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Voters face a pivotal election to establish the Port of Kennewick and authorize the purchase of a dock and the dredging of the Columbia River.
“Port District sounds all right but it has proven disasterous experience elsewhere and its adoption should be carefully considered.”
Citizens to vote on the formal establishment of a Port District, setting the boundaries for future commerce along the Columbia River.
“It being the intention to include within the said boundary lines all of the shore lands along the Columbia River subject in any manner to private ownership.”
Benton County joins a statewide landslide for prohibition, leaving only two 'wet' counties in Washington.
“As went Benton county, so went the state.”
Thousands gather at the Kennewick waterfront to celebrate the opening of the Celilo Canal with a symbolic union of the Columbia and Snake rivers.
“The waterway is now open to continuous navigation from where it mingles its foregathered waters with the flood of the Pacific ocean, to where the Clearwater joins with the Snake at Lewiston, Ida.”
An investigation unfolds after a fatal shooting on a rail line near Vista, leaving a brakeman dead and authorities hunting for an unknown gunman.
“A rumor to the effect that Burns also received a fractured skull from a blow on the head is not substantiated by Dr. Crosby.”
A heated civic editorial argues that Kennewick must build a port district to compete with neighboring towns like Pasco for the future of Columbia River commerce.
“Trade is going to seek those centers where it can find accommodation. It is going across the river to Pasco, or down the river to Attalia or Wallula, or that town which is alive to its opportunities.”
Local leaders are locked in a standoff with the state government over salmon rights during food shortages.
“If he has a taste for fish he has the privilege of paying the fisherman’s, the canner’s, the jobber’s, the retailer’s and the carrier’s profit, eating it out of a can, and paying the cost of the can and the label on the outside of it.”
A catastrophic flood wipes out the recently constructed Richland bridge and isolates valley farmers as the Yakima River surges past its banks.
“The current rapidly ate its way out around the abutments at the northern end of the bridge and undermined the middle pier.”
Farmers and business leaders urge the governor to curb I.W.W. activity as agricultural workers demand an eight-hour day and higher wages.
“In no case is the wage to fall below $60 a month, exclusive of board and lodging.”
Voters prepare for a high-stakes bond election to fund the irrigation of 50,000 acres, warning that defeat spells doom for the district.
“An adverse decision at the polls will be the death of the district.”
A head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train on the outskirts of Kennewick results in mass wreckage but miraculous survival.
“Had the freight been running at the speed the trains usually do down the grade many lives would have been lost and Kennewick would have been a hospital last night.”
A Kennewick teacher resigns under pressure after wearing a Red Cross sweater, sparking a community-wide investigation into her loyalty during the Great War.
“It is just such incidents as these that are capitalized by pro-German propagandists and used to hinder the work of the American Red Cross.”
A local editor criticizes Kennewick's lack of public recreation, arguing that if the town doesn't provide a place for youth to play, they will inevitably cross the river to find it.
“We are offering them plenty of peaches to pick—plenty of work but no play.”
After years of frustration, landowners push for an official irrigation district, hoping to finally turn arid plateaus into productive farms.
“The water supply is one of evolution with the district.”
Voters prepare to decide if resident aliens should be allowed to own property within city limits.
“The ownership of lands by aliens, other than those who in good faith have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, is prohibited in this state.”
The Supreme Court rules against Benton County commissioners for 'bad faith' in a courthouse bond dispute.
“The time is passed when the will of the people can be lightly overridden and the rights of the voter and taxpayer ignored by irresponsible or dishonest officials.”
Drillers pause to case off 400 feet of water, 85 people picnic at the well, and a Yakima promoter promises a franchise — and maybe oil — by summer.
“The existence of gas and oil in the Columbia Basin is no dream.”
Federal engineers release a comprehensive plan to tame the Yakima River, setting the stage for decades of regional irrigation development.
“After stating that the natural flow of the Yakima river has all been appropriated, the report says that with storage the three projects following are feasible.”
A legal fight over irrigation rights moves from local courts to the federal circuit, testing whether government officers can be overruled by state injunctions.
“The question generally involved concerns the facts as to whether Lynch and Redman, in their position and duty as government officers can, in a case of this kind, be ruled by injunction of a state court.”
A bitter civic argument erupts over a harbor expansion plan, pitting proponents of organized public infrastructure against critics who fear taxpayer-funded overreach.
“The port district law was enacted for the express purpose of enabling municipalities to wrest control of their water terminals from private monopolies.”
A railroader and a brakeman are gunned down in a mid-transit robbery that leaves investigators baffled.
“Certainly no criticism can attach to either Dr. Crosby or the Pasco physicians for not discovering the nature of the wound. There were absolutely no indications that the bullet had entered the body.”
Mayor Sherk forms a Vigilance Corps to monitor local residents for signs of 'disloyalty' toward the U.S. war effort.
