The Sweet Potato Boom in the Priest Rapids Valley
A local farmer turns a massive yield of 'red yams' into a commercial success story, challenging the belief that the crop belongs only to the South.
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.
Is the sweet potato destined to be one of the very profitable crops grown in the Priest Rapids Valley? Coming here a little over a year ago from Yakima, E. W. Steffen purchased the Emil Cords tract near the Columbia River north of town and, believing that the soil and climatic conditions would justify an experiment, he planted a portion of the land. The yield was enormous, and the market took the crop at a good price. Mr. Steffen notes that while he was not the first to experiment, his yield of twenty-seven tons to the acre proved that with proper soil conditioning—and avoiding excess green manure—the 'Red Bermuda' or Cuban yam thrives in local sandy soil. While storage and marketing infrastructure remain hurdles, he believes the savings on freight costs compared to Southern imports provide a competitive edge for local growers.
“There is not a single variety that hasn't the name 'yam' annexed to it in some locality or other.”
This article highlights the agricultural optimism that once defined the Priest Rapids Valley before the Manhattan Project transformed the region into a restricted federal site. Today, the once-productive farmland Steffen wrote about lies within the Hanford Site, a stark reminder of how quickly land-use priorities shifted in the mid-20th century.
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