15 Things You May Not Know About Grant County

15 Things You May Not Have Known About Grant County

1. Grant County is Washington State’s fourth largest county by area at 2,660 square miles.

2. Grant County was carved out of the eastern and southern portion of Douglas County.

3. As late as 1906, Grant County was so over-populated with wild horses that cowboys were hired to drive them away or capture them for shipment back east.

4. When Grant County was created, its most populous town was Wilson Creek with over 600 residents.

5. Banks Lake is an artificial lake 27 miles in length and filled with water pumped from Grand Coulee Dam.

6. The 30,000 acre Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, sitting partially in Grant Count just south of the Potholes Reservoir, was created from irrigation runoff. Normally, this area would be too dry and arid for these animals to live there.

7. In the early 1940’s, roughly 45% of Grant County’s available workforce was involved in construction, much of that having to do with Grand Coulee Dam.

8. At the end of the 1960’s, approximately one fifth of all the irrigated land in Washington State was located within the borders of Grant County.

9. Grant County operates two dams on the Columbia River; Wanapum Dam and Priest Rapids Dam.

10. Grant County’s Larson Air Force Base, in Moses Lake, closed in 1965 and reopened for public use in 1966. Now known as Moses Lake International Airport, it has one runway large enough that it is officially an alternate landing strip for the Space Shuttle. Boeing pilots, among other companies, often participate in flight training at Moses Lake’s airport.

11. As of the year 2000, Grant County had approximately 27 people per square mile residing within its borders.

12. The Moses Lake Sand Dunes, in southern Grant County, consist of over 3,000 acres of recreational sand for public use.

13. The 2003 estimated population of Grant County was 78,691.

14. The Potholes Reservoir, in southern Grant County, gets its name from the fact that it is actually several small lakes in close proximity. These lakes are actually just a series of depressions in the terrain that have been filled with water from the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project.

15. Grant County was named after former President and Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant.

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