Welcome to Yesteryear

CENSUS

*Adams County didn't exist until 1883, whereupon Adams and Franklin counties were formed out of existing Whitman County.

WASHTUCNA TOWN COUNCIL MINUTES

1903-1933; 1939-2012Available to browse through the Washington State Digital Archives

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS

Abbreviated History of Washtucna

Archie Staley, Obituary

Eleazer Harris, Life Story (view a sampling of his photographs on washingtonruralheritage.org)

G. W. Bassett from An Illustrated History of Big Bend Country

Randall Johnson, "Washtucna: Good Water, Good People" for the Pacific Northwesterner. Read more about how Randall left his mark in this Spokesman column.

Stoess Family History

Snyder Family History

Interim Report: Archaeological Salvage in the Lower Monumental Reservoir

The Coast Magazine profiles Washtucna

The Palouse Indians I Knew by Annie Harder (excerpted from Opportunities of the Golden West)

When Kahlotus was home to 200 dance hall girls (discusses naming origins for Washtucna, from Tri-City Herald)

David Thompson visits Palus Indians along the lower Snake River and records the first written description of an overland trail from the mouth of the Palouse River to the Spokane River between August 5 and August 13, 1811 by Jack and Claire Nisbet via HistoryLink

NEWS CLIPPINGS

"Light and Power Plant is Burned" (Washtucna Enterprise, December 24, 1915)

Washtucna Enterprise, February 11, 1916 p1, p2

Washtucna Enterprise, August 25, 1916 p1, p2

"Rebekah Annual Picnic" (Washtucna Times, July 2, 1926)

"Group Will Organize to Aid in Promoting Park at Palouse Falls" (Ritzville Journal, March 14, 1946)

"Contract Set for Palouse Falls Bridge" (Ritzville Journal, February 13, 1947)

"Roads Maroon 'Tucna Families" (Ritzville Journal, February 24, 1949)

"Palouse Falls Dedication Sunday" (Ritzville Journal, May 31, 1951)

"Dedication is Conducted for Palouse Falls" (Ritzville Journal, June 7, 1951)

Washtucna's float, Palouse Empire Fair, Mockonema, Washington, 1953. (Link goes to a photo of Washtucna, Washington's float with Ginger Brown, queen contestant in the Palouse Empire Fair grand parade provided by the Whitman County Library on washingtonruralheritage.org. The mural seen in this photo is the one that is currently on display in the community room.)

"Washtucna School District Faces $210,000 Building Bond Issue" (Ritzville Journal, February 24, 1955 - Old building declared unsafe by Kenneth Norrie and Associates of Spokane, new building designed by Victor Wulff)

"Star Atop Hill Ushers in Season" (Ritzville Journal, November 30, 1967)

"Redford Finds a Role in the Palouse" (Spokesman Review, October 20, 1982)

"Washtucna's Football Field Dedicated to Walter R. Little" (Ritzville Journal, November 4, 2004)

"Field Camp 1957" (Washington State Magazine, Winter 2007)

"A Reburial Eases a Clash of Culture and Science" (Washington State Magazine, April 2009)

"Cliff Notes" (Spokesman Review, September 6, 2009 - students measure height of Palouse Falls)

"Kayaker descends Palouse Falls" (Spokesman Review Spotlight, December 27, 2009)

"Back in the Earth: Putting Ancestors to Rest or Destroying the Past" (Washington State Magazine, Spring 2011)

"A Community Saves History" (Wheat Life Magazine, November 2011)

"Washtucna Stopping Typhoid at the Outhouse" Washington State Library blog post on a newspaper article from the Washtucna Enterprise dated September 3, 1915

"Glagolich Inducted into the FCCLA HOF" (Whitman County Gazette, March 16, 2020)

"Firefighters from Across the Region Honor Fallen Washtucna Hero" (KHQ.com, June 7, 2020)

"How the Coronavirus has affected the town of Washtucna" (Ritzville Journal, December 3, 2020)

"Washtucna Heritage Museum" (Huckleberry Press, September 2, 2021)

"Washtucna's Broadband Plan Gets Funding" (Ritzville Journal, January 2022)

"Highway Oasis" (Columbia Basin Herald, December 23, 2022)

"‘Like a big coffee session all day long'" (The Spokesman Review, March 5, 2023)