A Bridge, a Snub, and a Secession Threat on the Snake
Franklin County offers $20,000 for a Snake River crossing at Burbank. Walla Walla County’s commissioners hesitate, and residents at the county’s western edge start talking about leaving.
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.
THIS PAPER has been informed of a conference held in Walla Walla yesterday participated in by Messrs. Stimson, Elrod and Conrad on behalf of Franklin county; Messrs. Reynolds, Reavis and Dement on behalf of Walla Walla county; Messrs. A. H. Reynolds, W. H. Kirkman, A. J. Gillis and E. L. Wells, on behalf of the Burbank land owners, and Elbert M. Chandler, representing the Burbank company and the Burbank Growers’ association. Based on a preliminary report made by Charles Evans Fowler, consulting engineer of Seattle, it is understood that a bridge can be built across the Snake river composed of one 400-foot span 50 feet above the river and 1500 feet of timber trestle providing a roadway 20 feet wide, for $40,000. It is also reported to this paper that Franklin county will put up $20,000 in cash toward its share of the bridge and provide a gravelled road from the bridge to Pasco. The Walla Walla commissioners gave their confreres little encouragement, it is reported. Walla Walla county and the Burbank-Attalia-Wallula region especially, will be immensely helped by such a bridge, and this county ought to be ashamed not to match the offer of a county less benefited and worth only a third as much.
The residents of this end of the county are very seriously considering secession and association with Franklin county unless Walla Walla county shows more evidence of fair treatment to this end.
In the Third commissioner’s district of this county, seven school districts immediately tributary to the proposed bridge possess 60 per cent of the assessed valuation and 40 per cent of the population, yet practically nothing has been spent in this section from the general road and bridge fund.
It is hoped that the balance of Walla Walla county will see the gross injustice done this section and before secession takes place, urge their commissioners to prompt and favorable action.—Attalia News-Tribune.
“The residents of this end of the county are very seriously considering secession and association with Franklin county unless Walla Walla county shows more evidence of fair treatment to this end.”
Bridges across the Snake at Burbank and Pasco are now routine, but the fight over which county pays for infrastructure that benefits a specific corner of it remains evergreen. Modern debates over bridge tolls, growth boundaries, and even county-secession proposals echo the Attalia editor’s complaint that tax revenue flowed out while traffic and risk stayed local.
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