The Gateway Hotel, Historic Wallula Landmark, Perishes in Flames
Standing for over fifty years, the site that once provided respite to notable travelers and inspiration for Bill Nye is reduced to ash.
The Gateway Hotel in Wallula, a landmark of early days, was destroyed by fire recently from some unknown cause. Erected over half a century ago, it was for years the only hotel between Walla Walla and The Dalles, Oregon, and housed many notables. It was this house, so it is said, that gave Bill Nye, the humorist, the inspiration for an article on his experience with bedbugs.
“Erected over half a century ago, it was for years the only hotel between Walla Walla and The Dalles, Oregon, and housed many notables.”
Wallula, once a vital transit hub at the confluence of the Columbia and Walla Walla rivers, has largely vanished, largely due to dam construction and the changing landscape of Eastern Washington infrastructure. The hotel's disappearance marks the literal erasure of the frontier hospitality era that defined early state development.
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