Atalia was a dryland farming

Dryland farming

Dryland farming is an agricultural technique for non-irrigated cultivation of drylands.-Locations:Dryland farming is used in the Great Plains, the Palouse plateau of Eastern Washington, and other arid regions of North America, the Middle East and in other grain growing regions such as the steppes...

 community in Walla Walla County, Washington, located on the East shore of the columbia River

Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

 some 8 miles downriver from Burbank

Burbank, Washington

Burbank is a census-designated place in Walla Walla County, Washington, United States, where the Snake River meets the Columbia. The population was 3,291 at the 2010 census. Named for Luther Burbank, the city is located just east of Pasco and Kennewick, across the Snake and Columbia Rivers,...

. Attalia was a stop on both the Northern Pacific Railway

Northern Pacific Railway

The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...

 and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company

Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company

The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company was a railroad that operated a rail network of of track running east from Portland, Oregon, United States to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho...

in 1909. During the 1920s, the town had a newspaper, the News Tribune. Some amount of oil exploration also took place during the 1920s, but never amounted to anything.