Formerly a center of the irrigated area, and crosses the Snake River Bridge. The confluence of the Snake and the Columbia Rivers, a half-mile away, can be seen from the bridge.

It formerly was the center of an irrigation district, which failed in the early 1930s. In 1907, it was named by the Northern Pacific Railway for Burbank Power & Water Company, which had a power-house there. The company name had been adopted by Will H. Parry of Seattle, for the famous horticulturist Luther Burbank.