Columbia Basin
SLIDE 2
The Columbia Basin is surrounded by the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Fifteen miles from the
junction of those two rivers is the Yakima River. The Blue Ridge Mountains border the south of
the region. The waters are filled with salmon, sturgeons, steelhead trout, bass, whitefish. On
land, the area is home to beaver, muskrat, coyotes, raccoon, deer, skunks, cliff swallows, golden
an bald eagles, hawk and owls.
SLIDE 3
Lewis and Clark found the area difficult to travel through because of the high winds, dust, and
fine sand. Despite this, they were impressed by the supply of grouse, ducks, lizards and the clean
water and high number of fish. In 1811, a fur trader was scouting the area and saw members of
the Wanapum conducting a religious ceremony. This prompted him to call the stretch Priest
Rapids.
Early 1800s and first white settlement
SLIDE 4
In 1836, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman settled at the Walla Walla River, just forty miles east of
the junction of the Columbia and Snake rivers. They established a mission and named it
Waiilatpu, which meant ‘place of the rye glass” in Cayuse. They believed the Native Americans
of the area wanted to be converted to Christianity.
SLIDE 5
The mission converted only a small amount of Native Americans, but the mission was an
important part for immigrants on the Oregon Trail. Whitman built a farm and a gristmill, which
were burned by local tribes in 1844. Whitman moved his operation 20 miles and rebuilt them and
added a saw mill. The Waiilatpu’s population had reached 50 to 75 by 1847 and had two hundred
acres of grains and fruits. This included several orphans who had been left to the care of the
Whitmans.
SLIDE 6
The white immigrants who were passing through the area carried small pox with them. Members
of the Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes became angry when large amounts of their population
began getting sick. Whitman was a surgeon and tried to help, but the medicine he gave was
ineffective. The tribes saw that none of the whites were dying, yet two hundred Native
Americans had died after getting medicine from Whitman. This lead to tribal leaders meeting in
council and agreeing the doctor should be killed. It was a common practice in the Columbia
Plateau to kill someone who was believed to be misusing their spirit power.
SLIDE 7
Whitman had learned about threats to the settlement, but refused to evacuate. On November 29,
1847, members of the Cayuse tribe went on a killing spree. After three days, 13 white settlers,
including Whitman and his wife, were murdered. Some whites escape and others were taken
hostage. The Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Walla Walla traded blankets, shirts, guns and
ammunition for release of the hostages.
SLIDE 8
When news of the massacre reached Washington DC, Congress was prompted to create the
Oregon Territory. A group of Oregon Volunteers chased the Cayuse tribe into the mountains.
Other tribes of the area refused to join in the fight against the whites. Chief Tilaukait and five
other men surrendered themselves as principal murderers of the Waiilatpu in order to protect the
rest of the Cayuse tribe. The men were convicted and hung. The Cayuse tribe was removed to the
Umatilla Reservation in Oregon and dissolved among other tribes. Eventually their language and
identity were lost.
Late 1800s and military conflict, cattle ranchers and the railroad
SLIDE 9
(slide notes Scene of the Nez Perce arriving for the Walla Walla Treaty Council. Isaac Stevens
stands with a group of other Euro-Americans at the center of at the scene. To the left of them, a
group of Indians stands next to their horses. The Nez Perce are riding in a long curving line
around the central group.)
In 1854, Washington’s territorial governor, Isaac Stevens, met with the different tribes of the
area. He wanted to open the region to non-Indian settlement, railroad, and development. The
reservation system he outlined did not fit the traditional food gathering habits of the groupings of
the Yakima, Cayuse, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Nez Perce and other smaller bands. This caused
years of armed conflict between.
By 1858, military intervention, led by Colonel George Wright, crushed the resistance and forced
tribal leaders to agree to the reservation system. Even once the military prevention of white settle
was lifted, few homesteaders were interested in flat desert land. The heat, lack of wood, little rain
fall and no railroad, forced most homesteaders to continue to travel.
