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- The small settlement of White Bluffs on the eastern side of the Columbia River is considered by many to be the first town in Franklin County.
- The army established a temporary military depot at White Bluffs in the 1850s. White Bluffs also served as a shipping center for freight coming up the Columbia.
- In 1865 the Hudson's Bay Company commissioned A.R. Booth as agent of a way station and trading hut at White Bluffs, joining many houses, a store, a blacksmith shop and a saloon. Camels were used as pack animals, mainly for the benefit of gold miners passing through on their way to British Columbia.
- During the 1860s, two-humped camels were used in this area as pack animal, mainly for the benefit of gold miners heading to British Columbia on the Cariboo Trail.
- Ainsworth's ferry landing was home to the transfer Steamer Sternwheeler Frederick Billings, the largest steamer in the Northwest at that time. As such, Ainsworth was one of the busiest places in the Territory as a transfer point for a variety of goods such as wheat, cattle, sheep, and railroad materials.
- The town of Ainsworth declined when the Northern Pacific Railroad built a line in the Yakima Valley generating neighboring towns of Pasco and Kennewick (in Benton County). Pasco became the new county seat, and the courthouse was moved there in 1887.
- Pasco was established as a Northern Pacific station in 1884. It was named by Virgil G. Bogue, principal engineer of the Northern Pacific Cascade construction branch, after his most recent job at Cerro de Pasco located in the Andes in Peru.
- Pasco made a serious, but unsuccessful bid to become the state capital in 1889. Of the 50,000 plus votes cast, Pasco received 130.
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The Northern Pacific Railroad ran through what is now known as Kahlotus in 1883. Although not platted until 1902, Kahlotus boasted the first Post Office and school in Franklin County, established in 1886 and 1887 respectively.
- Franklin County didn't become official until 1883, when the territory was separated from Whitman County.
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