City of Sunnyside Yakima County, Washington

Name: City of Sunnyside
Address: Washington

Mapped Location

City of Sunnyside: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

Information

General information on City of Sunnyside

Feature Type: Incorporated

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Sunnyside

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name	Description
City of Sunnyside	Official
Sunnyside	Official

Origin Notes and History of City of Sunnyside

References to City of Sunnyside that document the origin of its place name

SUNNYSIDE, a town in the eastern part of Yakima County. Mr. E. F. Blaine writes that the town "was laid out by Walter N. Granger in 1893. Before the establishment of this townsite the big canal, known as the Sunnyside Canal, had been started. As the land under the Sunnyside Canal slopes toward the midday sun, the canal and district were named Sunnyside and Mr. Granger, believing that Sunnyside would be the principal town of the new district, called the town Sunnyside." (In Names MSS. Letter 354.) Another version of the origin of the name for the district is given by S. J. Lowe who says that in 1882, he, with Joe Stephenson, Andy McDaniels and one of the Nelsons, went exploring for bunch-grass hay in October, 1882. Lowe says that he, on that trip, conferred the name Sunnyside. On returning, they met J. M. Adams, publisher of the Signal, who at that time recorded the new name in his newspaper. (Yakima Herald, copied in the Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume XIII, page 120.)

Edmond S. Meany in Origin of Washington Geographic Names

Meany, Edmond S., Origin of Washington Geographic Names, 1923 University of Washington, pp 296-297 | Origin of Washington Geographic Names

A Selected Bibliography of City of Sunnyside, Yakima County, Washington

A compilation of essential readings detailing the history, geography, and culture of the region.

Courage and water a story of Yakima Valley's Sunnyside : a factual story of the founding, development and growth of the unique and unusual city of Sunnyside, Washington, located in the heart of the famous Yakima Valley /. by Roscoe Sheller

Roscoe Sheller’s Courage and Water: A Story of Yakima Valley's Sunnyside chronicles the arduous pioneer colonization and massive hydrological subjugation of an unforgiving, sun-baked expanse trapped deep within the arid rain shadow of the Cascade Range. The narrative maps how the severe environmental realities of this hostile inland topography—defined by vast, rain-starved sagebrush steppes and the volatile, untapped kinetic energy of the Yakima River—initially paralyzed all permanent terrestrial settlement, forcing early homesteaders into a desperate, near-fatal struggle against profound drought and blistering climatic extremes. By detailing the grueling transition from barren, uninhabitable wasteland to the explosive deployment of colossal irrigation infrastructure—specifically the heavy mechanized engineering required to aggressively carve the sprawling Sunnyside Canal directly into the baked desert floor—the text illustrates how the agricultural and economic survival of the valley was strictly dictated by the urgent necessity to artificially divert and master this massive riverine volume. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that systematically domesticating the wild aquatic energy of the inland empire and engineering a vast, life-sustaining hydrological grid to conquer the profound arid isolation of the region were the absolute prerequisites for transforming a desolate geographic void into a thriving, heavily cultivated agrarian powerhouse of the Pacific seaboard.

[8], 263 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm

Non-circulating [ 1 ]

History · 1st Edition · Binfords & Mort, Portland, Or., 1952
Related Catalog Items: City of Sunnyside · Yakima County

Yakima County

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Last updated: 2024-05-30