“There is no delightful twilight zone of neutrality where a man can rest on the indifference of a passive citizenship and watch the war from the sidelines.”
A winter deluge causes catastrophic damage to Kennewick’s infrastructure, livestock, and irrigation systems.
“It was at the risk of his own life and those of his men, that H. O. Adkins saved several head of cattle which were swum to safety over the top of a barbed wire fence.”
Steamers Teal and Empire meet in the new waterway basin, signaling a new era for Kennewick trade.
“The passing of these two steamers marked the real beginning of a new epoch in water transportation.”
A young man narrowly escapes death after being beaten and pushed from a moving train during an attempted robbery near Kennewick.
“They attempted to throw him between the tender and train so that he would be run over so as to make it appear an accident.”
Kennewick's fruit growers faced a financial disaster as over-ripe shipments caused market prices to collapse in the Midwest.
“The bulk of the peaches were over-ripe and the heavy shipments from Colorado and Utah caused the market to go to pieces.”
A proposed county-wide tax revolt threatens to halt road building in Benton County, sparking a fierce debate over rural equity and urban development in 1914.
Federal officials successfully defend Indian fishing rights in a legal skirmish against the state game warden.
“The court room was crowded with Indians, who, together with Don M. Carr, superintendent of the Yakima reservation, and a force of state game wardens were interested spectators at the trial.”
When Pasco promoters pushed stockyards at Ainsworth, Kennewick’s editor saw a railroad, a packer and owners of “practically worthless” land getting a public subsidy. He wanted no part of it.
“No, Kennewick does not wish to qualify as Pasco’s rival in this instance. Kennewick does not desire to put forth any effort to find a sale for anybody’s barren real estate.”
In his 1916 annual report, county agriculturalist Lee M. Lampson chronicled a quiet revolution in Benton County — homegrown seed, revived sugar beets, cooperative buying, and the federal employment office that finally matched a thousand strawberry pickers to the ripening crop.
“As a result of the agency being here to handle the labor problem, there was at no time throughout the season of 1916 a congestion of labor or a shortage of help to handle the crop.”
As automobiles begin to dominate the streets, City Hall codifies the right of way, speed limits, and the requirement for headlights and mufflers.
“Pedestrians shall have the right of way at street intersections and crossings over all vehicles.”
A routine day of farm repairs turned into a brush with death when a derrick cable made contact with a power line near Finley.
“The current of electricity went down the cable, burning Mr. Thurner’s thumb and forefinger.”
A gasoline explosion at a Kennewick dry-cleaning shop reminds residents of the dangers lurking in their businesses.
“The air was surcharged with gas. Mr. Holloway believes he must have stepped on a match head; suddenly, there was an explosion and flames shot from the floor to the ceiling.”
A young man searching for his friend discovers his mangled body by the railroad tracks.
“The mangled and lifeless body of Steve Kinsley, lying alongside the N. P. railroad tracks a mile this side of Vista, was the gruesome reward of an all-night search.”
A paperwork blunder in Kennewick’s precinct boundaries leaves residents of three major additions accidentally disenfranchised, forcing a two-month delay for harbor elections.
“Men living in these additions occupy the unique position of being disenfranchised, in that there is no place where they can either legally register or vote.”
A passing locomotive sparked a blaze in the sagebrush that nearly razed the town's lumber yards and warehouses.
“Fortune favored Kennewick for once, surely.”
A family carriage is overturned near the Columbia River after being set upon by a group of rowdy horsemen.
“They were run into by a gang of smart kid cowboys coming up from behind... whooping and yelling at the top of their voices.”
As pear trees wither overnight, local orchardists warn that only immediate, coordinated action can save the region's agricultural heart.
“Put a scare head clear across the front page, because I want to tell you the orchard industry of this section is facing disaster right now.”
Reader C. Puderbaugh challenges the local economic status quo, questioning why Kennewick residents pay ten times the price for electricity compared to taxpayers in Tacoma or Cleveland.
“Poor Kennewick will pay 10 cents per kilowatt with plenty of water near by!”
In 1917, a self-appointed 'Vigilance Corps' in Kennewick pressured a local Lutheran pastor to suspend classes, fearing the teaching of the German language during wartime.
“The American born must forget the birth of the foreign born and the foreign born must help the native born to forget that he is aught but an American citizen.”
Kennewick berry farmers reject local management, insisting on professional oversight from outside the region to stabilize the market.
“I’m ashamed of the growers of Kennewick and I wish I were a Billy Sunday that I might put the fear of God into your hearts.”
As Washington State approaches prohibition in 1916, local bar owners prepare to trade spirits for sodas, card tables, and light lunches.
“I have lived in Kennewick a good many years... I have received some very attractive offers from liquor houses who want me to start in business in some of the wet states, but Kennewick is my home.”
