Best Web Design in Pasco, WA (2026)

Web Design for Pasco, Washington

Pasco is the county seat of Franklin County and the fastest-growing of Washington's three Tri-Cities, sitting where the Snake River meets the Columbia in the high desert of Eastern Washington. Built as a Northern Pacific railroad town and sustained by irrigated agriculture and food processing, it became the Northwest's first Hispanic-majority county seat, with roughly 57 percent of residents identifying as Hispanic. Its downtown Farmers Market and sprawling weekend flea market give the city a distinctly agricultural, bicultural character.

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

About Pasco

Also known as. One of the Tri-Cities (with Kennewick and Richland). Named after Cerro de Pasco, Peru.

History. Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in the area on October 16, 1805, near the Snake-Columbia confluence, a site now commemorated by Sacajawea State Park. Named by Virgil Bogue, a Northern Pacific Railway construction engineer, after Cerro de Pasco, a high, dry city in the Peruvian Andes where he had helped build a railroad. Officially incorporated on September 3, 1891, growing from a Northern Pacific rail division point. Completion of Grand Coulee Dam (1941) brought irrigation that turned the surrounding shrub-steppe into productive farmland. The World War II Hanford Site (which produced plutonium for the 'Fat Man' bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945) fueled rapid regional growth, though most population went to Richland and Kennewick while Pasco stayed agricultural. Franklin County, created November 28, 1883 from Whitman County and named for Benjamin Franklin, became the first Hispanic-majority county in the Northwest in 2006.

Local economy. Agriculture is the primary economic driver and dominates the industrial tax base. Food processing anchors employment: Lamb Weston (frozen potatoes), Reser's Fine Foods, Twin City Foods, and Tyson Foods operate here. BNSF Railway maintains major rail-yard operations, a legacy of the Northern Pacific. Regional employers reaching into Pasco include the Hanford nuclear cleanup, Energy Northwest, Boise Cascade, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Wine production is part of the broader Columbia Valley agricultural economy.

Culture and community. Roughly 57.5 percent of residents are Hispanic (2020 census), giving the city a strongly bicultural food and festival scene. The Fiery Foods Festival, held each September in Peanuts Park and downtown, celebrates chile peppers and bold flavors and is free to the public. The Pasco Farmers Market runs May through October in downtown's Peanuts Park. A Cinco de Mayo festival and other Latino cultural events center on the downtown core. The Tri-City Dust Devils, a minor-league baseball affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, play at Gesa Stadium. The Tri-Cities Pride Festival began in 2016.

What makes Pasco distinct. The Pasco Flea Market draws large numbers of vendors across a multi-acre lot on the city's east side, a weekend institution since the 1980s. Peanuts Park honors Noburu 'Peanuts' Fukuda, a beloved local known for riding a distinctive three-wheeled bike; it was named for him in April 1977. Pasco sits in a rain shadow and receives very little annual precipitation despite its farm productivity, which depends on Columbia Basin irrigation. In the Jim Crow era, Black residents were effectively restricted to living east of the railroad tracks; in 1948 pianist Hazel Scott successfully sued a Pasco restaurant for discrimination, drawing national attention. Novelist Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) and NFL Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher have Pasco ties.

Pasco Landmarks and Local Life

• Sacajawea State Park - at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers, marking a Lewis and Clark campsite
• Peanuts Park - the downtown gathering space named in 1977 for local icon Noburu 'Peanuts' Fukuda
• The Pasco Flea Market - billed as the largest open-air market in Washington, running weekends March through November
• Chiawana Park along the Columbia River
• Gesa Stadium - home of the Tri-City Dust Devils
• HAPO Center - a regional events and convention venue