Richland, Washington
Encyclopedia
Richland is a city in Benton County
Benton County, Washington
Benton County is a county located in the south-central portion of the U.S. state of Washington. The Columbia River makes up the north, south, and east boundaries of the county. In 2010, its population was 175,177. The county seat is Prosser, and its largest city is Kennewick...

 in the southeastern part of the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Washington, at the confluence of the Yakima
Yakima River
The Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River in south central and eastern Washington State, named for the indigenous Yakama people. The length of the river from headwaters to mouth is , with an average drop of .-Course:...

 and the Columbia
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...

 Rivers. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 48,058. April 1, 2011 estimates from the Washington State Office of Financial Management put the city's population at 49,090. Along with the nearby cities of Pasco
Pasco, Washington
Pasco is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Washington, United States.Pasco is one of three cities that make up the Tri-Cities region of the state of Washington...

 and Kennewick
Kennewick, Washington
Kennewick is a city in Benton County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, near the Hanford nuclear site. It is the most populous of the three cities collectively referred to as the Tri-Cities...

, Richland is one of the Tri-Cities of Washington, home to the Hanford nuclear site
Hanford Site
The Hanford Site is a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, operated by the United States federal government. The site has been known by many names, including Hanford Works, Hanford Engineer Works or HEW, Hanford Nuclear Reservation...

.

History

For centuries, the village of Chemna stood at the mouth of the current Yakima River. Today that village site is called Columbia Point. From this village the Wanapum
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 U.S. state of Washington. About 60 Wanapum still live near the present day site of Priest Rapids Dam...

, Yakama
Yakama
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, or simply Yakama Nation , is a Native American group with nearly 10,000 enrolled members, living in Washington. Their reservation, along the Yakima River, covers an area of approximately 1.2 million acres...

 and Walla Walla
Walla Walla (tribe)
Walla Walla |Native American]] tribe of the northwestern United States. The reduplication of the word expresses the diminutive form. The name "Walla Walla" is translated several ways but most often as "many waters."...

 Indians harvested the salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

 runs entering the Yakima River. Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...

 visited the mouth of the Yakima River on October 17, 1805.

Formative years

In 1904-1905, W.R. Amon and his son Howard purchased 2300 acres (9 km²) and proposed a town site on the north bank of the Yakima River. Postal authorities approved the designation of this town site as Richland in 1905, naming it for Nelson Rich, a state legislator and land developer. In 1906, the town was registered at the Benton County
Benton County, Washington
Benton County is a county located in the south-central portion of the U.S. state of Washington. The Columbia River makes up the north, south, and east boundaries of the county. In 2010, its population was 175,177. The county seat is Prosser, and its largest city is Kennewick...

 Courthouse. It was incorporated on April 28, 1910 as a Washington Fourth Class City.

The war years

Richland was a small farm town until the US Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 purchased 1660 km² (640 sq mi - half the size of Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

) along the Columbia River for the war effort, evicting the 300 residents of Richland as well as those of the now vanished towns of White Bluffs
White Bluffs, Washington
White Bluffs was an agricultural town in Benton County, Washington, United States. It was evacuated in 1943 along with the town of Hanford to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site....

 and Hanford
Hanford, Washington
Hanford was a small agricultural community in Benton County, Washington, United States. It was evacuated in 1943 along with the town of White Bluffs in order to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site...

 just upriver. The army turned it into a bedroom community for the workers on its Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

 facility at the nearby Hanford Engineering Works (now the Hanford site). The population increased from 300 in July and August 1943 to 25,000 by the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 in August 1945. Richland became a closed city (federally controlled Atomic Energy community), with access restricted to residents and others authorized by the U.S. Army. Mail was postmarked Seattle and many addresses were misleading. All land and buildings were owned by the government. Housing was assigned to residents and token rent was collected; families were assigned to houses or duplexes; single people were placed in apartments or barracks. Everything necessary was provided, from free bus service to light bulbs, and trees were planted in people's yards by the government. In 1954 Harold Orlando Monson was elected the first mayor of Richland and traveled to Washington DC to negotiate increased rights (such as private home ownership) for citizens in military cities across the country.

As much of the city was planned by the Army Corps of Engineers many of the streets are named after famous engineers. For instance, the main street (George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 Way) is named after the first president, who was a surveyor; Stevens Drive is named after John Frank Stevens
John Frank Stevens
John Frank Stevens was an American engineer who built the Great Northern Railway in the United States and was chief engineer on the Panama Canal between 1905 and 1907.- Biography :...

