palouse country a portrait of eastern...

Palouse Country hca August 18, 2006 1

Palouse CountryA Portrait of Eastern Washington

Howie Anawalt

I made a trip from Los Gatos to Seattle by way of the furthest eastern route in August 2006. It is a trip I’ve been itching to take.

I was born in Seattle, which is in western Washington. Washington is really three states: western Washington (dominated by water and the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges), southeastern Washington (the huge corner spanning from Walla Walla to Spokane), and central Washington (the eastern Cascade foothills.) Even that description oversimplifies the geographic diversity of the state. Most of my childhood was in the west, but I have wonderful memories of the eastern parts of the state. I was eager to return and to see anew.

The route I took starts by cutting over to Highway 395 at Redding, California and following roughly that route to Walla Walla in southeastern Washington. The dominant feature of southeastern Washington is the Palouse Country created by the Columbia River Plateau. It is characterized by the graceful soft curves of the terrain. Those curves reveal yet conceal much of the countryside and its effect on those who live there--the creatures, including the humans of today. This photo essay gives a overall view of the Palouse. The name comes from one of the native American tribes who lived in the area before they were driven from the land and the survivors forced into reservations. These tribes included the Palouse, the Cayuse, the Walla Walla the Yakima, and the Nez Percé.

Bob Carson of Whitman College provides a good sketch of the geology:

The Columbia Plateau is a physiographic province, part of a continent with somewhat similar rocks, landforms, soils, climate, and vegetation. The rocks are mostly basalt; the landforms are chiefly caused by erosion and deposition…, but also by streams and the wind; the soils are thick on loess (windblown silt) and immature to non-existent on sand, gravel, and basalt; the climate is arid (with as little as 20 cm annual precipitation); the natural vegetation is sagebrush shrubland and short-grass prairie.

The Columbia Plateau is bordered on the north and east by the Rocky Mountains, the south by the Basin and Range Province, and the west by the Cascades. The province is divided into several physiographic sections: Whitman College is in the southeastern part of the Walla Walla Plateau section, adjacent to the northwest flank of the Blue Mountains section. On the Walla Walla Plateau, two of the largest rivers in North America meet: the Snake River which originates in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the Columbia River which starts in the Columbia Icefields of the Canadian Rockies.



Carson includes a fine aerial photo of the Palouse region:

Palouse CountryThe main part of this essay is selected photos with some words to highlight what I

saw and thought. Then at the end I wish to share some reflections on geography and people. Here we go!

Rich FarmlandThe first two photos capture the rich farmland north of Walla Walla.

Wheat Farm near Dayton




Fresh mown wheat field

The next several photos were taken along the Tucannon River, which is a small tributary to the Snake. We’ll pause and look at a small town on that river.

Tucannon River

The land adjacent to the Tucannon thrives with agriculture as you see in this photo of some sheep taken at the entrance to a neat farm right on the river.




Sheep on the farm

Starbuck--A Living Ghost TownJust a few miles down the river one comes to Starbuck. A plaque and a bell like the

Liberty Bell proudly announce its founding in 1882. For some period of time a railroad ran through the Tucannon Valley and through Starbuck, and one can easily see that the small town prospered. Yet what the railroad gave, it clearly also took away, for the railroad is gone today, and what you see now is a living ghost town of 103 people with a reported per capita income of less than $15,000 in 2000. Here are some photos taken in Starbuck. The first is of the Starbuck Saloon and Cafe. The saloon was closed and flew a tattered flag.

Starbuck Saloon




Just down the road from the saloon is the former Odd Fellows Hall.

Odd Fellows Hall

The next photo is a typical view of a street. There’s a man in the photo. See if you can find him.

Starbuck--Can you spot the man working in this picture?(He’s hidden behind a telephone pole.)

A girl and her little brother were fishing in the river. He’s out of sight now, down in




the creek.

Playing by the Tucannon River

The Tucannon joins the Snake River a few miles north of Starbuck. In the next photo you see the Snake and the underlying rock formations. The Snake is the largest tributary to the Columbia and joins it about forty miles to the west.

Snake River

Another river, the Palouse, flows into the Snake from the north not far from Starbuck. In the next photo you see some teenagers having fun swimming at the mouth of the




Palouse River where it joins the Snake. They appeared to have come with their families for a picnic and an afternoon’s recreation. They likely came from one of few small communities in the area. I took a swim there, too.

The Palouse River creates an impressive waterfall about five miles north of this spot where the teenagers cavort. The next photo is of Palouse Falls. You see the underlying geology of the region in the photo and in the next one which looks downstream from the same spot.

Palouse Falls




Palouse Canyon below the falls

After I left the Palouse Country I travelled a hundred and fifty miles or so through the Columbia Valley and into the eastern side of the Cascades. This last photo shows the vastly different geography as one travels up into the Cascades. The next photo is of is one of the peaks near Snoqualmie Pass.

At Snoqualmie

Before saying goodbye to the region, I wish to recall the people who originally inhabited this land. Numerous different Native American tribes lived in the Columbia basin. On September 30, 1860, the Indian Agent for the Columbia region reported:




The Palouse and their neighbor tribes lived closely in tune with the land and its rhythms of hot summers and hard cold winters. They and the later inhabitants, such as those of Starbuck, found their lives vastly changed by external circumstances--newcomers and an army for the one and the vicissitudes of a railroad for the other.

