Whitman County’s secret waterfalls

The muddy Palouse River swollen by high spring runoff from the Idaho mountains, roars over Gildersleeve Falls, a remote oasis tucked away west of Hooper.

Now only accessible with the permission of private landowners, Gildersleeve Falls was once seen as a vast resource for irrigating and powering the Columbia Plateau.

Local historian Alex McGregor, whose family once owned the falls, said a dam was set up at the falls by the Palouse Irrigation and Power Co. in 1897 to provide power to residents of Washtucna and to hold water for farmers from Moses Lake to Pasco.

While the power generated during...