Ellensburg - Washington
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Volcanoguy
N 46° 59.739 W 120° 32.828
10T E 686491 N 5207600
Ellensburg, Washington, the county seat for Kittitas County.
Waymark Code: WM864B
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 02/05/2010
Views: 12
From the guidebook:
ELLENSBURG, 20.3 m. (1,518 alt., 5,944 pop.), neatly laid out on the flat floor of Kittitas Valley approximately in the geographic center of the State, has preserved much of its early Western atmosphere. Stooped prospectors, squaws in screaming calicos, and leather-jacketed students mingle with sedate professional men. Several Chinese families live in Ellensburg, descendants of a band that followed the eastern Washington gold rush and worked over mine dumps left by white men.
An annual rodeo, staged for a three-day period ending on Labor Day, is second in the Pacific Northwest only to Pendleton’s famous “Roundup.” The event brings to the city leading professionals in riding and roping and spectators from all portions of the State.
Originally called “Ellen’s Burgh,” after Ellen Shoudy, wife of John A. Shoudy, one of the original settlers, the town dropped its “h” by order of the Post Office Department. It is the seat of Kittitas County.
The first settlement here was picturesquely styled “Robber’s Roost”; this name appeared on the sign of a log trading post, the only structure in the valley at that time. The building was erected in 1867 near a spring, now within the city limits, by Wilson, the renegade. Wilson sold out to A. J. Splawn, a young and adventurous cowboy who called it Robber’s Roost after his outlaw predecessor. In 1872 the town consisted of a general store, saloon, post office, blacksmith shop, and a few residences.
Growth was more rapid after 1883. With the coming of the long-awaited Northern Pacific Railway in 1886, the town was incorporated; when the Milwaukee arrived in 1907, Ellensburg boomed.
Gold from the Swauk Creek district continues to pass through. Farming and dairying, stabilized by irrigation, are supplemented by coal mining in near-by mountain communities.
---Washington: A guide to the Evergreen State
Today Ellensburg has a population of about 17,000 which includes about 10,000 students at Central Washington University. The annual Ellensburg Rodeo is still a major event each year. The Downtown Ellensburg Historic District was added to the National Historic Register in 1977 and includes about nine blocks of historic buildings dating from as early as 1889 when a large fire destroyed a large portion of the town.