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 spring and fall months was adequate, the lights in Washtucna often glowed a weak orange when the Palouse River flow dropped to a mere trickle in the summer months.

McGregor explained the company had grander plans for dams on Rock Lake to regulate the water for power and irrigation purposes, but those efforts proved too expensive.

Now all that remains of the power efforts is two stone walls, one of which is pictured above, remnants of the power plant that exploded in 1922, killing the night watchman and ending efforts to use the falls as a power plant.

The falls get their name from the Gildersleeve family which settled in a now-abandoned homestead nearby and ranched the ground around the river.

The falls are accessible by taking Old Highway 26 from Hooper and turning onto Charles Tobin Road.

The public road ends short of the falls, requiring a hike along the railroad and permission from the landowners to cross their hay field.