, chief engineer of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 and Stevens Pass
Stevens Pass
Stevens Pass is a mountain pass through the Cascade Mountains located at the border of King County and Chelan County in Washington, United States....

; Goethals Drive is named after George W. Goethals, designer of the Panama Canal; and Thayer Drive is named after Sylvanus Thayer
Sylvanus Thayer
Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer also known as "the Father of West Point" was an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and an early advocate of engineering education in the United States.-Biography:Thayer was born in Braintree, Massachusetts,...

, founder of the first professional school of engineering
Thayer School of Engineering
Thayer School of Engineering is a graduate school at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States, whose faculty also double as the undergraduate Department of Engineering Sciences. The school was established in 1867 with funds from Brig. Gen...

 in the United States at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

. The rule is that if alphabet houses reside on a given street, it is named either after an engineer or a type of tree. Due to the unique history of the area, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 2005 as the Gold Coast Historic District
Gold Coast Historic District (Richland, Washington)
The Gold Coast Historic District is a historic neighborhood of Richland, Washington. The homes in this neighborhood are Government-designed and prefabricated homes built in 1943 to house workers for the nearby Hanford Nuclear site.- About :...

.

The end of the war

With the end of the war, that Hanford workers camp, originally located fifteen miles (24 km) north of Richland at the old Hanford town site, was closed down. Although many of them moved away as the war effort wound down, some of these workers moved to Richland, offsetting the depopulation that might otherwise have occurred.

The Cold War boom

Fears that the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

's intentions were aggressive set off the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 in 1947. The capacity to produce plutonium was increased beginning in 1947. When the Soviet Union developed and tested their first nuclear weapon in 1949, the U.S. nuclear program was reinvigorated. A second post-WW II expansion began in 1950 as a result of the war in Korea. Richland's Cold War construction boom resulted in Richland's population growing to 27,000 people by 1952. Many of these people lived in a construction camp of trailers located in what is now north Richland. With time, these trailers were vacated and the core city grew. Others lived at Camp Columbia
Camp Columbia (Hanford)
Camp Columbia was a prison camp established on the north shore of the Yakima River in 1944 near Horn Rapids. The camp operated between February 1944 and October 1947 by Federal Prison Industries. The camp was used to house "minimum-custody-type improvable male offenders," who had no more than...

 near Horn Rapids
Horn Rapids Dam
Horn Rapids Dam is a rock filled timber crib barrage dam on the Yakima River in Benton County, Washington near the intersection of SR 240 and SR 225...

 until the camp was closed in 1950.

Transition to private property

The government got out of the landlord business in 1957 when the real estate was sold to the residents. Most of the people lived in duplexes; senior tenants were given the option to purchase the building; junior tenants were given the option to purchase lots in a newly platted area of north Richland. Richland was incorporated in 1958 as a chartered First Class City, an open self-governed city. As part of the transition, large areas of undeveloped land became city property. Richland's financial dependency on the federal Hanford facility changed little at this time because Hanford's mission as a weapons materials production site continued during the Cold War years.

After the production boom

With the shutdown of the last production reactor in 1987, the area transitioned to environmental cleanup and technology. Now, many Richland residents are employed at the Hanford site in its environmental cleanup mission.

Richland contains many reminders of its past. Richland High School's sports teams are called the Bombers - complete with a mushroom cloud
Mushroom cloud
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive pyrocumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by...

 logo, (at one point there was a campaign to change this to the more politically correct
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...

 B-17 logo after the B-17G "Day's Pay" bought by Hanford workers in 1944 for the U.S. Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....

, but the cloud still prevails). Hanford
Hanford High School
Hanford High School is located on the northern edge of Richland, Washington. The school's mascot is the Falcon, and its school colors are purple and gold....

, the city's other high school, has a less controversial falcon
Falcon
A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

 as its mascot.

Some of the streets platted after 1958 are named after generals in the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

: (Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...

 Street, MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...

 Street, Sherman Street, Pershing Avenue, and after various nuclear themes, (Einstein Avenue, Curie
Curie
The curie is a unit of radioactivity, defined asThis is roughly the activity of 1 gram of the radium isotope 226Ra, a substance studied by the pioneers of radiology, Marie and Pierre Curie, for whom the unit was named. In addition to the curie, activity can be measured using an SI derived unit,...

 Street, Proton
Proton
The proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....

