Richland

Sister cities

• Hsinchu City
• Slavutych

History

For centuries, the village of Chemna was at the mouth of the Yakima River. Today the village site is called Columbia Point. From the village, the indigenous Wanapum, Yakama, and Walla Walla people harvested salmon runs entering the Yakima River. Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition visited the mouth of the Yakima River on October 17, 1805. In 1904–1905, W.R. Amon and his son Howard purchased and proposed a town site on the north bank of the Yakima River. Postal authorities approved the designation of this town site as Richland in 1905, naming it for Nelson Rich, a state legislator and land developer. In 1906, the town was registered at the Benton County Courthouse. It was incorporated on April 28, 1910, as a fourth-class city. Population growth in Richland accelerated following the opening of a permanent bridge over the Yakima River in 1907 and a highway to Kennewick in 1926. A cable ferry to Pasco operated across the Columbia River from 1894 to 1931, when it was replaced by a modern bridge. Richland's link to the Army Engineers is suggested by its street nomenclature; many of the streets are named after famous engineers. The main street (George Washington Way) is named after the first president, who was a surveyor; Stevens Drive is named after John Frank Stevens, chief engineer of the Panama Canal and Stevens Pass; Goethals Drive is named after George W. Goethals, designer of the Panama Canal; and Thayer Drive is named after Sylvanus Thayer, superintendent of West Point and later founder of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. The rule is that if alphabet houses reside on a given street, they are named after an engineer or a type of tree. With the end of the war, the Hanford workers' camp, originally located north of Richland…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water. Elevation at the airport is . In the late 1970s, Richland sought to annex of unincorporated land in Franklin County on the east side of the Columbia River, anticipating development following the construction of Interstate 182. The move was blocked by Pasco, who had planned to annex much of the area themselves. The Richland city government filed an appeal against the Franklin County Boundary Review Board in 1983 following their approval of Pasco's claim; the Washington Supreme Court affirmed the Franklin County decision. Richland Wye () is a community within the eastern city limits of Richland. It is the location of the sole access bridge to Bateman Island over the Columbia River. Richland receives about of precipitation per year, giving it a semi-arid desert climate and resulting in a shrub-steppe environment. Summers are hot with infrequent thunderstorms, while winters are milder than all of Eastern Washington with snow falling only occasionally. During the 2021 Western North America heat wave, the maximum temperature of was recorded in Richland which tied the previous all-time record high temperature in the state of Washington. Nearby, the Hanford Site recorded a high of , the new state record.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Richland High School
  High · Richland · 2,137 students · 22.3:1 ratio
• Kamiakin High School
  High · KENNEWICK · 1,884 students · 24.5:1 ratio
• Hanford High School
  High · Richland · 1,788 students · 21.5:1 ratio
• Kennewick High School
  High · Kennewick · 1,785 students · 23.2:1 ratio
• Southridge High School
  High · KENNEWICK · 1,641 students · 22.8:1 ratio
• Desert Hills Middle School
  Middle · KENNEWICK · 889 students · 21.2:1 ratio
• Chinook Middle School
  Middle · Kennewick · 882 students · 21:1 ratio
• Amistad Elementary School
  Elementary · KENNEWICK · 866 students · 18.8:1 ratio