116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Washington’s Tri Cities region offers fascinating history, tasty endeavors
Apples, potatoes, grapes for wine are area’s best known crops
From a high perch on a breezy ridge, we looked westward to see a vast punctuated and accidental wilderness stretching to distant Rattlesnake Mountain. Turning around we could see almost as far eastward, but below us were irrigated circles of thriving crops. Not a tree was visible anywhere.
We were in Washington State. When Iowans think of the Pacific Northwest images of towering Douglas fir and cedar trees emerge. Seattle, Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks are common destinations. These rain drenched places feature forests of giant trees, often cloaked in draping moss nourished by abundant rain. Few realize that much of Washington is desert.
“It’s drier here than some deserts,” said our friend, Mike Berriochoa, who lives in the bustling Tri-Cities area of South-Central Washington. “This is arid land that’s treeless except for those planted and irrigated in town,” he continued. As we drove past Rattlesnake Mountain he pointed and added “It’s supposedly the tallest treeless mountain in the continental United States.”
We love both drizzly western Washington and the state’s bone-dry deserts. Recently we made a circuit from Spokane’s airport on the eastern edge of the state, south to the desert before swinging back east and north to return to the airport through the rolling Palouse terrain.
Because it lacks mountains, Iowa’s topography and climate are remarkably uniform across its 55,000 square miles. For example, it’s nearly as rainy in Sioux City as in Dubuque. Natural vegetation and crops are similar across our state. Only slightly larger than Iowa, Washington is a contrast of climate, topography and wildlife.
The Cascade Mountains parallel Washington’s Pacific coast. Moist air wafting from the ocean cools as it rises to clear the peaks, dropping torrents of rain on westerly slopes. Nestled beneath the mountains, the town of Forks, famous for the Twilight book series, endures about 10 feet of rain annually. East of the mountains the Tri-Cities of Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco only receive about 7 inches of rain a year. It is a desert with more than 300 sunny days each year. The area doesn’t lack watery grandeur as the Tri-Cities is where the Snake and Yakima rivers join the immense Columbia.
The Tri Cities have a combined population of about 316,000 people. A century ago, it was a sleepy out of the way place too dry for conventional agriculture. Change came when two massive federal projects transformed the region forever. They made visiting the region fascinating and tasty.
Change began with the upriver construction of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1930s. One of the largest concrete structures ever built, it generates massive amounts of electricity. Its reservoir stores billions of gallons of water that made irrigated agriculture possible.
The Manhattan Project
During the Second World War’s early days, Gen. Leslie Groves was tasked with leading the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb. He sought an isolated, sparsely populated area with abundant water and electricity needed to create plutonium. The sprawling desert just north of the Tri-Cities was ideal, offering plenty of room for security and safety. Grand Coulee would provide water and electricity. At short notice the government evicted local ranchers and occupants of a few small towns and moved in thousands of workers. Within a few years they had created the plutonium used in the Nagasaki bomb.
The Hanford Site, named for one of the vacated villages, expanded plutonium production during the Cold War. Tons of radioactive waste were hastily discarded. Decades later the government was forced to spend millions of dollars removing and stabilizing radiative soil.
Only a relatively small area of Hanford was used for actual plutonium production. Surrounding its core of reactors, processing buildings, and support structures was a massive land buffer designed to keep spies away and for safety in case something went wrong.
Today Hanford visitors absorb the chilling history of World War II and the Cold War while enjoying the beauty and wildlife of the vast buffer lands now open to the public.
The core area is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy. Access is restricted, but the National Park Service has a visitor center in Richland that is part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Escorted visitors can tour the B Reactor and former desert towns inside the core. Information and tour reservations can be found at manhattanprojectbreactor.hanford.gov/
Much of the outer land that once served as buffer became the Hanford Reach National Monument in 2000. It’s managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is mostly open to the public. Scan a map and the public area looks like a massive doughnut circling the core.
Although we couldn’t hike in the restricted core, we could see into it. With binoculars from a high ridge in the monument we glassed several closed nuclear reactors hugging a free-flowing stretch of the Columbia, called The Reach. Viewing those reactors connected us with the history of the end of World War II and our creepy childhood years during the height of the Cold War. Even as kids we knew hiding under desks would not keep us safe in a nuclear attack.
History is only one reason to visit Hanford. Wildlife is another. As we drove down a gravel road from our high perch, a covey of chukar partridges ran in front of us before making an airborne retreat. Somewhat like Chernobyl, the buffer land outside the core was a de facto wilderness where people were excluded for years. Now people are welcome. It is a wildlife haven. Elk and deer live on Rattlesnake Mountain. Birding for desert species, including burrowing owls, is outstanding.
Fishing and boating
The Tri Cities, situated in a desert, offer outstanding fishing and boating. The immense Columbia River once sported the world's greatest run of Pacific salmon and steelhead trout. Overfishing and dams shrank salmon numbers but many still move upriver to test anglers. Salmon fishing is seasonal and the season on steelhead is closed due to low numbers. The dams that damaged salmon and steelhead runs created outstanding fishing for lunker walleyes, smallmouth and largemouth bass, perch and crappies. Commercial fishing guides help visitors find fish. Kayakers and motorboaters also enjoy the Columbia’s water.
Wineries, orchards and potato fields
The Columbia and Snake river dams provided abundant water that has transformed the area’s parched land into orchards, vineyards and crops.
“Some of the world’s best potatoes come from here, not Idaho,” said Berriochoa.
Potato cultivation is important but fruit is the hallmark crop. During a previous visit we toured a massive apple orchard that stretched upward over dozens of acres. Buy an apple in an Iowa grocery store and chances are it comes from a Washington orchard situated in the desert and irrigated with Columbia River water.
Better known than apples or potatoes are the region's famous vineyards and wineries. Washington and nearby Oregon’s wines are among the world’s best, including well-known brands sold in Corridor stores. Visitors can stay at a Tri-Cities hotel and day trip to wineries in the Yakima Valley, Prosser, Red Mountain and Walla Walla.
For Information
Although the Tri Cities is about as far north as Duluth, Minn., it enjoys a much milder climate. Summers are hot. Winters are cool. Rain is unlikely. Commercial flights connect to the Pasco Airport, although we usually prefer flying to Spokane and driving the 140 miles to Kennewick. Abundant hotels, campgrounds and eateries are sprinkled about the region that has too many fun activities to mention in a short article. For comprehensive information check out visittri-cities.com.
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