Towns in Yakima County, Washington

Ahtanum

Alfalfa
"Alfalfa, a town in Yakima County. The name was given because
of the quantities of alfalfa hay shipped from the station."

American River

Artesian
"Artesian, a town in Yakima County. It was named by J.H. Gans about 1906 from the numerous artesian wells in the district."

Ashue

Birchfield

Blackrock (historical)

Blacks Corner

Bluelight

Brace

Brownstown

Buena

Byron

"Byron, a town in Yakima County. The first inhabitants there found a railroad post marked 'Byron,' and that name has continued."

Cliffdell

Cougar Valley

Cowiche

"Cowiche, a creek and town in the Yakima Valley, Yakima County. Its name is of Indian origin. The railroad surveyors of 1858 spelled it 'Kwiwichess' and 'Kwai-wy-chess'."

Donald

East Selah

Elliott Ave

Emerald

Eschbach

Farron

Flint

Fruitvale

Givens Corner

Gleed

Goose Prairie

Grandview
"Grandview, a town in Yakima County. In 1906, F.L. Pittman and Elza Dean, members of the townsite company, were searching for a name. While standing on the bank of an irrigating ditch, looking at the distant snow mountains, Adams and Rainier, Mr. Pittman remarked: 'What a grand view!' and Mr. Dean replied: 'That's the name.'"

Granger
"Granger, a town in the east-central part of Yakima County, established in 1920 and named in honor of Walter N. Granger."

Gromore

Harrah

Harwood

Holtzinger

Liberty

Lichty

Mabton
"Mabton, a town on the Northern Pacific Railway in the southeastern part of Yakima County. The origin of the name is said to be unknown in the town...Twenty years ago while railroad trouble held a train at the then bleak station, Mrs. Mabel Baker Anderson, wife of Professor L.F. Anderson of Whitman College, said the station had been named in her honor. Mrs. Anderson was the daughter of Dr. Dorsey S. Baker, pioneer railroad builder of Walla Walla. Though she ahd traveled much in America and Europe, Mrs. Anderson's home was always in Walla Walla. She died there August 16, 1915."

Midvale
"Midvale, a station in the southeastern part of Yakima County, named by the Oregon-Washington Railway and Navigation officials."

Moxee City

Naches

Nass

Nile

Outlook

Parker

Parrott Crossing

Pinecliff

Pomona

"Pomona, a station on the Northern Pacific Railway seven miles north of Yakima in Yakima County. In 1916 Edmund T. Stevens, operator, wrote that as passengers, freight and express intended for Selah, also known as Wenas, were landed at this new station of Selah, he suggested as a new name that of the Roman Goddess of Fruit Trees, which was done on November 22, 1908."

Pomona Heights

Rimrock

Rupple

Satus

Sawyer

Selah
"Selah, the name of a town, creek and valley in the north central part of Yakima County. 'I have talked with a number of the oldest residents of our valley, one among whom came to the valley in 1861. As a result of my inquiries, I have found that Selah is an Indian word meaning 'still water' or 'smooth water.' This was locally applied to a section of the Yakima River about a mile and a half in length and lying between the present site of Pomona and a point a little south of Selah. That part of the river between Ellensburg and Pomona is very swift and rough. As it emerges from the Kittitas Canyon in reaches a level valley where it flows smoothly for a short distance and then passes over rapids again. Hence the name Selah applied to this section of the river. As near as I can learn, the Indians here had no name for an entire stream but named different sections of a stream from their peculiar characteristics. The name Selah was extended to Selah Creek and to different parts of the valley by the people who settled here. Selah has been often confused with the Hebrew musical term which has the same spelling and pronunciation but is of entirely different origin and meaning." (Arthur C. Vail.)

Silver Beach

South Broadway

Summitview

Sunnyside
"Sunnyside, a town in the eastern part of Yakima County. Mr. E.F. Blaine writes that the town 'was laid out by Walter N. Granger in 1893. Before the establishment of this townsite the big canal, known as the Sunnyside Canal, had been started. As the land under the Sunnyside Canal slopes toward the midday sun, the canal and district were named Sunnyside and Mr. Granger, believing that Sunnyside would be the principal town of the new district, called the town Sunnyside.' Another version of the origin of the name for the district is given by S.J. Lowe who says that in 1882, he, with Joe Stephenson, Andy McDaniels and one of the Nelsons, went exploring for bunch-grass hay in October, 1882. Lowe says that he, on that trip, conferred the name Sunnyside. On returning, they met J.M. Adams, publisher of the Signal, who at that time recorded the new name in his newspaper." (Yakima Herald, copied in the Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume XIII.)