 Lane, Log
Logarithm
The logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, has to be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the power 3: More generally, if x = by, then y is the logarithm of x to base b, and is written...

 lane, and Nuclear Lane). A local museum (Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science, and Technology
Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science, and Technology
The Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science, and Technology is a non-profit museum and science center located in Richland, Washington, dedicated to telling the story of the Columbia Basin and surrounding region. Permanent exhibits include displays about the history of the Hanford Site and...

 (CREHST)) features exhibits of nuclear technology.

Washington State University, Tri-Cities
Washington State University, Tri-Cities
Washington State University Tri-Cities is an urban campus along the Columbia River in northern Richland, Washington. With upper division and graduate programs, WSU Tri-Cities offers 17 baccalaureate, 14 master’s, and 7 doctoral degree programs...

 was founded in northern Richland in 1989, growing out of a former Joint Graduate Center which had been affiliated with the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, Oregon State University
Oregon State University
Oregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...

, and Washington State University
Washington State University
Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...

. Richland is also home to Kadlec Regional Medical Center. Columbia Basin College
Columbia Basin College
Columbia Basin College is a community college based in Pasco, Washington. The College offers many associate degrees and one baccalaureate business degree in applied management....

's Medical Training Center is near Kadlec Regional Medical Center.

Technology

After the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Richland continued to be a center of production and research into nuclear energy
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

, and related technology.

It has been the home of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is one of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington....

 (PNNL) since 1965. One of the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
LIGO
LIGO, which stands for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a large-scale physics experiment aiming to directly detect gravitational waves. Cofounded in 1992 by Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever of Caltech and Rainer Weiss of MIT, LIGO is a joint project between scientists at MIT,...

 sites is located immediately north of Richland. Numerous smaller high technology business and expert consultants have grown up around the Richland technology center as well.

Major employers include Battelle Memorial Institute
Battelle Memorial Institute
Battelle Memorial Institute is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of Ohio and is exempt from taxation under Section 501 of the...

 operating PNNL, Bechtel
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S...

 National Inc. building a waste vitrification plant, Washington River Protection Solutions controlling operations of the nuclear waste tank farms, Washington Closure providing waste management and cleanup efforts including decontamination and demolition (D&D) of facilities along the Columbia River, CH2M Hill
CH2M Hill
CH2M Hill is an American-based global provider of engineering, construction, and operations services for corporations, nonprofits, and federal, state, and local governments. The firm is headquartered in Meridian, an unincorporated area of Douglas County, Colorado in the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan...

 Plateau Remediation Company responsible for D&D of facilities on the site's Central Plateau, Duratek
Duratek
EnergySolutions is one of the world’s largest processors of low level waste , and is the largest nuclear waste company in the United States. EnergySolutions is a publicly traded company NYSE: ES) based in Salt Lake City, Utah, although it has operations in 40 states...

 Federal Services, Inc. providing services to the U.S. government, Energy Northwest
Energy Northwest
Energy Northwest is a United States public power joint operating agency formed by State law in 1957 to produce at-cost power for Northwest utilities. Headquartered in Richland, Washington, the WPPSS became commonly knowns as "Whoops"before being renamed Energy Northwest in November 1998...

 generating nuclear power at a nearby reactor facility, Areva
Areva
AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...

 creating nuclear fuel, Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....

 Services, Inc. providing technology services and the U.S. Department of Energy which operates the Hanford Site
Hanford Site
The Hanford Site is a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, operated by the United States federal government. The site has been known by many names, including Hanford Works, Hanford Engineer Works or HEW, Hanford Nuclear Reservation...

.

Agriculture

Agriculture is important in the Richland area; the Tri-Cities
Tri-Cities, Washington
The Tri-Cities is a mid-sized metropolitan area in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, consisting of three neighboring cities: Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland. The cities are located at the confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia rivers in the semi-arid region of...

 area of the Columbia Basin
Columbia Basin
The Columbia Basin, the drainage basin of the Columbia River, occupies a large area–about —of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In common usage, the term often refers to a smaller area, generally the portion of the drainage basin that lies within eastern Washington.Usage of the term...

 grows excellent produce. Richland hosts an important food processor, ConAgra/Lamb-Weston
ConAgra Foods
ConAgra Foods, Inc. is an American packaged foods company. ConAgra's products are available in supermarkets, as well as restaurants and food service establishments. Its headquarters are located in Omaha, Nebraska...

