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Penawawa, Washington

Penawawa, circa 1967. Cattle rancher Ed Johnson settled in the Penawawa area in 1872, and the town was platted five years later. The community--named after a local creek--had a ferry station, railroad, wheat fields, and orchards, and was nicknamed “the fruit basket of the Palouse.” A school operated from the late 1800s until 1940, when it was consolidated with Colfax, and the Penawawa Library, helmed by Thelma Van Tine, operated until 1951, when it was replaced by the Whitman County Book Mobile. Little Goose Dam inundated Penawawa in 1970.