Cunningham is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Adams County, Washington Adams County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 20,613. The county seat is at Ritzville, Washington, Ritzville, and its l ...

, United States. Previously called Scott by railroad surveyors, the town was platted in 1901 by preacher and land promoter W. R. Cunningham. The two names (Scott for the station, and Cunningham for the town) persisted until the station was renamed in August 1902. The town built up around the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

station. With a peak population of 500 in 1913, most business success was from producing and shipping

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

. The town included several stores, a school, churches, electric lighting, and a newspaper (The Cunningham Gazette). After drought conditions in the 1910s and a severe fire in 1916, the population began to diminish. The schools closed in 1925 and 1926. The Post Office closed in 1985, and only a few houses remain today.https://www.historylink.org/File/7835 Cunningham is on the Hatton U.S. Geological Survey Map.

References

Unincorporated communities in Adams County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state) {{AdamsCountyWA-geo-stub