 Davenport gained early prominence in the north central part of the Columbia Basin of eastern Washington, with its citizens successfully lobbying to receive the Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern Railway (SLS&E) in 1889 in place of rival Wheatdale.The transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway (NP) established a subsidiary, the Central Washington Railroad (CW), to build a competing railroad line that reached Davenport in February 1889.A branch line of the Great Northern Railway (GN) was built to Davenport from Bluestem in the 1920s.