North Dam
dam in Grant County, Washington

North Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam near the town of Grand Coulee in Grant County, Washington, United States. Construction of the dam began in 1946 and it was completed in 1951. Along with Dry Falls Dam about 22 mi (35 km) to the southwest, North Dam creates the reservoir Banks Lake within the ancient Grand Coulee riverbed. The lake serves as the equalizer reservoir of the Columbia Basin Project. Near the North Dam's left abutment is the entrance to the feeder canal of the project. The canal serves to either deliver water to the pump-generating plant at Grand Coulee Dam or return water to Banks Lake from the same pumped-storage plant.
The North Dam, near the town of Grand Coulee, has a maximum height of 145 feet (44 m) and a crest length of 1,400 feet (430 m). Crest elevation of both dams is 1,580 feet (480 m), and the maximum water level in Banks Lake is elevation 1,570 feet (480 m). Both North and Dry Falls dams have 10 feet (3.0 m) of freeboard for protection against wave action due to high winds.
“North Dam” enters the record as dam in Grant County, Washington. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what North, Grant and County can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“North Dam” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, North, Grant and County provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19866764. Authority coordinates are 47.941, -119.017. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946 and 1951.
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This entry incorporates text from “North Dam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.