The Unrealized Dream of the White Bluffs Dam
A 1923 report highlights the ambitious, multi-million dollar industrial dreams once held for the White Bluffs-Hanford district.
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.
The Wenatchee World reports on a party visiting the prospective empire 100 miles south of Wenatchee. The program for the White Bluffs, Hanford, and Priest Rapids community includes a big dam across the Columbia River, 200,000 acres of irrigated land, a State Land Settlement Project, natural gas wells, and the Wenatchee Southern Railway. This is not entirely backed by 'hot air'; nearly $3,000,000 has already been invested. The Dam Brothers of Seattle are in charge of land operations under promoter Henry P. Pierce. The project aims to build a new industrial city, with dreamers imagining woolen mills powered by the dam's 300,000 horse power capacity. While the landscape is quiet today, in 1923, observers were convinced the development of this 'early district' was imminent.
“The building of an industrial city is the dream of builders.”
This article describes a massive, feverish attempt to industrialize the Columbia River decades before the true, massive transformation brought by the Manhattan Project. It serves as a haunting reminder of the 'booster' dreams that once defined the town of White Bluffs before it was erased.
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