White Bluffs was an agricultural town in

Benton County, Washington Benton County is a county in the south-central portion of the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 206,873. The county seat is Prosser, and its largest city is Kennewick. The Columbia River demarcates the coun ...

, United States. It was depopulated in 1943 along with the town of Hanford to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the

Hanford Site The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW a ...

. Prior to the arrival of white settlers, the land was inhabited by the

Wanapum The Wanapum tribe of Native Americans formerly lived along the Columbia River from above Priest Rapids down to the mouth of the Snake River in what is now the US state of Washington. About 60 Wanapum still live near the present day site of Pri ...

Indians, a tribe closely related to the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, prima ...

Yakama The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their ...

, and

Nez Perce tribe The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

s. The first white settlement at White Bluffs was in 1861. The original townsite was located on the east bank of the Columbia River in Franklin County, near present-day Area 100H of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. A ferry was built to accommodate traffic across the Columbia headed for the gold rush in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. By the early 1890s the population had grown and the town expanded to the west bank of the Columbia in Benton County. The state government authorized a "colonization" project in 1921 to build 99 homes for returning

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veterans, but abandoned it in 1925. When U.S. government seizures of homes of White Bluffs residents occurred beginning in March 1943, some homes were seized immediately for government office buildings. Residents were given from three days to two months to abandon their homes. Homes and orchards were burned by the government to clear the site. The remains of some 177 persons buried at the White Bluffs Cemetery were moved on May 6, 1943, to the East Prosser Cemetery, some 30 miles (50 km) away. At the time of the government destruction of the town of White Bluffs, production of pears, apples, vegetables, and grapes for wine production were primary sources of livelihood. Today, almost nothing remains of the town. A U.S. Department of Energy photo gallery containing various White Bluffs pictures was released on June 15, 2008.

References

{{authority control Geography of Benton County, Washington Ghost towns in Washington (state) Forcibly depopulated communities in the United States Unincorporated communities in Benton County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state) 1861 establishments in Washington Territory Populated places disestablished in 1943 1943 disestablishments in the United States