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Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
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A failed irrigation scheme in Franklin County leaves thousands of acres of claims in limbo after a scathing government report.
“Unless the Glade High Line Canal company is reorganized with sufficient financial backing... there is absolutely no way by which the entrymen thereunder can ever secure water.”
Two competing land companies engaged in a legal and physical standoff over irrigation rights, leaving laborers arrested and local farms in limbo.
“The section of country lying across the Columbia river from Pasco is just now suffering from a severe drought, caused by the arrest for trespass of a body of laborers.”
A stranger’s unprovoked attack with a jagged beer bottle has left a rancher in critical condition, shocking the Pasco community.
“The assailant broke a beer bottle over his victim’s head and followed up with a vicious attack with the portion of the jagged-edged bottle which remained in his hand.”
A woman is found dead in a tent and her companion lies near death, leaving police with a grisly mystery and no murder weapon.
“The absence of a firearm and the fact that Sentle, when first discovered, had said he didn't know who had shot him, gives an air of mystery to the affair.”
A town wakes up to find anti-Japanese stickers plastered on storefronts and saloons, fueling local tension.
“Every saloon had them posted on the beer glasses, counters, tables, and doors.”
A federal prisoner leaps through a train window at 30 miles per hour while handcuffed, sparking a desperate manhunt in the woods near Pasco.
“He took his hat and, throwing his hands together over his head, he dived headfirst through the car window.”
A skeptical traveler discovers a German immigrant coaxing bountiful gardens from the dusty sagebrush plains of the Snake River.
“They said I was a d—d fool.”
Two men convicted of a local bank heist vanish from custody just weeks before their retrial.
“C. L. Porter, the other member of the trio, refused to leave the jail altho it is said he had the same opportunity to escape as the others.”
Speculators and settlers stake claims in the arid sagebrush near Pasco, betting that irrigation will transform the wasteland into a garden.
“From the amount of money being spent, you may take it for granted that there is 'a hen on.'”
A group of laborers bound for the harvest fields were confronted by masked gunmen in the dark; one victim was shot while hesitating to comply.
“One of those accosted, E. S. Shaw, failed to instantly comply, thinking it some sort of a joke.”
Tensions rise as National Guardsmen are deployed to patrol regional rail infrastructure, leading to a direct confrontation with an I.W.W. member.
“He was just relieving himself of some complimentary remarks about the United States government and soldiers when one of the soldiers stepped behind him, pointed a bayonet at his back and demanded that he walk.”
A town that was nothing but sagebrush and coyotes four years ago is now a railroad terminus and a contender for the future state capital.
“Four years ago there was here but a wild waste of sand and sagebrush, inhabited solely by the coyote and an occasional Siwash.”
A Kennewick high school reporter accuses the Pasco principal of aggressive, barroom-style behavior during a school basketball game.
“The game was disgraced by several attempts to start a fight made by the principal of the Pasco high school.”
A grand jury charged a Northern Pacific agent, a Franklin County sheriff and another man in a January 1894 express theft. The sheriff’s Ainsworth neighbors posted his bond—and doubted the charge.
“It is not generally thought by those outsiders best conversant with the circumstances that Mr. Gray shared in the robbery; but it is believed that he can give considerable information concerning it.”
A major land development company in Pasco enters receivership as debts mount and the promise of irrigated fruit prosperity stalls.
“How long it will require to work these matters out depends largely upon a decided turn for the better in orchard and suburban land activities.”
Philadelphia capital revives an abandoned Palouse canal project, promising water for 5,000 acres this summer and eventually 15,000 acres near Pasco.
“The old adage of boom time, “Keep your eye on Pasco,” is being revived, for it is now certain that the great desert of Franklin and Adams counties can be made as productive as the irrigated Yakima and Walla Walla valleys.”
Capitalists from across the U.S. descended on the junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, pitching a 'Gate City' to Seattle investors.
“There is not a spot on the map of the whole of North America where another such a junction of large rivers makes such near-water transportation faster than Pasco.”
A deliberate attempt to torch a local saloon has the community threatening swift, extrajudicial justice against 'fire bugs'.
“The sentiment of the people throughout the country is now such that if fire bugs are caught it will be but a short shift for them between this world and the hereafter.”
Charles B. Hunt dies under the wheels of a switch engine while crossing tracks at night.
“The unfortunate man's head was completely severed from the trunk and his two arms, thrown out to protect himself from his destroyer, were ground off.”
As Washington's state 'bone dry' law faces a referendum challenge, officials find the petition drive is losing steam due to duplicate signatures.
“Meanwhile the permit mill is once more grinding in Pasco and Prosser and there is yet time for 'another little drink'.”
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