Fruitland, Washington — Orchard Name Became a Memory

Fruitland's name preserves an agricultural promise made about dry country above the Columbia.

Settlers planted orchards and farms where favorable ground and available water made them practical. Fruit growing helped give the district both an economy and a name.

Then Grand Coulee Dam transformed the river below into Lake Roosevelt, moving shorelines and changing transportation and recreation across southern Stevens County. Ranching, forestry and lake-oriented activity joined agriculture as the local economy diversified.

The orchards no longer explain everything about Fruitland. The name still remembers the era when somebody expected them to.