Seven Years of Sagebrush
A Highlands farmer transforms raw desert land into a productive bungalow estate.
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.
Ernest Putscher has completed the excavation for the basement of his new five-room bungalow. Mr. Putscher’s ranch is a fine example of what scientific farming can accomplish on the Highlands. His trees are among the best and his crops of tomatoes, strawberries, and cantaloupes have frequently proved prize-winning stuff. For the first seven years of his residence on the Highlands, Mr. Putscher lived in a tent, deciding not to build until the land produced enough to pay expenses and excess to cover buildings erected, which it has done in seven years from the sagebrush.
“For the first seven years of his residence on the Highlands Mr. Putscher lived in a tent, deciding not to build until the land produced enough to pay expenses.”
Putscher’s story captures the classic frontier ethos of 'proving up' on the land, a common aspiration in early Kennewick development. Today, the Highlands remain a testament to the irrigation efforts that turned this arid plateau into the productive agricultural belt that still defines the region.
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