Guthrie traveled to these states on the promise of a part narrating a documentary about the construction of public works dams and other projects in the Pacific Northwest.

"[3] "I pulled my shoes on and walked out of every one of these Pacific Northwest Mountain towns drawing pictures in my mind and listening to poems and songs and words faster to come and dance in my ears than I could ever get them wrote down.

Gunther von Fritsch was directing a documentary about the Bonneville Power Administration's construction of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, and needed a narrator.

The original project was expected to take 12 months, but as the filmmakers became worried about casting such a political figure, they minimized Guthrie's role.

The United States Department of the Interior hired him for one month to write songs about the Columbia River and the construction of the federal dams for the documentary's soundtrack.