The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Every spring, the Touchet River Valley awakens. What lies dormant for months in winter, suddenly explodes with green life fed by rains and the welcome sun in skies blue to heaven. Everything stirs and moves and grows in this fertile soil that yields a bounty every year. It has been this way ever since the Palus Indians roamed these hills and fields, harvesting roots such as quamash, camas, kouse, bitterroots, chokeberry, huckleberry, gooseberries, rose berries and whortleberries, just to name a few.

The valley's European pioneers took immediately to the rich earth so close to the Blue Mount...