Best Web Design in Kennewick, WA (2026)

Web Design for Kennewick, Washington

Kennewick is the largest of Washington's Tri-Cities, sitting on the southwest bank of the Columbia River near the confluence of the Columbia, Yakima, and Snake. Once desert sagebrush, it exploded from a farm town into a retail and manufacturing hub when the Manhattan Project's Hanford Site drew workers in the 1940s. Today it anchors a wine-country region with more than 300 wineries and hosts one of the Northwest's biggest hydroplane-race weekends.

AppWT works with Kennewick, WA businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Kennewick

Also known as. The Tri-Cities (with Pasco and Richland). Twin Cities (Kennewick-Pasco, after the 1922 Green Bridge). Tehe (early railroad-era name, 1886-1891).

History. Native peoples, including the Umatilla, Wanapum, Nez Perce, and Yakama, occupied the area for at least 9,000 years; the land was ceded at the 1855 Walla Walla Council. The townsite was laid out in 1892 by the Northern Pacific Irrigation Company, and Kennewick incorporated on February 5, 1904. The 1922 Pasco-Kennewick 'Green Bridge' linked the two towns into the 'Twin Cities'; the four-lane Blue Bridge replaced older crossings in 1954. The 1943 opening of the Hanford nuclear site for the Manhattan Project drove explosive growth; Kennewick jumped from about 1,918 residents in 1940 to 10,085 by 1950, later becoming the largest Tri-City. Kennewick was historically a 'sundown town' that discriminated against African Americans through covenants and after-dark restrictions, drawing NAACP challenges in the 1960s. Kennewick Man, a roughly 9,000-year-old skeleton, was found on the Columbia's banks in 1996; after a long legal fight and DNA confirmation of Native American ancestry, Columbia Plateau tribes reburied 'the Ancient One' on February 18, 2017.

Local economy. Kennewick is the retail hub of the Tri-Cities and home to the Columbia Center Mall, the only enclosed mall in the region. Lamb Weston, the frozen-potato company, maintains corporate offices in Kennewick; Tyson Foods runs a processing facility and Amazon operates offices in the city. The regional economy leans heavily on the Hanford Site cleanup and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, plus food processing and manufacturing. Irrigated agriculture (cherries, grapes, wheat, alfalfa, corn) feeds a wine industry of more than 300 wineries and tasting rooms that drives area tourism.

Culture and community. The Tri-Cities Water Follies in July is the biggest weekend event, headlined by the HAPO Gold Cup unlimited-hydroplane races on the Columbia River; more than 70,000 people attend related events annually. The combined Benton-Franklin County Fair and Rodeo features the Horse Heaven Round-Up, carnival rides, livestock shows, and concerts. The Tri-City Americans, a Western Hockey League junior team founded in 1988, play at Kennewick's Toyota Center. The Tri-City Dust Devils Minor League Baseball club, an affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, plays just across the river at Gesa Stadium in Pasco.

What makes Kennewick distinct. When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, ashfall darkened the sky at midday and tripped Kennewick's streetlights. Nearly 80 percent of the city's electricity is hydroelectric, with about 10 percent nuclear and under 5 percent from fossil fuels. Sitting in the Cascade rain shadow, Kennewick receives about as little precipitation as Phoenix, Arizona and is prone to spring and fall dust storms. Kennewick Man is one of the oldest and most complete ancient skeletons ever found in North America and reshaped scientific debate over the peopling of the Americas.

Kennewick Landmarks and Local Life

• Columbia Park - the city's largest park, a riverfront stretch with the Sacagawea Heritage Trail, boat launches, a golf course, and the hydroplane race course
• Toyota Center - a roughly 5,700-seat arena hosting the Tri-City Americans and college basketball
• Southridge Sports and Events Complex - a 52-acre facility that includes a restored historic carousel and a memorial beam from the World Trade Center
• Clover Island on the Columbia - redeveloped with a lighthouse, hotel, and Ice Harbor Brewing Company; the Columbia Center Mall serves as the regional shopping anchor