2019_KittitasCountyHMP_Volume 1_For Adoption

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CHAPTER 4. KITTITAS COUNTY PROFILE 4-2 • Biking • Golf In addition, the county offers historic attractions from the early days of Washington’s mining and railroading industries in cities such as Roslyn, Cle Elum, Liberty, Easton, Thorp and Ellensburg. Ellensburg is also home to Central Washington University and the Ellensburg Rodeo. 4.2. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Kittitas County was part of the land ceded by the Yakama Tribe in 1855. Briefly part of Ferguson County (now defunct), then Yakima County, Kittitas County was established on November 24, 1883. The Kittitas Valley became a stopping place for cowboys driving herds north to mining camps in Canada and northwest to Seattle/Tacoma. By the late 1860s, cattle ranchers established land claims and cattle became the area’s foremost industry. Significant points in the County’s history included the completion of a wagon road over Snoqualmie Pass in 1867, the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1887, the discovery of gold in Swauk Creek in 1873 and coal near Cle Elum in 1883, and the 1932 completion of the Kittitas (irrigation) Project. Today the main industries are agriculture (including timothy hay to feed racehorses), manufacturing (food processing, lumber and wood products), and government (including employment at Central Washington University). Interpretations of the meaning of the word Kittitas vary, but the name probably refers to the region’s soil composition. If this is the case, Kittitas could mean shale rock, white chalk, or white clay. Another interpretation is that the bread made from the root kous was called kit-tit. Kous grew in the Kittitas Valley. “Tash” is generally accepted to mean “place of existence.” The first inhabitants of the Kittitas Valley were the Psch-wan-wap-pams (stony ground people), also known as the Kittitas band of the Yakama or Upper Yakama. Although the Kittitas were distinct from the Yakima (later renamed Yakama) Tribe, settlers and the federal government (for treaty purposes) grouped the Kittitas with the larger Yakama Tribe. The Kittitas Valley was one of the few places in Washington where both camas (sweet onion) and kous (a root used to make a bread) grew. T hese were staples that could be dried, made into cakes, and saved for winter consumption. Yakama, Cayous, Nez Perce, and other tribes gathered in the valley to harvest these foods, fish, hold council talks, settle disputes, socialize, trade goods, race horses, and play games. The west side of the Columbia River at what would eventually become the eastern border of Kittitas County was home to some dozen Wanapum villages. Fur trader Alexander Ross was one of the earliest non-Native Americans to describe the Kittitas Valley. Along with a clerk, two French Canadian trappers, and the trappers’ wives, Ross entered the Kittitas Valley in 1814 to trade for horses. The abundant bunchgrass and clear streams of the Kittitas Valley gave rise to a prosperous cattle industry. Much of this success was foretold by local Indians who, before the advent of white settlement, grazed horses in the valley and sold them to neighboring tribes and white explorers and traders who passed through. As early as 1861, white ranchers from the Yakima Valley grazed their cattle in the Kittitas Valley before continuing on to mine districts in the north-central region and British Columbia. The mining towns eventually began raising their own cattle, but Puget Sound demand filled the vacuum; the cattle were herded to the Sound through Snoqualmie or Naches Pass. By the late 1860s, cattle ranchers established land claims in Kittitas itself. Over the next 10 years, especially in the late 1870s, new ranches flourished and large herds of cattle grazed everywhere. The resulting overproduction led to declining beef prices. Prices, however, rose to earlier levels after the severe winter of 1880-81 killed more than half the herds. Although the number of cattle eventually returned to early levels,