When I first started exploring BN's ex-NP line between Pasco and Spokane in the mid-1980s, one of the things that impressed me was the evidence of past flooding in the coulees between Hatton and Connell, and on down to Mesa. There were tumbleweeds and mud and other debris wedged between the tops of the retaining walls and the bottoms of the bridge decks. And those retaining walls still showed their 1880s/1890s construction dates, meaning they had survived a century of flash floods while helping support the countless trains that had passed overhead.