Pasco West Franklin County, Washington


Mapped Location

Pasco West: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on Pasco West

  • Feature Type: Place

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Pasco West

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

Name Description
Pasco West Official

 

Origin Notes and History of Pasco West

References to Pasco West that document the origin of its place name

Title Cover Image: Origin of Washington geographic names

PASCO, a town near the junction of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, and the county seat of Franklin County. The name was bestowed by Virgil Gay Bogue, Location Engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad. At that time the place was dusty, hot and disagreeable. He had read of a disagreeable town in Mexico by that name and gave it to the new station with no suspicion that it would become an important county seat and railroad center. (F. W. Dewart, Spokane, in Names MSS. Letter 599.) Another version is that Harry McCartney, associated with Mr. Bogue as locating engineers, named it by way of contrast. Pasco was the flattest and hottest place he had found while Cerro de Pasco, Peru, was the highest and coldest place he han ever been in. (Lewis A. MsArthur, in Names MSS. Letter 606.)

Edmond S. Meany in Origin of Washington Geographic Names

 

Last updated: 2017-07-03