Brown, Phyllis E. (Phyllis Elaine), 1934-
Biography
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/
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Oral history interview with Katherine L. Bohnet and Phyllis E. Brown
Oral history interview with Katherine L. Bohnet and Phyllis Brown, conducted by Clark Hansen on April 12, 1999, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series. Bohnet and Brown discuss dryland farming in Wilson Creek, Washington, and their fight to have their lands removed from the Columbia Basin Project, an irrigation development that supplies water from the Columbia River to central Washington.