Fort Walla Walla's Long Fight Against Abandonment
A historical look at the community's desperate efforts to preserve the military reservation as a public asset.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In the early 70s, Congress passed an act abandoning Fort Walla Walla, and the care of the reservation was turned over to the Interior Department. Acting under orders, the register and receiver of the Walla Walla land office surveyed the land into lots for auction. This was halted in 1873 when Gen. Jeff C. Davis, perceiving the tactical advantages of the post, ordered the First Cavalry to take station there. A memorial from the Commercial Club, chaired by Miles C. Moore, successfully lobbied the Senate in 1895 to prevent abandonment. As military authorities consider abandoning the site again, I suggest that if Senator Ankeny can secure the reservation for the state of Washington, it would make an ideal agricultural experiment station, proving more beneficial to our community than a permanent military garrison.
“It is not too late for Senator Ankeny to hold the fort.”
This letter reflects the perennial Walla Walla anxiety over the use of land: whether it should serve as a federal military anchor or be repurposed for public growth and education. Today, the debate over how to best utilize under-developed or vacated institutional land remains a core tension in the city's urban planning and economic development.
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