, which processes potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

es and other foods.

The production of wine in the lower Columbia Basin
Columbia Basin
The Columbia Basin, the drainage basin of the Columbia River, occupies a large area–about —of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In common usage, the term often refers to a smaller area, generally the portion of the drainage basin that lies within eastern Washington.Usage of the term...

 has become one of the main industries. Richland lies at the center of a flourishing viticulture
Viticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

 area which produces internationally recognized wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

s in four major Washington appellations
American Viticultural Area
An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau , United States Department of the Treasury....

 and serves as an ideal center for wine tours. The Columbia Valley appellation which surrounds Richland contains over 7,000 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s planted to wine grapes. On the west the Yakima Valley appellation includes 5,000 hectares. To the east, the Walla Walla Valley appellation includes 500 hectares of wine grapes. To the immediate west, Red Mountain
Red Mountain, Washington
Red Mountain is located in the southeast corner of Washington state near the Tri-Cities. This region is situated among the Columbia, Snake and Yakima Rivers...

, with only 350 hectares planted to grapes, produces world-class wines (consistent award-winning Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...

s from Washington's first quarter-century of fine winemaking often rely on fruit from Red Mountain vineyards near Richland). Barnard Griffin Winery, Bookwalter Winery and Tagaris Winery, all located in Richland, are three of the many regional wineries. Another 20 wineries lie within a 15-minute drive from Richland, and more than 100 wineries within a 60 miles (97 km) radius.

Wine-tasting rooms in Richland

Business and industry

The Tri-City Industrial Development Council promotes both agricultural related and technology related industries in the region.

Education

The Richland School District
Richland School District (Washington)
Richland School District # 400 is the school district of Richland and West Richland, Washington. In 2006, there were 10,150 students served by 1,100 employees.-Elementary Schools:*Badger Mountain Elementary*Jason Lee Elementary*Jefferson Elementary...

 serves the cities of Richland and West Richland
West Richland, Washington
West Richland is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States, served by three elementary schools and a middle school , with an annual budget of about 30 million dollars. The population was 11,811 at the 2010 census...

 with nine elementary schools (Badger Mountain, Jason Lee, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Marcus Whitman, Sacajawea, Tapteal, William Wiley, and White Bluffs); three middle schools (Carmichael, Chief Joseph, and Enterprise); and four high schools: Richland High School (Bombers), Rivers Edge Alternative High School (Firebirds), Hanford High School
Hanford High School
Hanford High School is located on the northern edge of Richland, Washington. The school's mascot is the Falcon, and its school colors are purple and gold....

 (Falcons), and Delta High School (Triangles). The school district's 2006 budget was about $70 million and there are approximately 10,150 students and 1,100 employees in the school district.

Columbia Basin College
Columbia Basin College
Columbia Basin College is a community college based in Pasco, Washington. The College offers many associate degrees and one baccalaureate business degree in applied management....

, primarily located in Pasco
Pasco, Washington
Pasco is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Washington, United States.Pasco is one of three cities that make up the Tri-Cities region of the state of Washington...

, has a small branch campus in Richland.

Washington State University, Tri-Cities
Washington State University, Tri-Cities
Washington State University Tri-Cities is an urban campus along the Columbia River in northern Richland, Washington. With upper division and graduate programs, WSU Tri-Cities offers 17 baccalaureate, 14 master’s, and 7 doctoral degree programs...

, established in North Richland in 1989, sits on the western bank of the Columbia River. The university offers a number of undergraduate and graduate degree programs; it first admitted freshmen and sophomores in the fall of 2007.

Golf

Richland's exceptional climate makes golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 one of the most popular sports. Three 18 hole courses and one 9 hole course designed for varying levels of skill are available in Richland and ten beautiful courses are found in the area.

Outdoor activities

Richland has developed a number of parks, several of them fronting on the Columbia and Yakima Rivers. The rivers provide boating, water skiing, fishing, kayaking and waterfowl hunting opportunities for the outdoor enthusiast. Snow skiing and hiking are no more than 1–2 hours away.

