Oral history interview with Katherine L. Bohnet and Phyllis E. Brown, 1999 April 12

Katherine L. Bohnet and Phyllis Elaine Brown operated dryland farms in Wilson Creek, Washington. Bohnet (nee Sebastian) was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1940. She grew up in Yakima, Washington, attended the University of Washington, and married Harvey Vern Bohnet in 1960. Brown (nee Pfeiffer), was born in Wilson Creek in 1934, attended Washington State University, and returned to Wilson Creek in 1977 to run the family farm. Bohnet and Brown were active on issues related to groundwater and, from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, fought the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the inclusion of their dryland farms in the Columbia Basin Project, which provides water from the Columbia River for irrigation in central Washington.

Sources: Vital records in Ancestry.com; information provided by Bohnet and Brown in their interview; "Couple Wins Fight to get Farm out of Columbia Basin District," Tri-City Herald, June 20, 1983, Page C3; "Columbia Basin Project," Northwest Power and Conservation Council website (undated, accessed February 2026), https://www.nwcouncil.org/reports/columbia-river-history/columbiabasinproject/

In 1990, the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University, and Washington State University Vancouver formed the Center for Columbia River History (CCRH) to promote research, education, and public programs about the Columbia River Basin. The center operated for more than 20 years. Among its work was the Columbia River Basin Project (CRBP), an umbrella project supported by a 1997 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The CRBP included online exhibits, oral histories, and high school curricula about the history of the region's land, wildlife, and people.

As part of the project, CCRH partnered with the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program, headed by Jim Strassmaier, to gather interviews. Oral Historian Michael O’Rourke spearheaded the Northwest Power Planning Council Oral History Series, while Oral Historian Clark Hansen oversaw the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series, with aid from two Portland State University research assistants, Dannette Rowe and Tania Hyatt. In addition, CCRH conducted oral history interviews for a third project, Columbia Communities, and later donated the interview recordings and transcripts to the OHS Research Library, where they are designated SRC 1.

The Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series culminated in 59 interviews (approximately 184 recorded hours) conducted between 1998 and 2001. Interviewees included Native people, activists, farmers, conservationists, fishers, and others who contributed to the shaping of policies that have had, and continue to have, significant impacts on the Columbia River Basin in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. The interviewees opposed policies by agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and advocated for alternative visions of management and use of the Columbia River.

Sources: “Voices of the Columbia,” by Bryan White, PSU Magazine, Fall 1998, Page 17; Center for Columbia River History brochure, undated (circa 2000); Center for Columbia River History website (accessed July 10, 2025, partially archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250215175329/https://columbiariverhistory.org/; email correspondence with Donna Sinclair, 2025; email correspondence with Tania Hyatt, 2025; Oregon Historical Society Research Library internal documentation.