Colonel Franklin Matthias, a civil engineer, had been a close associate of General Groves since the beginning of the Manhattan Project, and later Groves would appoint him officer-in-charge at Hanford. Matthias and two Du Pont representatives looked quickly at possible sites in Montana, Oregon, and California, as well as Washington. Their first stop was western Montana, then to the vicinity of Grand Coulee Dam where they found three likely spots, but decided against them because of some problems with water availability. They saw two possibilities in eastern Oregon, and then flew north to check the Hanford area.
Groves liked and trusted the young civil engineer and reserve officer from Wisconsin, and appointed him to be officer in charge at the Hanford plutonium works. This title meant he ran the entire operation, with authority over civilian operations as well as military.
In April, 1943, he wrote an open letter to military and civilian employees: “This is a 24-hour a day, 365 1/4 days a year job. Hanford was the biggest construction job of the war even though no one ever would be able to step into the spotlight and enjoy the glamour associated with fighting troops. “
Matthias left the Army in 1946. He didn’t think atomic energy would amount to much in peacetime, and nothing appealed to him as much as the excitement of big construction jobs. Until he retired in 1973, Matthias built dams and hydroelectric projects, tunnels and powerhouses, in Brazil, Canada and the United States. Among the many dams he helped build were two on the Columbia River Wells and Wanapum, both upstream from Hanford. Wanapum held special significance, since it was named for the tribe of old Johnny Buck, an Indian he knew and liked during the Hanford years.