Richland lies within a semi-arid, shrub-steppe
Shrub-steppe
Shrub-steppe is a type of low rainfall natural grassland. Shrub-steppes are distinguishable from deserts, which are too dry to support a noticeable cover of perennial grasses or other shrubs, while the shrub-steppe has sufficient moisture levels to support a cover of perennial grasses and/or...

 environment, and has a number of interesting natural areas within or contiguous to the city:
  • The Yakima River delta and wetlands lie within Richland and provide habitat for many birds and animals. The area around the Yakima delta provides a wooded variation of the normal shrub-steppe.
  • The Badger Mountain Centennial Preserve
    Badger Mountain Centennial Preserve
    The Badger Mountain Centennial Preserve, located on the edge of Richland in Washington, provides a spectacular view of the Tri-Cities as well as the Columbia and Yakima rivers. The preserve provides a small piece of nature in a rapidly growing area. Trails are open for hiking...

    , located on the edge of Richland in the Richland GMA area, provides a spectacular view of the Tri-Cities as well as the Columbia and Yakima rivers. A non-profit group, Friends of Badger Mountain, worked to procure this shrub-steppe area that has most native vegetation intact and then in 2005 built a trail to the summit so others can enjoy it. The 2-kilometer trail rises 300 meters above the trailhead in Richland.
  • The Arid Lands Ecology Reserve
    Arid Lands Ecology Reserve
    The Arid Land Ecology Reserve is the largest tract of shrub-steppe ecosystem remaining in the U.S. state of Washington. It is managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory...

    , at the western edge of Richland on the Hanford Reservation, is the last remaining large block of undisturbed shrub-steppe habitat in the Pacific Northwest. The site has been closed to public since the 1940s, preserving its character. It is managed as an environmental research area and wildlife reserve.
  • North of Richland, the Hanford Reach
    Hanford Reach
    The Hanford Reach is a free-flowing section of the Columbia River, about long, in eastern Washington state, named after a large northward bend in the river's otherwise southbound course. It is the only section of the Columbia in the U.S...

    , the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River in the U.S., provides both excellent sightseeing and superior salmon fishing. This free-flowing stretch flows through the Hanford Reach National Monument
    Hanford Reach National Monument
    The Hanford Reach National Monument is a national monument in the U.S. State of Washington. It was created in 2000, mostly from the former security buffer surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation...

    , which was created by Presidential proclamation in 2000, is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Volunteers are working to construct an interpretive center on Richland's Columbia Point at the confluence of the Yakima a Columbia; as of January 2006, $22M of the necessary funds are in hand and construction is expected later in the year.

Professional sports

Three professional sports teams are found in the immediate area:
  • The Tri-City Americans
    Tri-City Americans
    The Tri-City Americans are a major junior ice hockey team of the Western Hockey League, based in Kennewick, Washington. The team plays its home games at the Toyota Center...

     WHL ice hockey
    Ice hockey
    Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

     team plays in Kennewick.
  • The Tri-City Dust Devils
    Tri-City Dust Devils
    The Tri-City Dust Devils are a minor league baseball team in Pasco, Washington, United States. The Dust Devils are a Short-Season A classification team in the Northwest League and have been a farm team of the Colorado Rockies since their inception in 2001. The Devils play home games at Gesa...

     Single-A baseball
    Baseball
    Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

     team (affiliated with the Colorado Rockies
    Colorado Rockies
    The Colorado Rockies are a Major League Baseball team based in Denver, Colorado. Established in 1991, they started play in 1993 and are in the West Division of the National League. The team is named after the Rocky Mountains...

    ) plays in Pasco.
  • The Tri-Cities Fever
    Tri-Cities Fever
    The Tri-Cities Fever are a professional indoor football team in the Indoor Football League. Their first season was in 2005 as an expansion member of the National Indoor Football League. Though they represent the entire Tri-Cities region, they play their home games exclusively at the Toyota Center...

     indoor football team, a member of the IFL
    Indoor Football League
    The Indoor Football League began in 1999 as an offshoot of the troubled Professional Indoor Football League. Keary Ecklund, the owner of the Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs, left the PIFL after its first, financially-troubled, season to start his own league. Unlike the PIFL, the IFL was an...

    , plays in Kennewick.

Geography

Richland is located at 46°16′47"N 119°16′53"W (46.279657, -119.281377).

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the city has a total area of 37.8 square miles (97.9 km²), of which, 34.8 square miles (90.1 km²) of it is land and 2.9 square miles (7.5 km²) of it (7.79%) is water. Elevation at the airport is 120 m (394 ft).