After gold was discovered in nearby British Columbia and present day Idaho, prospectors came
to the Columbia Basin. No gold was discovered and no growth in population. The discovery of
gold in the Northwest did lead to large cattle ranchers establishing in the area. The ranchers were
successful despite some winters being harsh so harsh that ranchers lost three quarters of their
stock.
When a new railroad was built between Spokane and the Columbia Basin, settlement of the area
increased. These new settlers wanted to erect fences and farm. This would bring an end to the
vast cattle range. The railroad company built a bridge over the Columbia River they chose Pasco
and Kennewick (there is a Native American word Kin-I-Wak which means grassy place). After
the bridge was completed, the railroad company tried to draw people to the area with a large
scale advertising complain. The advertisements boasted of the temperate climate, long growing
season, little rain fall, rives and cheap land. Kennewick was referred to as the Italy of
Washington.
The campaign was successful and the Columbia Basin began to fill with settlers. Due to the lack
of rainfall, there were organized irrigation efforts. Ditches soaked up a quarter of the water,
wooden canals cracked from the sun, blowing weeds and sands clogged ditches. A financial
panic in 1893 caused all but one of the irrigation companies to close down. All the farmer’s
cooperatives went bankrupt. Land prices dropped, local business close and the future of the area
looked bleak.
Early 1900s
SLIDE 10
In 1902, the Newland Reclamations Act was passed authorizing the government to help directly
with irrigation of the area. A population boomed was followed by land prices rising. The
assembled community named their town Richland, in honor of the fertile soil and of a pioneering
rancher named Nelson Rich.
Cornelius Hanford, a judge in Seattle organized a group of investors to form the Priest Rapids
Irrigation and Power Company. They bought land at White Bluffs and at an undeveloped site six
miles down the river. This would become the town of Hanford.
The area of Richland, White Bluffs, and Hanford experienced a boom between 1907 and 1910.
Even greater population growth occurred when new railroad lines would connect the area to
Spokane, Portland, Seattle, Chicago. Milwaukee, and St. Paul.
During the First World War there was a food shortage raising the price of agricultural
commodities. This would benefited the people of the Columbia Basin. The period between the
two world wars was a time of decline for the area. The drought of the 1920s and the Great
Depression devastated the region’s economy. Over half of the acres in the area were abandoned
or foreclosed resulting in large dust storms. In 1934, President Roosevelt came to the area and
pledged money to build a dam at Grand Coulee. This would not only provide irrigation canals
and hydroelectric power, but also extensive employment.
In 1942, the navy selected Pasco as a pilot training base, and three other parts of the region. The
army placed three bases in or near the Columbia basin between 1941 and 1942. Although these
added prosperity to the region, the area was not highly populated or developed. The centrally
located counties of Benton and Franklin only had a population of 19,000 people.
In December 1942, Leslie Grove and Fritz Matthias chose the area to be used in the Manhattan
project. On March 6, 1942 the area residents were told they would have to leave their home. The
next issue of the Kennewick Courier-Reporter proclaimed “RICHLAND, WHITE BLUFFS
AND HANFROD AREA TO BE TAKEN BY HUGE WAR INDUSTRY...MASS MEETINGS
CALLED AT RICHLAND TO EXPLAIN THE WAR PROJECT OT RESIDNETS.”
The residents of the area where surprised and also confused as to reasons the military wanted
such difficult land. When they attended the meetings they were only told the project was top
secret.
With the establishment of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, all in the towns of White Bluffs,
Hanford and Richland was bought out by the government. All residents were displaced. The
town of Richland remained while White Bluffs and Hanford were destroyed. The town of
Kennewick remained privately owned. During this time the cities of Kennewick and Richland
experienced massive growth as thousands of people came to the area to work at Hanford Nuclear
Reservation. Kennewick grew as fast as Richland and eventually became the largest of the TriCities.
Richland transitioned into a government town and a huge construction project commenced.
Homes, apartment buildings and government offices need to be built quickly. This meant that a
limited set of blueprints were used and multiple copies of the same house were built.