Editing Mabton, Washington (section)

==History==
The Mabton area's original inhabitants were the [[Yakama]] people, who were forced onto a [[Indian reservation|reservation]] in 1855. Mabton's existence as a town is due to the [[Northern Pacific Railway]], which arrived in the area around 1884 and built a water tower and section house on the site. Nothing else existed at Mabton until 1892 when Sam P. Flower built a store and a warehouse. He soon became the town's first postmaster. Mabton was named by Charlie Sandburg, a Swedish railworker, who proposed the name "Mabletown" for the wife (or daughter) of a railroad official who had spoken kind words to track workers during an inspection.<ref>Katherine Trembley Wernex (1979), ''It Did Happen Here: A Living History of Old Mabton'', Prosser, Washington: Perfect, p. 2</ref> By 1895, Mabton had several stores, a hotel, a railroad depot and a schoolhouse. The Mabton Townsite Company, formed by Sam P. Flower and J.A. Humphrey, made the first plat in 1902, and by 1904, it had more than a dozen businesses and a newspaper. The town of Mabton officially incorporated on November 7, 1905.

Today, residents primarily are employed in occupations related to agriculture, especially [[hops|hop]] growing and [[grape]] growing.

The Mabton School District has been the repeated beneficiary of grants from the [[Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation]]:
* $558,000 over five years (from 2000 to 2005) to enhance student access to technology;
* In 2001, Mabton High School was one of sixteen high schools chosen to participate in the ''Washington State Achievers Program''; the school gets a share proportional to its student population (about 330 students) of more than $9 million to support school improvement and redesign efforts and more than $100 million for college scholarships for its students;
* Over $40,000 over five years (2001–2006) to improve high school education and access to higher education; and
* Over $125,000 over 34 months (2001–2004) to support professional development programs in partnership with Heritage College.

A small ranch near Mabton was home to the first confirmed case of [[Bovine spongiform encephalopathy|mad cow disease]] in the United States on December 23, 2003,<ref>[http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5650 Historylink.org (Washington State History online encyclopedia), ''First U.S. case of mad cow disease is reported'']</ref> later confirmed to be a cow of Canadian origin imported to the U.S.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cattlerange.com/tcr-m.html#3 |title=Investigators Trace Diseased Cow to Canada |access-date=October 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040211191824/http://www.cattlerange.com/tcr-m.html#3 |archive-date=February 11, 2004 |url-status=dead}}</ref>