Pullman Keeps the College, and Colfax Keeps a Grudge
The state supreme court ends the fight over where the agricultural college will stand — too close to Idaho to suit Colfax — and leaves a breach among Whitman County's brethren.
Whitman county still retains the agricultural college, but the Colfax people are unhappy because its location is so near the Idaho line. The supreme court has dismissed the appeal taken from the superior court of Pierce county against the Pullman location. The fight against Pullman made a wide breach among the brethren of Whitman county which will take some time to heal.
“The fight against Pullman made a wide breach among the brethren of Whitman county which will take some time to heal.”
The agricultural college the court secured for Pullman in 1891 became Washington State University, and Colfax is still the town that lost it. Every generation since has watched communities bid against one another for a state institution, a hospital or a factory, and argued afterward over whether the prize was worth the breach it left behind.
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