Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Lind, WA

Lind is a small incorporated town near the geographic center of Adams County, in the middle of eastern Washington's dryland wheat country.

The Northern Pacific Railway picked the site for a station in 1881 and named it Lind, though the exact origin of the name has been lost.

Brothers James and Dugal Neilson settled there in 1888, the town's first school opened in 1889 with six students, and the brothers platted a townsite of just four square blocks on June 7, 1890.

When the Neilson brothers laid out the town, they gave its north-to-south streets initials meant to spell out "Neilson," but Lind only ever grew large enough to spell "Neilso."

Lind's voters approved incorporation in January 1902 by a margin of 57 to 3, and Dugal Neilson became the town's first mayor.

The 2020 census counted 535 residents in Lind, living in 182 households — down from a historic peak of 831 people in 1910.

Every June, Lind hosts its famous Combine Demolition Derby, in which retired grain combines crash into one another — an event that has drawn national television and magazine coverage.

Washington State University has operated the Lind Dryland Research Station at Lind since 1915, researching wheat farming for the region's dryland growers.

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, Lind — far east of the volcano — received about six inches of ash fall, more than many places much closer to the mountain.

Strata Solar chose Lind for what was then the largest solar farm in Washington, an array of 82,000 panels capable of generating 28 megawatts.