Franklin County Historical Society

The museum highlights the early days Pasco and the Tri-Cities.

NPS/BURGHART

Quick Facts

Location:

Pasco, WA

MANAGED BY:

Franklin County Historical Society

Amenities

3 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Restroom, Wheelchair Accessible

Located in Pasco’s 1911 Carnegie Library, the Franklin County Historical Museum uses artifacts, educational programs, and displays to share the story of development of Franklin County. The library’s solid structure demonstrates the early settlers’ desire to create a permanent and well-educated community in their new home. The building itself is an important historic structure from Pasco’s pre-Manhattan Project past. The community served as a major railway center where farm products from the Columbia Basin, such as sweet cherries and grapes, were shipped to consumers throughout the nation. 

While the railroad and agriculture sustained Pasco’s businesses and people in the early 1900s, World War II really spurred massive local population increases. Constructed in 1942, Naval Air Station Pasco was a major training facility and defensive air base that brought approximately 4,000 airmen to Pasco.  

Also constructed in 1942, Big Pasco was one of the largest military freight depots in the United States and brought additional workers and military personnel to Pasco. The Manhattan Project’s Hanford Site, which began construction in 1943, used Pasco as the receiving site for the workers, equipment, and building materials that arrived by rail. 

Visit Franklin County Historical Society to learn more. 
 

Continue Your Journey 
 

Nearby there are several sites where you can learn more about life in the Pasco during World War II. Big Pasco was the site of a major logistics and transportation hub for the wartime US military. The Pasco Aviation Museum, housed in a restored WWII naval air station, has vintage aircraft and interpretive displays about aviation history. 

Travel to Morningstar Baptist Church, literal and figurative center of the African American community in East Pasco, to visit the city’s first black congregation whose roots date back to the Manhattan Project. Visit the Lewis Street Underpass and see the unofficial dividing line that segregated the city during the Manhattan Project.