Pataha is a small,

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 ...

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. It is located about east of Pomeroy, the Garfield County seat. Pataha is home to the historic Houser Mill, a working water-powered flour mill originally built in 1879.

Geography

Pataha is located along Pataha Creek, about four miles east of Pomeroy, the Garfield County seat.

U.S. Route 12 U.S. Route 12 or U.S. Highway 12 (US 12) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway, running from Aberdeen, Washington, to Detroit, Michigan, for almost . The highway has mostly been superseded by Interstate 90 (I-90 ...

passes from Pomeroy through Pataha as it follows the valley cut by Pataha Creek. The valley is quite steep, only about a mile wide at Pataha and rising more than above the valley floor within a mile on the north side of the community. The valley reaches heights over above the floor immediately to the south of Pataha.

History

The town is located on the Pataha Creek along the Nez Perce trail, a path used by the indigenous

Nez Perce tribe The Nez Perce (; Exonym and endonym, autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwes ...

for crossing the Rocky Mountains. The name Pataha is from the Nez Perce word for 'brush', signifying the dense brush along both sides of the creek. In May 1806,

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

passed through and spent the night on their return journey from the Pacific coast. In 1834, Captain B. L. E. Bonneville passed through the area doing survey work for the US Government. The community that became Pataha began when James Bowers settled on the site in 1861. The next year a

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

line was established between Walla Walla and Lewiston which passed through the area, bringing more settlers. The first settlers were mainly engaged in farming vegetables and

cattle ranching A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often applied to li ...

, eventually leading to a focus on wheat farming in the 1870s. The area began to grow as a town in 1878 and was officially platted in 1882 by Angevine Titus and Company Favor. The town was briefly known as both 'Favorsburg' and 'Watertown', but the original native placename Pataha prevailed. Pataha grew into a successful town, rivalling nearby Pomeroy for some time. Pataha was briefly the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

when Garfield County was created in 1881. The Pataha Spirit newspaper was also established this same year. When the

Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a rail and steamboat transport company that operated a rail network of running east from Portland, Oregon, United States, to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Id ...

brought a rail line to Pomeroy in 1885, the line was not extended to Pataha. Soon the town lost its competitive edge over its neighbor and began to decline. The flour mill continued to run until 1940.

References

Unincorporated communities in Garfield County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state) {{GarfieldCountyWA-geo-stub