COULEE DAM – Rumors are swirling in the towns around the country’s largest hydroelectric dam that employees are being quietly laid off amid the recent slashing of the federal workforce.

In the mid 19th century, the formerly nomadic aboriginal tribes in North Central Washington began to settle along prominent waterways to trade with Canadian and European explorers and settlers.

More than a mile long, the Grand Coulee Dam is the largest concrete structure in the U.S. In the fall of 2011, dam operators agreed to open the spillway just for American Experience. "It was very ...