Climate

Richland receives about 7 inches (177.8 mm) of precipitation per year giving it a semi-arid desert climate and resulting in a shrub-steppe environment. Summers are hot with infrequent thunderstorms, while winters are milder than all of Eastern Washington with snow falling only occasionally and rarely accumulating.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 38,708 people, 15,549 households, and 10,682 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,111.8 people per square mile (429.2/km²). There were 16,458 housing units at an average density of 472.7 per square mile (182.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 89.55% White, 1.37% African American, 0.76% Native American, 4.06% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 1.85% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 2.31% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race was 4.72% of the population.

There were 15,549 households out of which 34.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.3% were non-families. 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.02.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.2% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 25.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 96 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $53,092, and the median income for a family was $61,482. Males had a median income of $52,648 versus $30,472 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $25,494. About 5.7% of families and 8.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.8% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.

Based on per capita income
Washington locations by per capita income
Washington is the twelfth richest state in the United States of America, with a per capita income of $22,973 and a personal per capita income of $33,332 .-Washington counties ranked by per capita income:...

, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Richland ranks 83rd of 522 areas ranked in the state of Washington—the highest rank achieved in Benton County.

Transportation

Richland is served by Richland Airport
Richland Airport (Washington)
Richland Airport is a public airport located two miles northwest of the central business district of Richland, a city in Benton County, Washington, United States...

, located in the city, as well as the Tri-Cities Airport
Tri-Cities Airport (Washington)
Tri-Cities Airport is a public airport located 2 miles northwest of Pasco, in Franklin County, Washington, USA. It is the third largest commercial airport in the State of Washington, and has three runways.-History:...

, located in nearby Pasco. Both have only domestic flights.

Famous residents

  • James (Jim) F. Albaugh
    James (Jim) F. Albaugh
    James F. Albaugh is Executive Vice President of The Boeing Company and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes business unit. He was appointed to lead Boeing Commercial Airplanes on September 1, 2009. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer...

     - Executive Vice President, The Boeing Company, RHS class of 1968
  • Stu Barnes
    Stu Barnes
    Stuart Barnes is an assistant coach with the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League . He played 16 seasons at centre in the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, and Dallas Stars....

     - NHL former player and coach who lives in Richland during the off season and now an owner of the Tri-City Americans
    Tri-City Americans
    The Tri-City Americans are a major junior ice hockey team of the Western Hockey League, based in Kennewick, Washington. The team plays its home games at the Toyota Center...

     along with Olaf Kolzig
  • Tyler Brayton
    Tyler Brayton
    Tyler Brayton is an American football defensive end for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders 32nd overall in the 2003 NFL Draft...

     - National Football League
    National Football League
    The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

     defensive end for the Carolina Panthers
    Carolina Panthers
    The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are currently members of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Panthers, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, joined the NFL as expansion...

  • Travis Buck
    Travis Buck
    Travis George Buck is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball.-College career:...

     - Cleveland Indians
    Cleveland Indians
    The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...

     outfielder
  • Orson Scott Card
    Orson Scott Card
    Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...

     - Science fiction writer (born in Richland but his family moved away soon after)
  • Larry Coryell
    Larry Coryell
    Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...

     - Jazz guitarist, RHS class of 1961
  • Gene Conley
    Gene Conley
    Donald Eugene Conley is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played eleven seasons from to for four different teams. Conley also played forward in the 1952-1953 season and from 1958 to 1964 for two teams in the National Basketball Association...

     - Major League Basketball and Baseball player, RHS
  • Westley Allan Dodd
    Westley Allan Dodd
    Westley Allan Dodd was a convicted American serial killer and child molester. He has been called "one of the most evil killers in history." His execution on January 5, 1993, was the first legal hanging in the United States since 1965.- His childhood years :Westley Allan Dodd was born in Richland,...

     - Serial killer and child molester, RHS class of 1979, hanged January 5, 1993
  • Santino Fontana
    Santino Fontana
    Santino Fontana is an American stage actor, director, and composer. Fontana graduated Richland High School in Richland, WA in 2000. His Broadway debut was Sunday in the Park with George in 2007. Fontana originated the role of Tony in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot from October 1, 2008 to...

     Actor in Broadway Musical "Billy Elliot"
  • Olaf Kolzig
    Olaf Kölzig
    Olaf Kölzig is a retired German professional ice hockey goaltender and associate goalie coach for the Washington Capitals. With the exception of 8 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he played his entire 14 year career with the Capitals...

     - NHL goaltender who lives in Richland during the off season and now owns the Tri-City Americans
    Tri-City Americans
    The Tri-City Americans are a major junior ice hockey team of the Western Hockey League, based in Kennewick, Washington. The team plays its home games at the Toyota Center...

