On March 21, 1960, Grant County commissioners officially create Grant County Port District No. 7, known as Port of Grand Coulee, via proclamation. Dover Perry, Jack Hilson and Dave Rowe are declared to be the Port's first commissioners, in the same proclamation. Voters in the Grand Coulee and Electric City area had passed a ballot measure on March 8, 1960, approving the Port's creation. The Port will subsequently build the Grand Coulee Dam Airport along the shores of Banks Lake. The airport will be dedicated in 1974 and will become the Port's main focus. In 1985, the Port will lease a parcel of land to the Banks Lake Golf and Country Club. A nine-hole course will be built and in 2000 expanded to 18 holes. In 2011 the Port's goals for the future include developing a business or industrial park.
The Port's original mission was to increase both transportation and recreation possibilities in this part of Grant County, a region that had been radically transformed two decades earlier by the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. The Port of Grand Coulee, also known as Grant County Port District No. 7, soon came to consist of two major components.
Grand Coulee Dam Airport
The first is a parcel along Banks Lake, which the Port developed in the 1960s into a turf landing strip. Beginning in 1972, the Port improved the airport and paved the runway. The airport was officially dedicated as the Grand Coulee Dam Airport in June 1974.
At the time, its runway was 3,000 feet long and 50 feet wide. In 1980, the runway was extended to its present size of 4,199 feet long and 75 feet wide. The runway, along the shores of Banks Lake, is paved in asphalt. From the beginning, the Bureau of Reclamation has been one of the airport's major users. The Bureau operates the Grand Coulee Dam and the massive irrigation projects in the region and is one of the region's major employers.
In recent years the Port has installed a small airport office, which also serves as pilot's lounge. The airport is managed by Robert Babler. The airport also includes eight hangars. Two of those hangars were added after the Port cleared more land near the airstrip in 2009 and 2010. There is presently space available for six additional hangars.
Toward an Industrial Park
The Port's long-term plans call for creating an industrial park near the airport, as a way to spur economic development in the region.
"That's what we're working toward, but it has been difficult because we're so isolated," said Kary Byam, who has served as the Port's auditor since 1987. "What we would love to do is get some small businesses to move in there" (Byam).
Golf and a Hope for Homes
The Port's second major land holding is a parcel outside of Electric City leased to the Banks Lake Golf and Country Club, the major golf course in the region. The first nine holes of the course were built in 1985. In 2000, work began on the second nine holes, and it became an 18-hole course, carved into the massive basalt canyons of the Grand Coulee region.
The Port owns about 132 acres of the course -- covering about 15 of the holes. The other three holes are on Bureau of Reclamation land.
The Port also owns another 76 acres adjacent to the course. This land is presently undeveloped, but a residential development company called Banks Lake Residential LLC took an option on the property in 2006, with the intention of putting in 72 home sites. About nine acres of the property front onto the golf course. The project stalled because of the recession-caused real estate downturn. But in 2010 the Port agreed to extend the option another two years.
"We gave them two more years and hopefully the economy will get better," said Larry Maier, a Port commissioner since 2003 (Maier).
