Eltopia () is an
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 ...
in
Franklin County,
Washington
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,
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 ...
, located about 15 miles north of
Pasco, along
U.S. Route 395.
This arid area of south Franklin County was originally inhabited by
Native Americans, who traded with
Lewis and Clark
Lewis may refer to:
Names
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when they passed through the
Columbia Basin in 1805.
After the
Yakima War
The Yakima War (1855–1858), also referred to as the Plateau War or Yakima Indian War, was a conflict between the United States and the Yakama, a Sahaptian-speaking people of the Northwest Plateau, then part of Washington Territory, and the tr ...
of the late 1850s, settlers began to arrive in the region. The first settlers were the cattle ranchers who wanted the vast rangelands available, and those panning for gold in the nearby Columbia river at Ringold (variously Ringgold and Ringgold Bar).
In the late 1870s settlement began in earnest in
Ainsworth at the site of present-day Pasco. The railroad soon followed, and
Northern Pacific Northern Pacific may refer to:
* Northern Pacific Airways, an upcoming airline
* Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference, an NCAA Division I conference
* Northern Pacific Hockey League, an American Tier III junior ice hockey league
* Northern Paci ...
established a station at Eltopia in 1881. The Peach orchards were common in the area, and wheat was a major crop as well.
By 1902, there were enough settlers in the area that a town site was platted, but Eltopia has never been officially incorporated as a city. The story is told that the name comes from an incident among the railroad workers building the town. When a storm washed away some work that had been done, a Cockney worker commented that, "There will be hell to pay".
Notes
Unincorporated communities in Franklin County, Washington
Unincorporated communities in Washington (state)
{{FranklinCountyWA-geo-stub