     (along with Stu Barnes)
  • Dina Washburn Kruger - Nobel Peace Prize
    Nobel Peace Prize
    The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

     participant 2007, member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...

    , director of the U.S. EPA climate change division, Hanford High class of 1980
  • James N. Mattis
    James Mattis
    James N. Mattis is a United States Marine Corps general and the current commander of United States Central Command. Having replaced David Petraeus on August 11, 2010, he previously commanded United States Joint Forces Command from November 9, 2007 to August 2010 and served concurrently as NATO's...

     - General, United States Marine Corps
    United States Marine Corps
    The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

     RHS class of 1968
  • Mike McCormack
    Mike McCormack (politician)
    C.G. Mike McCormack is a retired American politician, who served as U.S. Representative from the State of Washington's Fourth Congressional District from 1971 to 1981. He is a Democrat...

     - U.S. Representative from Fourth Congressional District
  • Nate Mendel
    Nate Mendel
    Nathan Gregor "Nate" Mendel is an American bassist for the bands Foo Fighters, The Jealous Sound, Sunny Day Real Estate, and The Fire Theft.-Biography:...

     - Sunny Day Real Estate
    Sunny Day Real Estate
    Sunny Day Real Estate is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. In the 1990s, the group expanded upon the grunge style that was popular in the local scene to make a more melodic sound. While not the first band to be classified as emo, they were instrumental in establishing the genre. In...

     and Foo Fighters
    Foo Fighters
    Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...

     bassist Hanford High School Class of 1987
  • Keith A. Moore - Nerdcore artist known as Beefy
    Beefy (artist)
    Keith A. Moore , is a Nerdcore rapper from The Tri-Cities, WA better known by the stage name Beefy.In 2005, Moore produced two independent EPs, The Whitesican EP and nerd...

  • Jason Repko
    Jason Repko
    Jason Edward Repko is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the Minnesota Twins. Naturally a centerfielder, his career has been slowed by numerous injuries.-High school years:...

     - Los Angeles Dodgers
    Los Angeles Dodgers
    The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...

     outfielder Hanford High class of 1999
  • Hope Solo
    Hope Solo
    Hope Amelia Solo is an American association football goalkeeper. She became a free agent after Women's Professional Soccer terminated the magicJack franchise for which she played in the 2011 season. Solo is the current starting goalkeeper for the United States women's national soccer...

     - United States women's national soccer team
    United States women's national soccer team
    The United States women's national soccer team represents the United States in international soccer competition and is controlled by U.S. Soccer. The U.S. team won the first ever Women's World Cup in 1991, and has since been a superpower in women's soccer. It is currently ranked first in the world...

     goalkeeper, (Summer Olympic Gold Medalist, Bejjing 2008) RHS class of 1999
  • Sharon Tate
    Sharon Tate
    Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for...

     - Actress, murder victim of Charles Manson followers, Miss Richland, 1959
  • John Archibald Wheeler
    John Archibald Wheeler
    John Archibald Wheeler was an American theoretical physicist who was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr in explaining the basic principles behind nuclear fission...

     - eminent American
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

     theoretical physicist
  • Kathryn Ruemmler
    Kathryn Ruemmler
    Kathryn Ruemmler is an attorney who currently serves as White House Counsel to President Barack Obama. She previously worked as Principal Deputy White House Counsel.-Early life and education:...

     - White House Counsel to President Barack Obama, RHS class of 1989

See also

  • Hanford High School
    Hanford High School
    Hanford High School is located on the northern edge of Richland, Washington. The school's mascot is the Falcon, and its school colors are purple and gold....

  • Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is one of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington....

  • Richland High School
  • Richland School District
    Richland School District (Washington)
    Richland School District # 400 is the school district of Richland and West Richland, Washington. In 2006, there were 10,150 students served by 1,100 employees.-Elementary Schools:*Badger Mountain Elementary*Jason Lee Elementary*Jefferson Elementary...

  • Tri-City Railroad Company
  • Washington State University, Tri-Cities
    Washington State University, Tri-Cities
    Washington State University Tri-Cities is an urban campus along the Columbia River in northern Richland, Washington. With upper division and graduate programs, WSU Tri-Cities offers 17 baccalaureate, 14 master’s, and 7 doctoral degree programs...


:Category:Richland, Washington

External links


The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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