Tampico
"Tampico, a village in the central part of Yakima County, probably named by A.D. Elgin, a pioneer settler, after a town in Oregon where he had lived."

Tasker

Terrace Heights

Tieton

Tietonview Grange

Toppenish
"Toppenish, a creek and a town near the central part of Yakima County, derived their names from the Indian word Qapuishlema, meaning 'people of the trail coming from the foot of the hill.'...In 1853, Captain George B. McClellan used a variant of the word by calling part of the creek 'Sahpenis.'...The same surveyors gave part of the creek the name 'Pisko,' which was continued by James G. Swan in 1857 and the Surveyor General of Washington Territory in 1859...The Bureau of American Ethnology says Pisko means 'river bend' and was the name of a Yakima band living on the Yakima River between Toppenish and Setass Creeks."

Union Gap

Venner

Wapato
"Wapato, a town in the central part of Yakima County, was named October 24, 1902...The word in the Chinook Jargon means 'potato.'"

Washington Park

Weikel

Wenas
"Wenas, a creek, valley and village, in the north central part of Yakima County, derived the Indian name from that first charted for the creek by Captain George B. McClellan in August, 1853...The spelling there is 'Wenass.'"

Wesley Junction

West Valley

White Swan
"White Swan, a town on the Yakima Indian Reservation, Yakima County, was named for White Swan who was a famous chief of the Yakima tribe for sixty years. The town is on the site of his home. Mr. A.C. Coburn started the first store there about a year after the chief's death, August 21, 1907...A special dispatch to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer dated at North Yakima January 13, 1910, tells about the driving of stakes and laying out the townsite of White Swan."

Wiley City

Willy Dick Crossing

Yakima
Yakima, one of the most extensively used geographic terms in the State of Washington, is applied to a county, city, river, valley, pass in the Cascade Range, Indian tribe and Indian reservation. As in many other cases the name was first applied to the river and the natives who occupied the land drained by the river. Lewis and Clark, 1805-1806, give the name as "Tapteal," which they spell in several ways. Elliott Coues, the scholarly editor of their journals, gives a number of synonyms, such as "Eyakama."....John H. Lynch, of Yakima, quotes the pioneer Jack Splawn as authority for "lake water" as the meaning of Yakima...Henry Gannett says the word means "black bear."...The bureau of American Ethnology says the word means "runaway" and that the native name of the tribe was "Waptailmim" meaning "people of the narrow river."....David Thompson, of the North West Company of Montreal referred to the Indians on July 8, 1811, as "Skaemena."...Alexander Ross was with the Astorians, 1811, though his book Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River was not published until 1849, in which he uses the name "Eyakema."...The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, refers to the river by the name as now spelled....In framing the treaty of June 9, 1855, Governor Isaac I. Stevens referred to the river and tribe as "Yakama."...'Yakima City was incorporated December 1, 1883. Twelve months later, when it had 400 inhabitants, the surveyors of the Northern pacific railroad laid out the town, upon a broad and liberal scale, and proposed to the people of the latter that if they would consent to be removed to the new town they should be given as many lots there as they possessed in the old, and have besides their buildings moved upon them without cost to the owners. Such an agreement in writing was signed by a majority of the citizens, and in the winter and spring of 1884-1885 over 100 buildings were moved on trucks and rollers, hotels, a bank, and other business houses doing their usual business enroute. This was a good stroke of policy on the part of the railroad, general land commissioner, and the company, as it definitely settled opposition, both to the new town and the corporation, which also received a year's growth for North Yakima in ninety days' time'....By act of the State Legislature approved January 30, 1917, and to go into effect on January 1, 1918, the city was permitted to drop the word "North" from its name. The same Legislature also changed the name of the older town of Yakima to Union Gap.

Yethonat

Zillah