The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
35°F
Current Conditions
Clear sky
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Then & Now: Downtown Colfax

Town was renamed to honor U.S. vice president

1937: The main street in Colfax is dressed up for the Colfax Round-up. Miriam LaFollette was chosen queen of the annual event, which featured a rodeo, a mounted review through the city streets and a parade with about 400 children and their pets. (Photo archive)
1937: The main street in Colfax is dressed up for the Colfax Round-up. Miriam LaFollette was chosen queen of the annual event, which featured a rodeo, a mounted review through the city streets and a parade with about 400 children and their pets. (Photo archive)

Colfax, the county seat of Whitman County, was settled in the 1860s and incorporated in 1873. The town was originally called Belleville but was renamed to honor Schuyler Colfax, a vice president under Ulysses S. Grant.

The town sits in the heart of the Palouse, a region named for the indigenous Palouse Indians. Located at the confluence of two forks of the Palouse River and close to Palouse Falls, the region is known for growing wheat, lentils, peas and barley. Colfax officials once aspired to the state land-grant college, now Washington State University, but Pullman was chosen.

Colfax is the home of the Palouse Plowing Bee and the Palouse Empire Threshing Bee. The town is the birthplace of Yakima Canutt (rodeo champion and stuntman), John Kitzhaber (Oregon’s governor) and Robert Osborne, primetime host of Turner Classic Movies.

On the Web: Find more historical photos compared with present-day scenes at spokesman.com/then-and-now.

– Jesse Tinsley