Burbank, Washington — Three Rivers and a Botanist

Burbank sits near the meeting of the Snake and Columbia, with the Walla Walla River entering nearby.

Those corridors organized Indigenous travel, fishing and trade long before railroads, highways and barges followed the same geography.

The modern community took the name of horticulturist Luther Burbank, an appropriate namesake for agricultural country transformed by irrigation.

Farms spread across formerly dry ground while the Tri-Cities grew across the river.

Burbank became partly agricultural and partly suburban, with residents commuting toward Pasco while remaining outside an incorporated city.

Luther Burbank became famous for changing plants.

The larger local transformation came from changing where water went.