationally significant, paving the way for it to become a National Recreation Area (NRA). Although Congress never enacted specific authorizing legislation to create the park, it passed generic legislation that gave the Park Service authority at the NRA. In addition, Congress has recognized the unit with line-item appropriations since 1949, and in 1970 it became a unit of the National Park System. Many challenges face the managers of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Some result from the boundaries of the park, established in the late 1930s and modified in later years. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) acquired all land above the water, which is at 1,290 feet at full pool, up to the "taking line" at the 1,310-foot contour line; this strip is often referred to as the freeboard lands. Because it was often easier and in some cases cheaper simply to purchase entire parcels rather than partial tracts of land, the boundary line for the NRA is irregular and sometimes goes above the 1,310-foot taking line. The width of the shoreline strip administered by the Park Service thus varies from about fifty to several hundred feet, depending on the steepness of the slope.

Currents and Undercurrents: An Administrative History of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, Washington

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