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 ...
Washington
Washington most commonly refers to:
* George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States
* Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. It is located along
BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...
's
Lakeside Subdivision
The Lakeside Subdivision is a railway line in eastern Washington running about from Sunset Junction, west of Spokane to Pasco. It is operated by BNSF Railway and is considered part of the Northern Transcon.
The line is used by the Portland ...
. Paha is assigned the ZIP code 99169.
A post office called Paha was established in 1886, and remained in operation until 1943. The name Paha is Indian in origin.
History
Prior to settlement by European Americans, the area that is now Paha was inhabited by Native Americans. The word "Paha" was their term for "big water" for the reliable spring nearby. The name was applied by settlers when 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 ...
built a station there in 1883. Around that time, a townsite for Paha was platted by a George A. Miller, though his plat was vacated upon request of the railroad in 1887. In 1889, the town was replatted, this time by the railroad. An addition was platted in 1902 by Clark Long, a former probate judge and Commissioner of Adams County.
The town had a weekly newspaper called The Hub which began publication in 1901.
Geography
Paha is located in Paha Coulee, a thin, steep valley running northeast-to-southwest. The flat bottom of the valley, which is only about a third-of-a-mile wide at Paha, sits at an elevation of 1,565 feet above sea level. The hills on either side rise over 300 feet within a mile of the town. Paha Cemetery is located atop the hill immediately north of town. Through the valley runs an
intermittent stream
Intermittent, temporary or seasonal rivers or streams cease to flow every year or at least twice every five years. Such rivers drain large arid and semi-arid areas, covering approximately a third of the Earth's surface. The extent of temporary ...
along with a railroad track and U.S. Route 395. The highway has an exit allowing access to the community along Paha Packard Road. The city of Ritzville, the county seat, is located 10 miles northeast of Paha where Route 395 and
Interstate 90
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...