Thornton, Washington — Fewer Neighbors, Bigger Wheat Farms

Thornton sits in northern Whitman County among the rolling dryland fields of the Palouse.

Rail transportation once made small grain points economically useful. Farmers needed places to load harvests and receive supplies even when households were scattered across miles of country.

Then agriculture changed scale.

Trucks replaced many rail functions, machinery grew larger and farms consolidated. Fewer people could work more acreage, reducing the population and businesses needed around places such as Thornton.

The settlement became smaller without the surrounding economy becoming less productive.

That is the important part of Thornton's story. The quiet streets are not evidence that nothing is happening; much of what is happening now requires fewer people to do it.