Priest Rapids Irrigation District.

A governmental business dealing in irrigation, electrical power, and real estate development in northeastern Benton County, locally known as the Hanford Irrigation Project.

The Priest Rapids Irrigation District, White Bluffs and Hanford, Washington, a quasi-municipal corporation, was first organized by the Benton County Commissioners in 1920, but remained inactive until the early 1930's when it acquired the properties of two bankrupt firms, the Black Rock Power and Irrigation Company and Consumers Ditch Company. From 1931 to 1943 the district operated as a governmental business dealing in irrigation, electrical power and real estate development and known as the Hanford Irrigation Project. In early 1943, the district's properties were taken over by the federal government and were placed under the Manhattan District of the United States Army for use as an atomic energy facility. Because of the confusion caused by the swiftness of the government seizure, the district was not dissolved, nor its assets fully liquidated, until 1951.