The Struggle for the Soldier Settlement Project
Community leaders head to the coast to secure funding for the Priest Rapids Valley development.
J. C. Lloyd and Charles M. Sanford, members of the executive committee of the Priest Rapids Valley Progressive League, left Wednesday morning for the Coast, where with Fred M. Weil they expect to be engaged for the next week on matters in connection with the extension of the soldier settlement project. The bill for this extension, and providing an appropriation for financing the settlers in the purchase of livestock, has been prepared and is expected to be introduced in the legislature any day now. While the State University board of regents have not yet held a meeting to take official action, the members of the board have all been seen individually and each one has indicated that he was agreeable to the plan of the University selling a sufficient amount of its land in the vicinity of Vernita to make up the required acreage to bring this settlement up to a 100 unit project.
“The bill for this extension... has been prepared and is expected to be introduced in the legislature any day now.”
The 'soldier settlements' of the post-WWI era were early state-sponsored attempts to provide land and livelihoods to returning veterans. The project at Vernita and White Bluffs would ultimately be swept away by the creation of the Hanford site during WWII, serving as a reminder of how quickly civic ambitions can be repurposed by national security priorities.
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