Connect with History

Our exhibits and artifacts tell the story of the development of Franklin County.

Your Museum. Your Classroom.

Learn about The passages of David Thompson, Jaco Finlay, and Fur Trade Voyagers: Pacific Northwest Frontier Journeys of Discovery.

10 Franklin County Facts

In 1926, Varney Airlines commenced the first regular contracted airmail service with a route between Pasco, WA, and Elko, NV.

In 1926, Varney Airlines commenced the first regular contracted airmail service with a route between Pasco, WA, and Elko, NV.

Skeletal remains, carbon-dated at 10,000 – 12,000 years old, were discovered on the banks of the Palouse River in the 1960s. Named the “Marmes Man,” these remains and the rock shelter in which they were found are now inundated by the waters of the Snake River impounded behind Lower Monumental Dam.

During the 1940s, “Big Pasco,” the Pasco Holding and Re-consignment Point housed a service unit of Italian POWs that were requisitioned to help alleviate the critical labor shortage. They served as skilled assistants to mechanics and electricians as well as performing other duties.

Pasco made a serious, but unsuccessful, bid to be elected the new state capital in 1889.

Pasco was home to James Wong Howe, a noted Hollywood cinematographer who worked on many movies, such as Funny Lady, and who won numerous awards, such as an Oscar for Hud. He and his family came from China in the late 1890s.

In 1943, the USS Pasco, a frigate named for the Franklin County seat, was launched at the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond, CA.

During the winter of 1915-1916, 41 inches of snow fell in the county. Normal precipitation is 7 inches a year.

In 1942 the first influx of workers came by bus and train into Pasco to start the Hanford Project. They took over any empty business offices, filled every empty building (including chicken coops) with workers until they could build the city of Richland. All the scientists working on the project visited here under assumed names and stayed at the Pasco Hotel.

At the time of his death in 1931, Pasco mayor Alvin Parker-Gray was considered the oldest mayor in the United States.