mission to include general arts and sciences. The university and the experiment station would aid enterprise by improving farm management, conducting research, and teaching the skills needed to be better farmers. WSU's role as a statewide institution became clear in 1894 with the launch of its first agricultural experiment station west of the Cascade Mountains near Puyallup.
According to the legislation, the site of the land-grant college was to be determined by a three-member committee appointed by the governor, but it stipulated that the site must be located in the southeast corner of the state. After an exhaustive examination of bidding towns such as Yakima and other towns in the Palouse region, the state's new land-grant college opened to 59 students in Pullman on January 13, 1892, offering three major courses of study: agriculture, engineering, and domestic science. Pullman was possibly selected because of a generous land gift by the city and its railroad connections to Spokane and Portland, Oregon. A five-member …
