As the flood waters began to recede, the damage was apparent. The Whitman County
Courthouse in Colfax suffered tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage - millions today. The environmental damage caused by area agriculture precipitated annual floods as the natural barriers to such problems (i.e. dirt, grass and trees) were removed to grow crops.

Image courtesy of Whitman County Rural Heritage.
http://www.washingtonruralheritage.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/whitman/id/1145/rec/8