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____
The
Beginning
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In the
prehistoric days, the Blue Mountains of Garfield County were an island
thrust up in the Pacific Ocean. The waters that absorbed the glacial ice
became the rivers which now help to make up the Columbia System. The Snake
River, along with the Clearwater River which meets it, comes from the east
and created a natural path for the famous Nez Perce Trail up the Columbia
and over the Rockies. To avoid the swift waters of the Snake, they went
through Garfield County, between the Tucannon River and Pataha Creek.
Native
Americans were the first known inhabitants of what is now Garfield County.
Though indigenous to the region, the Nez Perce lived a semi-nomadic
life-often traveling across the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains where
they would hunt buffalo. From this custom the Nez Perce Trail was
established.
The
Nez Perce Trail was used by the Indians and later by the Lewis-Clark
Expedition. It was in Garfield County that the famous expedition camped in
1806 on their return from the Pacific. Messrs. Lewis and Clark spoke of the
Pataha Creek as being the first locality for some distance where they were
able to find a sufficiency of firewood.
"Brush
creek"
was the name apparently bestowed upon it because of a fringe of willows and
brush growing along its banks.
The Nez Perce Trail
extended eastward from the Columbia River at the present-day town of
Wallula, through present-day Garfield County, all the way to the Great
Plains. The trail, however, was more than a road to the buffalo
hunting grounds. It was the principal travel route across the Rockies.
______1800's______________________________
The Lewis and Clark Expedition signaled the
beginning of white exploration in what would become Garfield County.
In 1805, the party passed the county along its northern Snake River border
on their westward journey to the Pacific Ocean. On their return trip
in 1806, the party cut an eastward path through the heart of Garfield County
on horseback. The observations of Garfield County made by Lewis and
Clark in their travel diaries were quite favorable and stimulated great
interest in the new territory. The
fur industry was among those most interested in the region. Garfield
County proved a profitable region within which to trap. Beaver and
otter were especially abundant in and around the Tucannon River in the
county's panhandle.
Many settlement parties were led through
Garfield County by missionaries-most notably Dr. Marcus Whitman and Reverend
Henry Spalding in 1836. Spalding's impact on Garfield County history
was the more pronounced of the two because of his relative success in
converting many of the local Nez Perce Indians to Christianity.
A Nez Perce Indian named Daniel Types is
believed to be the first permanent settler in Garfield County. Types,
an early convert of Spalding's, cultivated corn and other vegetables on half
an acre of land in the Alpowa Valley. The first white settler in
Garfield County was a man by the name of Parson Quinn who settled in the
Pataha valley about 11 miles from present-day Pomeroy. He was followed
by the likes of J.M. Pomeroy who arrived in 1864 to later own and operate a
renowned eatery and stage station at the future site of the town of Pomeroy.
In 1877 Columbia Center became the first town
in Garfield County. It was situated in the foothills of the Blue
Mountains along Pataha Creek. Though no more, it is remembered as a
bustling town, which, at its height, had sawmills and flour mills, a post
office, stores and shops, saloons, restaurants, stables, blacksmiths, a
school, and a host of private residences.
The town of Pomeroy was platted in 1878 after
Joseph M. Pomeroy and William C. Potter built a flour mill on the site.
The town expanded quickly as newcomers fueled the demand for a center of
service and trade. By 1880, Pomeroy surpassed Columbia Center and
others as the leading town in the region. It did, however, receive
stiff competition from the nearby town of Pataha (3 miles east of Pomeroy).
In 1881, population growth compelled the territorial legislature and
Territorial Governor to partition the southeast Washington region, thus
creating Garfield County. It was named in memory of the late President
James A. Garfield who was assassinated earlier that year, The new
county encompassed what we now know as Garfield and Asotin counties.
The economic rivalry between Pomeroy and Pataha boiled over into a political
rivalry as the two fought fiercely for the county seat. Though Pataha
held the privilege temporarily, Pomeroy ultimately prevailed.
The creation of Garfield County precipitated
yet another wave of immigration and settlement into the county, particularly
into the Pomeroy area. Consequently, Pomeroy was incorporated on
January 27, 1886. City-hood was matched by an equally important event
but a few days earlier---the completion of the Starbuck-Pomeroy line by the
Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company (O.R.N.C.)
The railroad changed everything. The 30
mile Starbuck-Pomeroy line was built in less than a year using Chinese
contract laborers. Once built, the rail line made obsolete the docks,
as well as the steamer and wagon network that had served the county so long.
The rail line also established Pomeroy as the undisputed leader among the
local towns. Neighboring Pataha began to fade after Pomeroy officials
(in a final act of rivalry) blocked the proposed extension of the line to
that town. By 1887, Pataha City was no longer a competitive rival.
____1900's_______________________________
The turn of the century brought greater and
greater expansion of Garfield County's grain production industry as new
technology and equipment improved crop yields and harvesting methods.
Local farmers were pressed to produce grain for both state consumption and
for troops overseas during World War I and II and the Korean War. By
the end of World War II, Pomeroy was the main grain shipping point on the
Union Pacific Railroad line.
Besides wheat, peas became a major
agriculture crop in Garfield County. The Blue Mountain pea cannery
arrived and began operating in July of 1942. It averaged 450 workers
for the 30-40 day harvest and packing season. The peas were processed
for the nationally recognized Green Giant label. Nonetheless, the
plant closed in October of 1960 as freight rates doubled and the price of
peas remained constant. This closure effectively ended the role of pea
production and packing in Garfield County. Both the plant and the
property were purchased a month later by the Robert Dye Seed Ranch, which
packaged bluegrass seed for the O.M. Scott Lawn Seed Company. By 1963,
the company was the largest bluegrass seed processor in the nation.
In the 1960's and 1970's the US Army Corps of
Engineers developed a series of 4 dams and locks on the Lower Snake River.
Two of the four dam-locks had particular impact on Garfield County--Little
Goose Dam near Starbuck, and Lower Granite Dam north of Pomeroy. Both
boosted the local population and labor force greatly as construction workers
and their families moved into the county. Little Goose began operating
in 1970, Lower Granite in 1975.
Today, the Garfield County economy continues
to be tied closely to agricultural production--namely wheat and other
grains. Government employment also plays a major role in the local
economy. There is a federal presence through the US Army Corps of
Engineers (which oversees and maintains the dams) and the US Forest Service
(which oversees Umatilla National Forest lands in the southern part of the
county). The county's modest retail trade and service base is
concentrated in the Pomeroy area.
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