Concluding ThoughtsThe first night of my trip I met a group of fly fishermen at dinner. They invited me to

go with them on their evening fishing on Hat Creek near Redding, California. One of the men, Ray, and I chatted as he fished in the twilight. His daughter is a writer, especially about the environment. He has travelled a lot around the world, and the conversation turned toward behavior of Americans. I spoke of some of my woes--our invasion of Iraq, the rapacious slaughter in Lebanon, over-consumption of resources. He offered some of his thoughts then sighed, “Ah, we are such an entitled people.” Entitled. I thought about that--an attitude of helping oneself without consideration of the others around the table.

The next morning I was back on the road. The drive itself was liberating. I was on 395 or some other less travelled road, so I was not pressed by the Interstate flow of trucks, SUVs, and cars. Sometimes I listened to music, the radio, or a Robert Silverberg story, The Secret Sharer. Other times I rolled down the windows and let the ninety degree wind blow in around me. The hot air felt great since I was out on an open road. It was more like being out in the garden or hiking than being cooped up in the car. The summer, the land, the small towns, the people, the radio, and the time to myself conspired to make me reflect.

The radio jarred me sometimes, as I heard lots of misinformed right wing




propaganda. Facts did not matter to those broadcasters, and I found myself dragged back to the woes Ray and I talked about on Hat Creek. Then I would realize it was important for me to let other things take charge in my head: Slow down, Howie. Take a look. Pause. Reflect.

I thought about the country around me--the landscape, habitats, creatures, and people. When I reached the Palouse, I could see how the land shaped the way the tribes and settlers would live. In turn, their patterns of activity shaped the world around them. For example, Starbuck flourished for about seventy years, from the 1880s until maybe the 1950s when the railroad line ceased operation. A Washington history project summarizes the history of the town:

The railroad town of Starbuck came into being in the 1880s. Starbuck is located on the Tucannon River about 20 miles northwest of Dayton. In its early years Starbuck was a division point on the main line of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. At one time up to 24 trains a day went through the town.

The town was named after railroad official W. H. Starbuck and was platted on June 1, 1894. In 1900 Starbuck had a population of 215 and continued to grow and prosper in the early decades of the twentieth century. The Bank of Starbuck started in 1904 and ran until 1929. A large brick school was built in 1910 with inside plumbing facilities (still something of a novelty in rural America in 1910) and in 1916 boasted 217 students.

In 1914 the opening of the High Line Bridge across the Snake River downstream from Lyon’s Ferry eliminated some of the train traffic that went through Starbuck, and after that time it was no longer a railroad division point. The town was a grain-shipping point for a number of years, but by the mid-twentieth century Starbuck’s fortunes were fading. In 1956 its high school students were sent to Dayton; in 1961 the railroad station in the town closed. In the 2000 Census, Starbuck had a population of 130. Dayton, meanwhile, went on to become the principal town of Columbia County.

Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservationhttp://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7801

The girl fishing by the Tucannon River probably does not dream of living out her life in Starbuck. On the other hand, I doubt that she will ever lose the feeling of diving into the Snake River on a hot afternoon.

The Native Americans who lived in the region before Starbuck also experienced sweeping changes. The horse changed their way of life sometime in the 17th century. Trade with white people followed, and that trade included both firearms and disease. Starting in the 1830s these natives were confronted by the reality of a focussed migration along the Oregon Trail. Those newcomers were hard workers who would dig a grave every ten miles along the trail as they moved west to a new life in the rich Willamette Valley beyond the Cascades.

Soon after the migration began the United States developed a clear policy concerning the west--drive the Indians into “reservations” or kill them. After the Civil War the full power of the United States Army would focus on controlling the natives of the

http://www.historylink.org/essays/printer_friendly/index.cfm?file_id=7801



West. Civil War generals were main architects of the policy--Sherman, Sheridan, and Grant, who would become President. General William Tecumseh Sherman, who scorched the earth from Atlanta to the sea in the Civil War, became the Chief of the US Army in 1869. He held that post for fourteen years In 1867 Sherman expressed his philosophy regarding the Native Americans: “In other words, fifty hostile Indians will checkmate 3,000 soldiers. Rather get them out as soon as possible, and it makes little difference whether they be coaxed out by Indian commissioners or killed.”

The Indians, the white settlers, and the inhabitants of Starbuck were governed ultimately by geologic, geographic, and economic forces. So are we. The first two of these are forces of nature. The third, what we call ”economic,” is human made--purely so. There is no “hidden hand” anywhere. We make economies through our social and legal structures. The economies of today are completely creatures of law and regulation, above all the corporation is such a creature. Modern industry is built on regulation and dependent on it--banking, corporate structure, “intellectual property,” negotiability, enforceable contracts--you name it. If is business it is government.

The interests of greater gain would not spare the Palouse, the Nez Percé, nor the residents of Starbuck. These interests will not spare individuals and towns today. Not you. Not me. Certainly not our children. These interests respect only the current possessors of privilege.

The “Red/Blue” division is an oversimplification that the press foisted on the public a few years ago. Yes, there is a kernel of accuracy to it: Rural and urban are not often at ease together. Farm folks never believe that eggs come from the store, and they are likely to go rock hard hunting. However, beyond that, both the reds and blues are subject to being manipulated by the media and accompanying political shallowness. For instance, we are constantly told to blame the “terrorists” or Muslims for this or that today. Not too long ago it was the communists.

At the core red and blue love their loved ones and want stable conditions in which to thrive. If you take a little time and travel any of these four north/south routes you will likely see red melting into blue, a range of maroons, purples, and violets. But you have to get off the Interstate! The folks--and their geography--reek of life and affirmation. The four routes are: Highway 1/101, Interstate 5/old 99, Highway 97 (through Bend) and the eastern-most, Highway 395.

I hope this photo essay is a conversation starter, rather than the opposite. Please send along any thoughts or reactions that you have.

HowieSeattle, August 2006

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