Pasco, Washington

 city, county seat

www.pasco-wa.gov/


Pasco has been shaped by transportation, agriculture and trade. The City has evolved and blossomed from rivers and railroads to a city with all major modes of transportation and business at its fingertips.

A mild climate and an abundant fish supply, early man thrived along the banks of the Columbia, Yakima and Snake Rivers. The earliest known habitants of the Western Hemisphere can be found in Northern Franklin County at the Marmes Rock Shelter near Lyons Ferry and Palouse Falls.

Lewis and Clark's historic journey on October 16th, 1805, brought them to Pasco. Journal entries describe Lewis & Clark’s camping at what’s now Sacagawea State Park. Wallula became a stopping point for boats carrying miners to gold mines in Montana, Idaho and Alaska.

The Northern Pacific Railroad brought a rush of settlers to the Washington Territory, leading to statehood on November 11, 1889. The railroad town of Ainsworth moved to Pasco in 1886 and brought with it the county seat.

Pasco was named by Virgil Bogue, a construction engineer for Northern Pacific Railroad.

Grand Coulee dam was completed in 1941. Agriculture, made possible by irrigation, brought stability and prosperity. The dam was also instrumental in the selection site for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation due to the resources of hydroelectric power and the cold Columbia River water.