In 1941, the Bonneville Power Administration hired folksinger and songwriter Woody Guthrie to write music for a movie about the Columbia River and the benefits new hydroelectric dams would bring to the people of the Northwest. Three of those songs, “Roll On, Columbia,” “Pastures of Plenty” and “The Biggest Thing that Man has Ever Done,” appear in the BPA-produced film, “The Columbia,” which was abandoned due to the start of World War II and went unfinished until 1949. The 26 ballads Guthrie wrote for BPA in 1941 were compiled and released as a collection known today as “The Columbia River Songs.”
"The Columbia" is the most famous movie produced by BPA's Motion Picture Information division. To view the film, go to: • The Columbia: America'... . Learn about other BPA films at: www.bpa.gov/goto/Films.