Kennewick strawberry growers attempt to end internal price-cutting by forming a unified marketing union.
“The bug bores under the ground and saps the vitality of the plant; the man bores into the very heart of the marketing situation and saps its life.”
As Europe descends into the First World War, Kennewick residents with roots in Germany, Belgium, and Britain watch the news with growing anxiety and divided loyalties.
“The anxiety of the few who will answer, in spirit if not in person, their native country’s call to colors has given a fuller significance to the history that is being written on the other side of the Atlantic.”
As anti-German sentiment spikes during World War I, a local resident uses a visiting lecturer’s book to argue against hate, while drawing a sharp line at those who support the Kaiser.
“I hope every German from Richland to Hover will be out to hear him and I know that Kennewick will prove by its attendance that we have no ill will towards the German people.”
While high winds and dust storms battered the valley, Kennewick's volunteer solicitors hit the streets to push the city $10,000 past its wartime bond quota.
“The weather man is a slacker and a pro-German propagandist, but despite the fact that for the last two days he has sent a dust storm over the valley, he has not curbed the enthusiasm of the Liberty Loan workers.”
When a rabid animal terrorized a local farmyard, the community mobilized with every firearm in their possession to track it down.
“Like the Minute men of old, the farmers appeared as if by magic armed with 22s, 32s, 38s, 45-70s shot guns, field guns, siege guns and pistols.”
Washington’s Department of Agriculture launches a statewide 'Poison Month' to combat rabies by eliminating predatory animals.
“The bounty and the trapper system will be two very effective weapons in combating the coyote evil, and will undoubtedly greatly lessen the number of coyotes.”
Voters set to decide the future of local commerce by forming a new Port District in a special March election.
“It being the intention to include within the said boundary lines all of the shore lands along the Columbia River subject in any manner to private ownership.”
When a man was beaten and robbed behind a local bar, a civilian known as 'Red' grabbed the police chief's spare revolver and hunted the suspect down.
“Arming himself with this he gave chase and brought one of the offenders to bay in L. G. Moore’s barn.”
A major administrative agreement aims to consolidate state school lands from forest reserves to boost timber revenue.
“This agreement... brings the state into possession of approximately a half million acres of land which... will be worth approximately twelve millions of dollars.”
Benton County's prosecuting attorney tells the commissioners he is 'prejudiced in favor of Prosser' in the court house bond fight — and the Kennewick editor says a public official has no right to a favorite side.
“We grant Mr. Fristoe, private citizen, the right to be prejudiced in favor of Prosser as against Kennewick, but we most certainly deny Mr. Fristoe, prosecutor, the right to be prejudiced in anybody's favor as against anybody else.”
A power and irrigation utility takes the state to court to fight regulated water rates, signaling a long battle over regional infrastructure.
“The plaintiff corporation shows that the cost of furnishing service to the water users for the season of 1915 was $35,000, and that the total charge was $24,562, leaving a deficit of over $10,000.”
A leading activist warns local women that the 'Brewers' Bill' is a veiled threat to the state's hard-won prohibition laws.
“The brewers have created the impression that the law is not changed... It is in the hope that this false impression can be maintained until after election, that the brewers are conducting a 'gumshoe' campaign.”
State officials abandon their opposition to federal reclamation investigations, clearing the way for government-led irrigation projects.
“One of the two obstacles mentioned by Chief Engineer Newell in his Yakima speech is now removed and government irrigation may soon become an accomplished fact in the Yakima valley.”
With the massive Celilo Canal project complete, Kennewick editors question whether river commerce will become a reality or remain a political mirage.
“The history of the Celilo canal has been written in the minute books of commercial bodies, but its future will be recorded in the ledgers of the farmer and the merchant.”
A Seattle engineer argues that consolidating regional power generation in Kennewick could slash electricity rates.
“All of the 25 or 30 towns on the lines of the Pacific Power & Light Co. can be supplied with electricity from one large central generating plant located at Kennewick, at a less rate than they are now paying.”
Railroads impose an embargo on perishable shipments in Kennewick as a national strike deadline looms for Labor Day.
“If the railway strike comes, Kennewick's location on the Columbia River and the advantages of waterway transportation is going to be very forcibly emphasized.”
A trade excursion rolls into town for four hours of speeches, store visits, and open-river boosterism — with the mayor, the railroads, and a 'cocktail' cherry orchard all in on the fun.
“He emphasized the fact that the Portlanders were then in the only town on the Columbia river from which it is possible to return to their own homes over any one of three railroads or by a river steamer.”
Packers and stockmen from four states organize a $100,000 company and pick a triangle of land by the depot to turn Kennewick into the feeder market between Canada and the Rockies.
