The Heart Of The Palouse

  Eight miles west of Moscow, Idaho is Pullman, Washington. Pullman is another small town that is dominated by its university, in this case it is Washington State University. WSU has about 18,500 students. It also occupies a huge, oversized campus like its neightbor, the University of Idaho, does. It is on the northeast side of Pullman, but it seems like the whole east side of town is part of the WSU campus. A rather unflattering  nickname for the university is "WAZZU."
  The Washington State Cougars compete in what was known at the Pac 10 Conference, now known as the Pac 12 because of the addition of two more schools to the conference. Their football stadium, Martin Stadium, is big, but with a capacity of 37,500; it is the smallest stadium in the Pac 12 and one of the smallest in Division 1. Washington State and Idaho are two of the most isolated schools in Division 1.
  The university has a really neat logo that has the letters "WSC, " but the way the letters are drawn, it looks like a cougar with its mouth open. That is a very clever design. The cougar logo is painted on the pavement in the middle of many of Pullman's busiest intersections.
  Pullman is quite a bit hillier than Moscow is. Like Moscow, downtown Pullman contains alot of cafes, bistros, taverns and bars which is typical of college towns. Pullman has a population of about 30,000 people, so it is bigger than Moscow.
  Pullman was founded in 1871, one year earlier than Moscow, but Washington State University was founded one year later than the University of Idaho was--1890 as compared to 1889.
  The eastern part of Washington bears very little resemblance to western Washington  and there has been some talk over the years of splitting the state along the crest of the Cascade Mountains or maybe some point a short distance east of the Cascades. I don't think anything serious has ever come out of it, though.
  East of the Cascades is mostly farming and ranching country and sparsely populated while west of the Cascades is a rainforest,  is heavily populated and prime timber country. Tourism is also more prevalent in the western part of Washington than in the east and it defines the public conception of the state of Washington with its towering trees and dense, wet, moss and lichen covered forests.