Covello, Washington — Farm Community in the Touchet Country

Covello sits in Columbia County's agricultural country, where the Touchet River and its tributaries cut through a landscape otherwise dominated by farms, pasture and long rural roads.

Places like Covello once had a practical reason to be closer together. A farm family needed schools, mail, supplies and transportation without spending half a day getting to them. As roads improved and farms grew larger, Dayton absorbed more of those functions.

The agriculture did not disappear with the old rural service pattern. Grain and livestock still give this part of southeastern Washington its working rhythm, even though households are spread much farther apart than the word “town” might suggest.

Covello makes more sense as a neighborhood written across acreage: not much of a skyline, but plenty of country between mailboxes.