The US Exploring Expedition in Washington (1841): Linking Puget Sound to Walla Walla
Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes brought the United States Exploring Expedition to the Puget Sound in 1841 as part of an American science initiative. During five months the seamen, artists, and scientists of the US Ex Ex conducted two explorations that took them to Grays Harbor and down the Cowlitz Corridor to Fort Vancouver. Two additional outfits crossed the Cascade Mountains to visit Fort Colville and the Protestant missions on the Spokane and Walla Walla rivers. Wilkes' greatest achievement, however, was to inform Congress about the difficulties associated with the Columbia River Bar and, conversely, the advantages of Puget Sound harbors.

Ten Dollars a Song: Woody Guthrie Sings for the BPA, 1941
In 1941 a cash-poor Woody Guthrie hired on with Bonneville Power Administration as an Information Consultant. In twenty-six days he wrote twenty-six songs about the Columbia River, about dams and, especially about the men who worked on them. It was an era when the Columbia River ran free and big government competed with local projects for control. BPA had already built Bonneville Dam and Grand Coulee Dam was close to coming online but a backlash was building. Guthrie filled the need of BPA for a folksy spokesperson to communicate on public power, irrigation, and flood control.