Driving through the Palouse is as relaxing as sitting a hot tub, jets turned off. I first experienced the ride when my husband and I spent a couple of days in Walla Walla. On the way to the city of vineyards and wineries, we turned south off I-90 at Ritzville, passing Palouse Falls and other spectacular examples of the channeled scablands. For the return trip, at the small town of Dayton north of Walla Walla we decided to take byways heading northeast in the direction of Colfax. Without warning, we found ourselves in farmland. Rounded hills and concave hollows rose and fell ever so gently in no particular pattern. Dark asphalt ribboned the terrain. It was early summer, and the square fields displayed multi hues – pale green, deep green, chartreuse, tan. Occasional copses of trees or tidy houses and barns broke the lulling uniformity of the landscape. It resembled a toddler’s roller coaster.
From Steptoe Butte
What’s in a name?
I thought of the age-old puzzle — which came first, the chicken or the egg – when I read about the origins of the word ‘palouse.’ Perhaps early French-Canadians who entered the region in search of furs heard the name of the local indigenous tribe, the Palus, and fine-tuned that into pelouse, which in French happens to mean ‘lawn’ or ‘short grass.’ Later, the spelling would be changed to Palouse. Conversely, perhaps those early traders used pelouse to refer to the region’s grassy hills, and the local inhabitants became known by the same name. [Of similar origins is the Appaloosa horse, but that’s another story.]
How was it formed?
During glacial periods, when temperatures drop and glaciers expand, the ice grinds rock into a dust known as glacier flour. When temperatures warm, flooding occurs, creating lakes on an immense scale. Over time, many of the lakes drain, creating vast amounts of silt. Then the winds come, lifting the dust and silt into the air and transporting it elsewhere. This sediment is called loess. Theory has it that loess from a dried lake in the Tri-Cities area lifted and eventually settled over southeastern Washington. The loess fell in a series of layers separated by narrow bands of rocky deposits. Over time, the terrain came to resemble giant sand dunes more than 200 feet deep in places.
How was it farmed?
In the mid-1800s, farmers began to settle the region and recognized the richness of the loess soil for growing crops. The indigenous peoples were displaced, native grasses plowed under, and crops planted. Wheat became the region’s most important crop, soon producing more wheat per acre than any other region of its size. Towns and farming communities sprang up, making it one of the most populous regions in the state of Washington.
At first, farmers used horse-drawn combines to harvest the wheat. Man invented, and soon tractors replaced the horses. However, some of the hills, though gentle to the eye, are so steep that the tractors would topple over. Again, man invented, and self-leveling machines solved the problem.
Today, in addition to wheat, rapeseed is planted in the Palouse. Pressed into canola oil, it flowers in a distinctive chartreuse yellow along the hills. Legumes are also planted, and in season, the Palouse fields turn into a checkerboard of greens, yellows, and browns. In recent years, some of the land in the southern Palouse has been converted into vineyards for the growing wine industry. The original prairie habitat has almost completely disappeared.
Highlights of the region:
Courtesy Palouse Scenic Byway
The Palouse extends three-thousand-plus square miles south of Spokane, north of Walla Walla, and east to the western edge of Idaho. The largest towns in the region are Colfax and Palouse – historic farming towns – and Pullman and Moscow, homes to two well-known universities. All are worth a visit. Two rivers – the Snake and the Palouse – wind along the valleys. Two buttes – Steptoe and Kodiak – tower over rippled hills, providing spectacular views of the surrounding farmland. I’ll visit several of these sites in future blogs. The Palouse Scenic Byway website offers a good map of the region and information about its places and activities.