Kennewick and Pasco lie in a depression, created during the geologic period when the Cascades and the Okanogan Highlands were elevated and the entire plateau of eastern Washington altered. The Ed Hendler Bridge, a cable span built in 1978, replaces the former 1914-era Pasco-Kennewick Bridge and the arch-truss Blue Bridge (officially Pioneer Memorial Bridge), so named for its blue paint. It spans the river between Pasco and Kennewick on routes...

This tour once traversed an area of berry fields, alfalfa farms, and orchards, between networks of irrigation flumes and ditches. The wide reaches of the Columbia River are visible. Today, the urban growth of the Tri-Cities metropolitan area has replaced the majority of former agricultural elements in this area. The tour passes along the Northern Pacific Irrigation Company Canal, formed in 1902 and operating as part of the larger Columbia...

An irrigation boom town that settled into a farming community. An important annual event was the Old Time Picnic, held the last part of July. This has since become the Annual Sidewalk Art Show, now in its 57th year, held at Howard Amon Park. Richland was founded by Benjamin Rosencrance in 1900, a farmer who bought land from Northern Pacific Railway. A town site was platted by H. M. Amon,...

Points of Interest

Gold Coast Historic District

A high railroad embankment divides Kiona (Ind. “brown hills”) into two strikingly contrasting sections. Scattered on the hillside above the tracks between the station house and a large group of sheep pens, old weather beaten structures are framed against a background of desolate, sage-covered desert. Below the hill the buildings are sprucely painted, the houses are neat, and a few trees are growing. Originally the town was named Horseshoe Bend,...

Settled in 1909, it grew considerably in ensuing decades in population and activity, in harmony with the development of the surrounding area. The town was named for Benton S. Grosscup, who aided in securing separation of Benton County from Yakima County. Today, it is home to several wineries; this town and surrounding areas draw a fair amount of wine tourism.

Points of Interest

Benton City-Kiona Bridge

Kendall Holstein Dairy

Mile: 1

Tour runs along the north base of the Horse Heaven Hills (see Tour 7b), where sheep and cattle find good grazing grounds. At night will-o-the-wisps are frequent along this bleak and lonely road. Flame-colored, and about three feet above the ground, they are often mistaken by motorists for a single vehicular light. Sternly realistic farmers, their hands still smarting from the handle of a plow, have reported “balls of fire”...

The Yakima Valley Highway passes sheep ranches and productive orchards. The road parallels the Yakima, and a few miles from town a steep canyon looms, where the river has cut deep into the rocks.

Mile: 55

A railroad station southeast of Yakima in east central Yakima County, named by the Northern Pacific Railway when a station was established in 1910. They used the Spanish word for good or pleasant. Previously the place was called Konewock, an Indian word meaning a lush, green marshy place. For a time, it was also called Parker Bottom, then Springdale. When a post office was established in 1913 there was another...

Built by the Purdy J. Flint family around 1890 to house horses and cows. The property was purchased by Knute Olsen and his brother, Martin, in 1909. The farm has always been used for growing fruit trees such as pears, prunes and apples and is still farmed by members of the Olsen family.

It was an important point for rail shipments of fruit and was named by Northern Pacific officials for William Perry Sawyer, from whom they acquired a local right-of-way. For a time the place was called Sawyer Station. In 1919 Mr. Sawyer was described as “… one of the most prominent men in the Yakima Valley, an active champion of the good roads movement, of educational interests and of all things...

Points of Interest

Matton Cabin

W.P. Sawyer House and Orchard

A railway point north of the Yakima River, southeast of Yakima. It was named by the Northern Pacific Railway for George Donald, across whose property a local right-of-way was secured according to the Railroad List. Mr. Donald was also in the railroad business, having once served as president of a local short line railroad and was prominently known in business circles as a bank president, rancher and railroad and ditch...

Points of Interest

Donald-Wapato Bridge

Herke Hop Kiln

The tour follows the curve of the river, lined with balsam and cottonwood trees. Sagebrush struggles for existence above the irrigation ditches. Beyond are farms, orchards, and prairies hedged about by blue-brown hills. Irrigation in the Yakima Valley is entirely independent of the rainfall. Water is controlled by a simple gate and delivered by canal to the highest points on farms, whence it flows to the furrowed fields. Alfalfa and...

It was named by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1890 for William Parker, who settled there in 1864. The plat for the town was filed January 6, 1909.

The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, historically the lands of the Yakama, extended along the Cascade Mountain Range to the Columbia River and beyond. The lands are sheltered from the rains by the Cascade Mountains and extend out into the rolling foothills and along the Yakima River valley. The tribal people comprising the Yakama Nation have lived in this area since the beginning of time. They used...

This city, first settled in the 1860s, fought a losing battle with a great railroad. When, after many delays the Northern Pacific Railroad built through the valley in 1884, Union Gap (then known as Yakima City) refused to make concessions for terminals. The railroad deliberately created a new town four miles to the north, and called it North Yakima; most of the old town of Yakima City contains buildings moved...

Points of Interest

Elizabeth Louden Carmichael House

Alexander McAlister House