Biohazard Cleanup Near South Wallula Wallula, WA

Wallula is a small census-designated place (CDP) in Walla Walla County, Washington, near the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia rivers and the Columbia River water gap known as Wallula Gap.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped here for three days in April 1806 on its return journey, visiting the village of Walla Walla chief Yallept and learning of an overland shortcut to the Nez Perce homelands that saved the expedition some eighty miles.

In 1811 explorer David Thompson erected a pole at the Snake River confluence nearby claiming the country for Great Britain, and in 1818 the North West Company built Fort Nez Perce at the mouth of the Walla Walla River, a fur-trade post maintained until 1855.

Wallula became an early railroad town: the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad, completed in 1875 with wooden rails topped by strap iron, first linked Walla Walla to the Columbia here, and in 1883 Northern Pacific completed its line from St. Paul to Wallula.

Wallula's population has declined across recent censuses, from 197 people in 60 households in 2000 to 179 in 2010 and 140 residents at the 2020 census.

The CDP is minuscule — just 0.12 square miles of land — yet packs in a density of about 1,200 people per square mile.

Wallula's economy is anchored by a Packaging Corporation of America paper mill, originally built by Boise Cascade in 1958 to produce corrugated shipping containers and acquired by PCA in 2013; the only other businesses in the area are a post office and an auto wreck yard.

Hispanic or Latino residents have become Wallula's largest ethnic group, growing from 16.75 percent of the population in 2000 to 44.3 percent in the 2020 census.

The community takes its name from the Walla Walla people, the Sahaptin-speaking tribe related to the Nez Perce whose homeland this was.