Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Prosser, WA

Prosser is the county seat of Benton County, situated on the Yakima River near the eastern end of the Yakima Valley in south-central Washington.

The city is named for Colonel William Farrand Prosser, who surveyed the area in 1879 and claimed a homestead there in 1882.

Prosser was officially incorporated in 1899, when it had a population of just 229 people.

When Benton County was carved out of Yakima and Klickitat counties in 1905, Prosser was chosen as the county seat, and it kept the seat when voters rejected a move to Kennewick or Benton City in a 1912 referendum.

The 2020 census counted 6,062 residents in Prosser, up from 5,714 in the 2010 census.

Prosser has been dubbed the "Birthplace of the Washington Wine Industry" because of the pioneering grape research carried out there.

Washington State University's Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center (IAREC) in Prosser is the largest and most diverse research center in the WSU system, with scientists stationed there for more than a century.

Horticulturist Walter Clore began work at the Prosser research station in 1937 and spent nearly four decades proving European wine grapes could thrive in the region; the Washington Legislature officially recognized him as the "Father of the Washington Wine Industry."

The Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center, opened in 2014 on a bluff overlooking the Yakima River in Prosser, houses the Legends of Washington Wine Hall of Fame.

The famous Rainier cherry was bred by researchers at the WSU center in Prosser.