The city of Pasco is situated in Franklin County which is a part of Washington state. It is one of the zones which makes up the Tri Cities region in the state. The Census of April, 2006, estimated the population in this region to be approximately 46,494 which made it the fast growing city in Washington state.

Pasco is rich in history and heritage sites.On October 16, 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in the Pasco area, at a site now commemorated by Sacagawea State Park. The area was frequented by fur trappers and gold traders. In the 1880s, the Northern Pacific Railway was built near the Columbia River, bringing many settlers to the area. Pasco was officially incorporated on September 3, 1891. It was named by Virgil Bogue, a construction engineer for the Northern Pacific Railway after Cerro de Pasco, a city in the Peruvian Andes, where he had helped build a railroad. In its early years, it was a small railroad town, but the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1941 brought irrigation and agriculture to the area. As well, it determining the site of a nuclear power plant at the nearby Hanford Site. The Sacagawea State Park is a tribute to the Lewis and Clark Expedition which had camped here in 1805. This area became a trading station eventually as lumbermen, gold traders and fur trappers frequented it once the Northern Pacific Railways was constructed in the 1880s. Subsequently economic boom ensued.



Today, Pasco is famous for being in close proximity to the nuclear power plant at Hanford. that is if you think nuclear power is a good thing. Given this and the famed Manhattan Project of the 1950s, the region witnessed a veritable population boom though the phenomenon was largely concentrated in Kennewick and Richland where people seem to like living near a possible man made volcano, as Pasco remained traditionally agrarian.

The 1990s saw a lot of development on real estate in the region and newly incorporated lands have been witnessing building boom with new housing and shopping complexes fast emerging on the skyline. A " West Pasco" as different from the east or older part of the city has also emerged now.

Climatically Pasco is situated in the rain shadow region of the Cascades mountains and so warm summers and chilly winters are the norm. There is little rain if any and the city is bordered on the south by the wide Columbia river.

The industries that dot the city consist of food processing companies like Simplot, ConAgra Foods, Reser's Fine Foods, and Twin City Foods. Vineyards have also emerged as strong contenders in the economic activity chain and among the famous ones are the Gordon Brothers Cellars, Kamiak Vineyards, and Preston Premium Wines.