Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By Bus and Train
Public transportation comes together at the
Transportation Depot
(535 N. 1st Ave.) in Pasco. Here you can catch a local bus from
Ben Franklin
Transit
(509/735-5100,
www.bft.org
, $1, $2.75 all-day pass) for service to the three cities and the airport Monday-Saturday.
Greyhound
(509/
547-3151 or 800/231-2222,
www.greyhound.com
) also stops here, as does
Amtrak
(509/545-1554 or 800/872-7245,
www.amtrak.com
), whose
Empire Builder
train provides daily service east to Spokane, Minneapolis, and Chicago, and west to Portland.
By Air
Departing from the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Pasco are
Alaska Airlines
(800/252-7522,
www.alaskaairlines.com
),
Delta Air Lines
(800/
221-1212,
www.delta.com
), and
United Express
(800/241-6522,
www.ual.com
)
.
Bergstrom Aircraft
(509/547-6271) offers flightseeing trips out of the Richland airport over the Tri-Cities area for $99 for up to three people
on a Cesna 172.
Tours
Columbia River Journeys
(509/734-9941 or 888/486-9119,
www.columbiariverjourneys.com
) runs jetboat trips to Hanford Reach. As you cruise
up the river, you'll see heron rookeries, curious coyotes, huge salmon beds, and the surreal Hanford reactors along the horizon.
As you drive toward Walla Walla from the east, Highway 12 takes you past mile after mile of gently rolling wheat growing out of the rich
chocolate-brown soil. It's enough to make Midwest farmers drool. The strip-cropped patterns of plowed and fallow land look like cresting waves,
with the Blue Mountains bordering the southeast horizon. The valley enjoys a long growing season, with wheat, potatoes, asparagus, peas, alfalfa,
grapes, and the famous Walla Walla sweet onions as the big money crops. Livestock and dairy products are also significant parts of the economy.
If you arrive in the pretty town of Walla Walla on a hot summer day, you'll probably wonder, at least momentarily, if you took a wrong turn
somewhere and drove to New England. Walla Walla is an oasis in arid eastern Washington. Here, trees have been cultivated for decades and offer
much-needed shade and visual relief from the sameness of the eastern Washington landscape.
The Lewis and Clark party passed through the Native American hunting grounds here in 1805, but the first permanent white settlement wasn't
until some time later. Dr. Marcus Whitman, a doctor and Presbyterian missionary, arrived in 1836 and established a settlement he called Waiilatpu.
The Cayuse, suffering from measles that Whitman could not cure and resentful of Whitman and his party's aggressive conversion techniques,
massacred 15 of the settlers in 1847, including Whitman and his wife. This put a bit of a damper on local white settlement until the Treaty of 1855
reopened the region to American migration.
In 1856, Col. Edward Steptoe built
Fort Walla Walla
at Mill Creek to keep the peace. The surrounding town was later named Walla Walla,
meaning “Many Waters” in the Cayuse tongue. In 1859, the city was named the county seat and has since witnessed many booms and busts, from
a minor gold rush in neighboring Idaho to disastrous fires that razed the entire town to the renaissance in the local wine industry that has made the
town well known today.
log cabin at Fort Walla Walla
Museums
Step back in time with a visit to the
Fort Walla Walla Museum Complex
(Dalles Military & Myra Road, 509/525-7703,
www.fortwallawallamuseum.org
, 10 A.M.-5 P.M. Tues.-Sun. Apr.-Oct., $7 adults, $6 seniors and students, $3 ages 6-12, free for younger kids).
