Artifacts from Elwha dams to be displayed around the west [ *** GALLERY *** ]

PORT ANGELES — The Elwha River dams are a significant part of the North Olympic Peninsula’s history.

But soon, they also will be part of the nation’s tale of hydroelectric power.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is planning to place several artifacts from the two dams at four visitor centers around the west by the end of the year as displays and testaments to past conquests of the nation’s rivers.

The Elwha and Glines Canyon dams west of Port Angeles are being removed as part of a $325 million federal project to restore the Elwha River’s ecosystem and its once-famous salmon runs.

“We made what was left in the plants available to the local museums first,” said Kerry McCalman, a senior hydropower adviser with the Bureau of Reclamation.

“But we just hated to see some of that history of hydropower get scrapped.”

McCalman said the federal agency kept an 800-pound turbine, meters, gauges and various pieces of electronic equipment that will be put on display at visitor centers at Grand Coulee Dam in Eastern Washington, Hoover Dam in Nevada, Mount Elbert Forebay Dam in Colorado and Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.

“We’ll start working on getting it installed in 2012,” he said.

The artifacts are being stored in the meantime at the agency’s Eastern Washington office in Yakima.

Historic objects from the dams also can be seen locally.

The Joyce Museum at 50883 state Highway 112 has a “great assortment” of wrenches and various other tools from the dams, said Margaret Owens, museum curator.

“Some must go to the earliest times there at the dam,” she said.

The Clallam County Historical Society also has tools, including a giant wrench, in addition to benches, chairs and a control panel from the Elwha Dam.

It also has a drill press, manufactured circa 1910, that Kathy Monds, historical society executive director, said was probably used to make metal pieces needed at the Elwha powerhouse.

Monds said she hopes to display some of the larger pieces at the Museum at the Carnegie, 207 S. Lincoln St., in downtown Port Angeles later this year.