The Quest to Harness Benton County’s Natural Gas
Spokane financiers propose a pipeline to bring local natural gas to Pasco and Kennewick, sparking industrial interest from the Union Pacific Railroad.
H. J. Neely of Spokane recently addressed the Pasco Chamber of Commerce regarding the potential to pipe natural gas from Benton County fields to Pasco and Kennewick. Eugene Enloe and H. J. Neely have offered to pipe the gas to Kennewick at a wholesale cost of thirty cents per thousand cubic feet. Industrial agent E. C. Hoag of the Union Pacific Railroad visited the gas wells and collected samples of glass sands, clay, and shale to test the region’s potential for manufacturing pottery and glass. Mr. Hoag expressed interest in the feasibility of locating industrial plants that could utilize the natural gas supply.
“The Union Pacific does not engage in the gas business but is interested in the local field only from the standpoint of industrial development.”
The push to monetize natural resources like gas and minerals has been a recurrent theme in Benton County's history. Today, as the region navigates the transition toward new energy economies, this 1923 report highlights the long-standing hope that local extraction would serve as a foundation for regional industrialization.
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