1921 Map of Walla Walla

About this map

Walla Walla is depicted here as a thriving agricultural and rail hub at the foothills of the Blue Mountains shortly after the turn of the century. The city layout is highly detailed, showing the State Penitentiary on its northern edge and the Whitman Monument to the west, commemorating local missionary history. The landscape is defined by the transition from the broad, arid Eureka Flat in the northwest to the complex drainage systems of the Touchet River and Mill Creek. This 1916 and 1919 survey records a period when the region was densely punctuated by small rural schoolhouses, such as Pettijohn School and Bourgeois School, and interconnected by the Northern Pacific Railway and the Oregon Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, illustrating the peak of the inland empire's railroad-driven wheat economy.