Brief Timeline of Events:
- Ice Age: Great Floods of Glacial Lake Missoula tear through the landscape creating the channeled scablands
- 1860: Lt. John Mullan and 230-man crew build first engineered road in the PNW
- 1878: Washtucna founded by George W. Bassett
- 1903: Washtucna Incorporates, begins status as self-governing entity
- 1962: Marmes Man’s 12,000 year old human remains are discovered
- 2001: Washtucna named one of the National Arborday Foundation’s Tree City, USA
The quaint farming community of Washtucna, Washington was named after a Palouse Indian Chief. Washtucna is pronounced wahsh-TUCK-nuh, and means “place of many springs.”
Interestingly, Kahlotus, Washington — one of Washtucna’s neighboring towns — used to be named Washtucna. It is reported that a mis-delivery of goods to a black smith’s shop and a quick switch of town names within the railroad’s records is behind the name-swapping. [source]
Washtucna is located in the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington, a region that up until 1923, puzzled many geologists.
The present day Palouse River drains an area encompassing over 3000 square miles in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The Palouse River originates in the Palouse Mountain Range within the St. Joe National Forest northeast of Moscow, Idaho and then flows in a westerly direction into Eastern Washington, south of the City of Spokane. The Palouse River once flowed through the Washtucna Coulee on it’s way to join the Columbia River in the Pasco Basin, but was re-routed by the Ice Age Missoula Floods. The huge torrents of the floods first filled and then overflowed the Washtucna Coulee, sweeping across the divide and then down into the adjacent Snake River Valley. [source]
It was the introduction of this theory of a “great flood” that allowed geologists to fully piece together the formation of the Channeled Scablands and also explained what could rip through solid basalt representing 12 million years of geologic history to create the Palouse River Canyon where the Palouse River spills 200 feet over the canyon at Palouse Falls today.
In short–the ancient catastrophic beauty of the area was created approximately 10,000 years ago when an ice dam broke and the region was flooded with water moving so fast it tore into the solid basalt rock of the region. Not once, but upwards of 100 times.
The land has recovered from the flooding and in its attempt to self-heal–has created a solid skin of mosses and lichens. This skin is the “original scab” and once disturbed — either via gophers or cattle — it is gone forever. What appears to be a vastly barren landscape is actually a cleverly disguised ecosystsem brimming with persistent plant life that lives and thrives despite the odds that appear to be stacked against them.
Closer to present day, in the spring of 1859, Lieutenant John Mullan and a 230-man crew looking to build a “practical route” through the Rockies created a 624-mile long military road from Fort Walla Walla in Washington, to Fort Benton in Montana. This road is quite possibly the first engineered road in the Pacific Northwest and was recognized as a National Historic Engineering Landmark in 1978 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. [source]
But before the accolades, Lt. Mullan and his road crew labored for months, hacked through forests, laid corduroyed strips through marshes, and built hundreds of river crosses in their endeavor. Lyons Ferry is one such river crossing. [source]
In August of 1860, the crew had completed their road. While present-day Interstate 90 essentially traces the route of the Old Mullan Road through the Rockies, other portions–while less paved and less frequently traveled–are still in use only three (3) miles east of Washtucna.
In an exciting clash of both the ancient and modern days–with a pinch of drama for good measure–there is the story of the Marmes Man. The 10,000-12,000 year old remains were discovered in the hot, dry scablands of southeastern Washington and in a seven (7) year span were painstakingly excavated by Washington State University (WSU) scientists and students alike. The remains of at least five (5) individuals were excavated from a fire hearth in a shallow basalt cave.
In 1953, residents along the Lower Snake River–who later relocated to Washtucna–shared their discovery with WSU archaeologist Richard Daugherty. What Roland Marmes had discovered was a rock shelter once inhabited by ancient peoples. A decade later, Daughterty began the excavation with WSU Geologist Roald Fryxell acting as Chief Investigator. Unfortunately for this dig, the Army Corps of Engineers were nearing a scheduled completion of the Lower Monumental Dam (LoMo).
Suddenly the race was on. Archaeologists put in 18 hour days documenting dozens of important sites along the river, digging and sifting in their makeshift tent city–complete with laboratory. Because the odds of finding such a complete package of evidence within one site again were nearly impossible, the crew’s rate reached a feverpitch to try and beat the impending flood Lower Monumental would create when its gates closed.
Such was the importance of historical and cultural information contained within this one dig, Daugherty convinced his friend and influential US Senator Warren Magnuson of WA to scratch out $1.5 million from the federal budget to create a levee to stay the rising waters. When the proposal died in the House, Magnuson went to President Lyndon Johnson. Over the objection of the Corps, the president ordered a levee built in 1968 at the Marmes Site.
Engineers set to work expecting problems when trying to keep the site dry, and their fears were not unfounded. The Corps planned to pump any seeping water out, but the engineers underestimated the incoming flow. In February of 1969, water spilled into the Marmes Site at a rate of 45,000 gallons per minute. The pumps couldn’t keep up. Lower Monumental’s gates were opened to try and allow a brief reprieve, but engineers found a leak in the dyke surrounding the site too late. Archaeologists scampered in and covered the site with plastic and fill dirt to keep the floodwaters from washing it all away when the water eventually came.
To this day the leaky levee still stands, surrounding a murky pool of water which covers the site now instead of soil. It is visible from the overlook 1/4 mile above Lyons Ferry Park.
Want More Info?
Adams County Historical Society
History Link Essay: Adams County
History Link Essay: Marmes Rockshelter
TIME: The Man They Ate For Dinner (ca. 1968)
Updated May 29, 2008 @ 8:37 am
