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"I don't remember much that happened that first year, only that we got a house and barn built out of 1 by 12's standing on end. Dad managed to plow about 15 acres with a walking plow or 'foot burner' as they are called, and planted it to oats in the fall. We had to sell one of the cows as it took most of the daylight to haul water and cut sagebrush to clear the land. Dad and Uncle Ed got a harvest job by driving to Lind, thirty miles away. Dad got $3.50 a day, himself and four mules, so was able to buy our winter groceries. Dad had arrived in Washington with $1,400. With this he had been able to pay the filing fee on 160 acres—which was about the same as the government betting it was impossible to live on the homestead five years without starving to death. If you survived, the 160 acres were yours."

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• Photos of an August, 1907 cloudburst which sent a flash flood through town.
• Photos of February, 1956 flood, demonstrating the effect of a "pineapple express" event in this Eastern Washington community.
• Digitized negatives from the collection of the Franklin County Graphic, documenting community life in Connell across the decades. Paisley shirts, black-rimmed glasses, and an "I Hate Girls" button all make an appearance on this photo of boys participating in a 1966 pie-eating contest.
• Photos from the Connell Heritage Museum, depicting the aftermath of destructive 1905 and 1909 fires in Connell.
• An early promotional map depicting areas to be irrigated as a result of the Columbia River Basin Project. This map includes canals serving Connell, Mesa, and areas east; these were never constructed.
• A series of street murals from present-day Connell. These have been geo-referenced along with other materials in the collection, and can be explored on an interactive map.