Rabies Quarantine Declared in Richland
State officials order lockdown of district between the Horn and the Columbia River to combat epidemic.
Dr. J. H. Martin of the state department of agriculture is in Richland making an investigation of the epidemic of rabies in this district. He has placed a quarantine on the entire district extending from the Horn to the Columbia river, to become effective at once and continue until all danger is past.
“He has placed a quarantine on the entire district extending from the Horn to the Columbia river.”
Public health emergencies in the Tri-Cities often reflect the region's unique geography, where agricultural and residential boundaries blur. While rabies is rare today, this 1916 intervention highlights the long history of state-level oversight in managing the wild-domestic animal interface in the Columbia Basin.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.