For decades the major employer in the region has been the Lewiston paper and pulp mill that was historically known as the Potlatch mill. It is now operated by Clearwater Paper, a spin-off approved in of the Potlatch Corporation, a major lumber and paper-manufacturing company with logging operations and production facilities in many states.
The Potlatch Corporation still maintains its extensive logging operations. Many Clarkston residents work at the mill in Lewiston and do their shopping in the larger city. Clarkston has always been burdened with the need to provide services for its residents, while Lewiston provided most of the employment and received the lion's share of revenue.
Although mitigated in recent years, air pollution and pulp mill odor from the Clearwater Paper operation can sometimes make life less than pleasant, especially in Lewiston.
Yet residents of Clarkston, particularly at the higher elevations, claim they are rarely impacted. Clarkston received a public relations boost in when a local high school girl, Lenne Jo Hallgren, won the national America's Junior Miss competition. Mayor Clovis exulted: "She really gave us a shot in the arm in terms of recognition. The Port of Clarkston was established on September 9, , concentrating mainly on industrial development of the area.
Not until the completion of the dams and locks on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the mids were container barges and other large commercial vessels able to reach the ports of the twin cities. Since that time, the ports of Clarkston, Lewiston, and Wilma just across the Snake River in Whitman County have provided a triangle of port service for the huge barges of the Tidewater and Shaver companies, as well as other commercial shipping. Barging is less expensive than rail or truck transport.
Barges carry wheat, potatoes, and other agricultural products downriver to be exported from West Coast ports. On return trips upriver, they bring mainly petroleum products, fertilizers, and pesticides. The Port of Clarkston uses one of the largest cranes on the Columbia to load barges with logs, containers and other cargo. On a smaller scale, there had been freight and passenger service linking Lewiston-Clarkston to the cities of the lower Columbia long before the advent of the dams.
Beginning in , the Colonel George Wright was the first of many steamboats to ply the upper Columbia and Snake rivers. Until the opening of the Celilo Canal around Celilo Falls, goods and passengers had to portage by wagon or short-line railway around the falls and transfer to another steamboat.
The Yakima , the fastest and most luxurious of the steamboats serving Lewiston-Clarkston, had 26 lavishly furnished staterooms and could carry tons of freight. The upper Columbia and Snake River steamboats could make the trip only during the spring and summer when the water was deep.
During the winter, the rivers were too shallow for navigation. A century later, the dams and resulting slackwater eliminated that obstacle and sternwheelers made a return to Clarkston.
With the completion of a new dock in , larger vessels such as the passenger sternwheeler Queen of the West have been bringing tourists upriver from Astoria, Oregon, to Clarkston on scenic multi-day tours of the Columbia and Snake rivers. Currently six cruise lines dock at Clarkston, carrying an average of 13, passengers per year. Furthermore, Lewiston and Clarkston are the take-off point for river cruises, whitewater rafting, and fishing excursions up the Snake River into Hells Canyon.
People seeking these adventures provide business for the outfitters, motels, and restaurants of the twin towns. In recent years environmentalists, Indian tribes, and sport and commercial fishing interests have urged removal of some of the dams that have proven so destructive to salmon survival, in hopes of returning the Snake below Lewiston and Clarkston to its original free-flowing state.
This proposal meets with stout opposition from barging companies, river tour operators, farmers, and ports, and civic leaders in such towns as Clarkston. The advocates of dam removal counter that the economic benefits would eventually outweigh the losses. The project itself would be a huge, though temporary, source of employment.
Yet without barging, the transport of wheat and other products could be accomplished only with the improvement of roads and rail lines. The one sure bet at present is that the controversy will continue into the future. In early August, , U.
District Judge James A. Redden ruled in Portland that the current federal salmon plan is inadequate under the Endangered Species Act, the third time he has done so. Because of relatively low real estate prices, a variety of sport and outdoor opportunities, the starkly scenic surroundings, and its mild climate hot and dry in summer and less cold in winter than the surrounding area Clarkston has attracted a number of retirees in recent years.
In fact the town boasts golf year round. Countering that trend is the drain of young people moving away in search of employment. A young woman who grew up in Clarkston, now working in Spokane, remembers her home town as "an ideally sized town to grow up in; between Lewiston and Clarkston, we had everything we needed -- shopping, entertainment, the river, beautiful walking and biking trails, parks, an excellent education" Moe.
Although, like many towns of its size, Clarkston faces some economic uncertainties, it nevertheless maintains a livable small-town atmosphere for natives and newcomers alike. Planning and Irrigating Although unified in design, the irrigation plan consisted of two separate plats, one for Vineland and one for a town on a corner of the land, which at first confusingly was called Lewiston. Stark, who processed its records for the Washington State University Library, said of the Lewiston-Clarkston Improvement Company: "As the creator of a city plan, this company … was surprisingly successful.
A description accompanying a company plat map gives an idea of the terrain: "The curving roads running approximately southwesterly and southeasterly indicate the steep slopes between the two terraces, or benches, which form the respective areas of Clarkston Heights and Vineland, but all of these slopes are cultivable.
Bridges, Trolleys, Trams, and Highways At the end of the nineteenth century, access to Lewiston, Idaho, was becoming increasingly important to the development of Clarkston, Washington. Paper Mill and Port As Clarkston continued to surpass the older town of Asotin in population, there was sporadic agitation to relocate the county seat to the larger town.
Clarkston Today In recent years environmentalists, Indian tribes, and sport and commercial fishing interests have urged removal of some of the dams that have proven so destructive to salmon survival, in hopes of returning the Snake below Lewiston and Clarkston to its original free-flowing state.
Visitors enjoy the breathtaking beauty of Hells Canyon from several vantage points, with the Seven Devils mountain range rising more than 9, feet in elevation. On an overnight tour, visitors can ride in big, bus-like mail boats while the mail is delivered to residents in the canyon, then dine and stay overnight at a comfortable lodge.
Smaller jet boats offer a thrilling ride into the spectacular canyon with intermittent stops for fishing. Memorials to the explorers and their Indian supporters are scattered around Lewiston. The Williams family, then living in Waterford Township, purchased the first land in , however, they never settled there. In , the first settlers built homesteads.
It was, however, in that the population of the Township really began to grow. Most of the settlers came from New York and New Jersey. This included Jeremiah Clark, who established a homestead in His brother, Nelson, joined him shortly thereafter, settling here in and building his home in what would become the Village of Clarkston.
This home, built in , still exists today at 71 North Main Street.
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