Turning Dry Grass into a Cattle Empire
A commercial land company bets on deep-well irrigation to revive the Horse Heaven Hills as a prime stock-raising region.
The dream of the Horse Heaven prairies transformed by irrigation into fertile farms may one day be realized, but in the meantime, the miles of bunch grass promise to 'come back' as a great stock country. The water problem has been solved by the Commercial Orchard Lands company, who are now stocking the first unit of what they hope to make one of the largest cattle ranches in the Northwest. The company has drilled seven wells, with one 212-foot well testing out at 200 gallons per minute. General manager P. E. O’Conner reports that 220 head of steers are being shipped in from Prairie City, Oregon, to graze on the rolling hills. O’Conner believes that with union stock yards planned for Kennewick, there is no place in the United States where natural range and a central market exist so close together.
“I don’t believe there is another place in the United States where hundreds of square miles of natural range, thousands of acres of alfalfa and a big central market can be found to exist side by side.”
The transition of the Horse Heaven Hills from dry range to agricultural powerhouse is a foundational narrative for the Tri-Cities area. This report captures the exact moment the region pivoted toward intensive irrigation, a shift that eventually defined the agricultural economy of eastern Washington.
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