“These men are locating the yards here not because Kennewick wants them, but because they consider the enterprise good business judgment.”
A year after the Celilo Canal opened, the Courier-Reporter asked whether the Inland Empire would actually use the river—and bragged that Kennewick was already the Columbia’s busiest freight town this side of Celilo.
“The open river is no longer a dream. It is a fact.”
Kennewick property owners swarm city hall, blocking local improvement plans amidst concerns over mounting debt.
“Those who protested raised no objections to the kind of pavement nor attempted to question the need of improvement but based their objections upon the general financial conditions.”
A local editor questions the patriotism of German-speaking residents and parochial schools during the height of World War I.
“The language of America is English; the language in which they are being taught to pray to God is the native language of America’s enemy.”
A railroad and the government clash over a plan to turn a vital transportation artery into an irrigation reservoir.
“The government proposes to divert the water from the Palouse River into it and to store it there for irrigating purposes in the summer.”
As the Dalles-Celilo canal prepares to open, cities along the Columbia plan a cacophonous celebration involving steamships, patriotic noise-making, and even train engines parked at the riverbank to add to the din.
“If you haven’t a whistle yell. If you are dumb rap on a box with a stick.”
A cooperative of 1,360 growers hits back at the agencies and middlemen trying to dismantle their organization.
“If the Association is the poor thing these agencies would have you believe... then why should they worry?”
In a bid to safeguard local commerce against monopolization, voters approve the creation of a port district to keep docks and warehouses in public hands.
“By vote of the people, there will be public ownership of the warehouses, docks and wharves, and public control of all harbor facilities.”
Facing a decaying irrigation system, Kennewick farmers are urged to stop fighting the provider and take control of their own infrastructure.
“It doesn't matter what the circumstances were that led up to the present water crisis... the only thing to do is get together and take the system over.”
Washington's arid lands remained parched while millions of dollars in federal irrigation funds, contributed largely by Washington and Oregon, were diverted elsewhere.
“It is a deplorable fact that while the states of Oregon, Washington, and North Dakota contributed in round numbers $12,000,000 of the $27,000,000, not a dollar has been expended on government projects within these three states.”
Water users on the old Hanford project take their fight against high maintenance fees to the State Public Service Commission.
“They further claim that when they purchased their lands they had the right to believe that the entire project would be developed and that the annual cost of operation and maintenance would be distributed over the entire acreage.”
Water users take their case to the state commission, alleging that high salaries and massive advertising campaigns have left the local irrigation canal in a state of ruinous neglect.
“It is their claim that if the canal were put in good repair it would be possible to irrigate an acreage sufficiently large to reduce the annual maintenance to even less than $4 per acre.”
H. S. Young, a prominent early settler of Whitman County, passes away in a local hotel while seeking relief from illness.
“Young, who was suffering from a severe attack of asthma, arrived here Sunday in the hope that the change of climate would benefit him.”
A federal court ruling protects local ranchers from mortgage holders in the complex bankruptcy of the Hanford Irrigation Power Company.
“It would be inequitable in the extreme to permit it to abrogate and terminate these contracts made by its express authority after it has received the benefits derived from the sales.”
Voters approved $23,000 in funding bonds in June. By October the paper was still locked in a Denver vault, the city was still paying interest on its old warrants, and Keeler Brothers blamed a war half a world away.
“The council decided that they were not responsible for the European war, and voiced the opinion that the city had a valid contract with the company for the sale of the bonds at 5½ per cent.”
A 1914 ballot measure proposed strict limits on alien land ownership, sparking a debate on residency, citizenship, and the future of the state's natural resources.
“The ownership of lands by aliens, other than those who in good faith have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, is prohibited in this state.”
A recall campaign ignited by Prosser-based politicians against Kennewick commissioners threatens to fracture the county.
“They hope it would at least stir up so much ill feeling and distention in this end of the county that neither Clements nor Bash could work in harmony with the people in their districts.”
Public Service Commission mandates 16 to 30 percent cut for residential users and reforms irrigation power billing in Kennewick.
“The decision also covers discrimination between the large and small users of electrical power, the commission ordering a discontinuance of special reduced rates to large consumers.”
Landowners in Klickitat County push for inclusion in a massive irrigation project, envisioning the transformation of high-desert plateau into fertile farms.
“It is a job of initiative, where the individual chosen will bend his energies to counting the months into days when water will be flowing over these fertile fields, causing the desert to bud and bloom forth.”
A government ruling threatens to revoke critical repayment extensions for local irrigation project settlers.
“There was no other thought when the district was formed than that the new district would fall heir to all the extensions and privileges.”
Local women organize a Red Cross auxiliary and plan a patriotic rally to support the nation as conflict looms.
“Are they ready to fight for their country’s cause? Do they believe the principles upon which this nation was founded should be upheld even tho the price be war?”
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