Editing Mega Tri-Cities (section)

== History ==

=== Before Settlement ===

Long before the city existed, the land belonged to the Indigenous peoples of the Columbia Basin. Ancient stories speak of powerful spirits inhabiting the rivers, canyons, and hills surrounding the basin.

Several supernatural factions believe these stories are not merely legends.

=== The Frontier Era ===

The arrival of explorers, traders, and settlers transformed the region. Railroads, agriculture, and river commerce established the foundations of modern civilization.

Conflicts between settlers, native peoples, and hidden supernatural forces shaped the territory in ways never recorded by history books.

=== The Atomic Age ===

No event altered the city more dramatically than the development of the Hanford Site.

Official records describe Hanford as a nuclear production and research facility. Unofficial records tell a darker story. Strange disappearances, unexplained phenomena, and classified experiments have plagued the area since the 1940s.

Many believe the region's supernatural population exploded following Hanford's creation.

=== The Consolidation ===

As population growth accelerated throughout the twenty-first century, Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco became increasingly interconnected.

In official government records, the cities remain separate municipalities. In practice, they function as a single metropolitan region. The term "Mega Tri-Cities" emerged to describe the unified urban sprawl stretching across Benton and Franklin Counties.