The Green Hut in Coulee Dam provided jobs for youth

Many families have rich memories of the Green Hut Restaurant and their key employees. Clarence D. Newland built the restaurant in Coulee Dam in 1938 on property overlooking Grand Coulee Dam and brought in McKinley (Red) Sayles as the head chef, who formerly was a chef on railcar diners. Mildred Bixler ran the curio shop, along with Shorty Compton, who kept a watchful eye on the waitresses. The restaurant provided a beautiful view of thundering whitewater cascading over the Grand Coulee Dam, but it also had world renown and sometimes unusual foods: calf brains, gooseberry cobbler, and Red's aged steaks.

The restaurant provided employment to many a youth in the Coulee area. I started my first job as a dishwasher at age 14 in Red's kitchen, wearing a hair net, tattered apron and rubber gloves. One day Red came over and said something to me that I have never forgotten: "Smit, I am getting old and am tired today, but one thing I am most proud of is that I have provided a means for many of our youth here in the Coulee Dam area to attend college by providing a well-paying job."

- Bert Smith, Them Dam Writers

Image courtesy Coulee Pioneer Museum