Our region has more historical and scenic attractions than most of us take advantage of.

I have lived the last 30 years downriver from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and I grew up nearby in Pendleton, but only months ago did I finally tour Hanford.

And last weekend, my wife and I took the boat tour of the Hanford Reach.

For some three decades, the Hanford Reach was off limits, inaccessible because of World War II and subsequent Cold War secrecy. The Hanford Reach is the roughly 40-mile stretch of the Columbia River that borders Hanford. If you are fond of arid landscapes, this place has more than a measure of beauty.

Columbia River Journeys operates two tour boats out of Richland, Wash. We took the larger vessel, a jet boat that originally operated on the Rogue River. It carries as many as 20. There were 16 on our tour. One man had just finished a contract at Hanford and was heading to another federal nuclear installation in the South.

For those of us whose image of the Columbia River is the border between Oregon and Washington, this part of the river is counterintuitive, because both sides of the river are in Washington. In other words, we were upstream of where the Columbia joins the Snake River. First we sailed north and northwest, then southwest.

Prior to entering the Reach, our boat passed an array of majestic homes perched above the river. One is owned by Jeremy Bonderman, a local boy who has pitched in the Major Leagues. These transitioned to orchards and vineyards.

Our tour guide, Capt. Mike, slowed the boat to point out a concrete pyramid on the portside shore. It was the terminus of the cable that was strung across the river when the nuclear reservation was created in 1943. The cable was removed in 1971.

On the opposite shore, we observed a spillway dumping excess water from the irrigation canal that flows from Lake Roosevelt, behind Grand Coulee Dam.

This part of the river is a Wild and Scenic Byway. At times, the current was exceptionally strong. The shore is a region of 6,320 acres of migrating sand dunes.

Wildlife was abundant. We saw coyotes, deer, egrets, mud daubed swallow nests, white pelicans and a blue heron. The pelicans were so large that gulls beside them look as small as robins.

This trip is especially fascinating to someone who has already seen Hanford, because it offers another angle on the nuclear reservations abandoned and cocooned reactors. Some are quite near the river. Another prominent sight was the conning tower of a Trident submarine, shipped here for disposal of its nuclear reactor.

We could also see the remnants of the town of Hanford a pumping station and a school house. We passed the terminus of two ferries that once crossed the Columbia.

One of the curiosities was Lock Island, a 2-mile long winter home of the Wanapum Indians. It is a restricted area, rife with ancestral artifacts and remains.

The most stunning sight was a 30-mile long arc of white bluffs that soar to 350 feet over the river.

Heading downriver, we noticed an orchardists large white sign proclaiming No Federal Control. That was an ironic complaint, since the sign faces the largest federal construction project in history which made this region rich and virtually recession-proof and well behind the sign is Grand Coulee Dam, which created a huge irrigation project from which that farmer probably draws water.

S.A.F.