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We have hunting, fishing, and water sports on the river. The retirement community of Desert Aire is just five miles from Mattawa. It’s a beautiful setting along the Columbia with a great 18-hole golf course.
What keeps most people in work here is agriculture. We grow some of the world’s greatest apples, have our own official wine grape appelation: Wahluke Slope Appelation, and grow lots of other crops including alfalfa, cherries, potatoes, onions, peas, corn, asparagus, plums, apricots, peaches, pears, and many seed crops. We have a wonderful, modern school campus. Students from kindergarten to 12th grade attend here. We have about 1,950 students. We are made up of many migrant students, mostly from Mexico. This is because of all the agriculture. The town started as a construction town, in the 1950’s with the building of the two dams. It sort of sprung up overnight, platted primarily by Morris and Ellen Schott. They, both now deceased, are our founding family. Our population is about 3,000 now, but that changes with the seasons and the work.
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We have grocery stores, a post office, gas stations, restaurants, a hardware store, a newspaper, many other businesses and a brand new straw bale library, the only straw bale library in America. It is made with straw bales covered in stucco. We are thrilled to have our own library, finally. We also have two hydroelectric dams within 10 miles. They are Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams. The Wanapums are the Native Americans who originally, and still do, live here. Our electricity is some of the cheapest in the nation but we’d like to keep that a secret. We are very fortunate to have one of the greatest volunteer fire and medical aid departments you could have. Chief Dave Hargroves, the fire commissioners and the crew has brought the department into the 21st Century with modern equipment and well-trained volunteers.
Joyce Edie
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