Auburn valley was originally the home of the Skopamish, Smalhkamish, and Stkamish Indian tribes. The first settlers in the region were explorers and traders who arrived in the 1830s. The White River tribes collectively became known as the Muckleshoot tribe and new treaty provided the establishment of the Muckleshoot Reservation, which is the reservation within the boundaries of King County. In 1891 Auburn was incorporated as "Slaughter," named after William Slaughter, who died in an Indian skirmish in 1855, the main hotel in town was called the "Slaughter House." In 1893, a large group of settlers from Auburn, New York moved to Slaughter, and renamed the town to "Auburn." There are several locations in Auburn on the National and State Registers of Historic Places, such as the Neely Mansion.
Nestled in a fertile river valley, Auburn has been both a farm community and a center of business and industry for more than 150 years. Auburn had been a bustling center for hop farming until 1890 when the crops were destroyed by aphids, which gave dairy and berry farms a start. Valley flooding was still a problem for Auburn farmers up until the Howard Hanson Dam was built in 1962. This dam on the Green River, along with the Mud Mountain Dam on the White River, provided controlled river management, which left the valley nearly flood-free.
The Northern Pacific Railroad put a rail line through town in 1883, but it was the Seattle-Tacoma Interurban line that allowed easy access to both cities starting in 1902. The Interurban allowed farmers to get their product to the markets within hours after harvest. The railroad, along with better roads, caused many new companies to set up business in Auburn, among them the Borden Condensery and the Northern Clay Company.
The postwar era was prosperous to Auburn, bringing more businesses and a community college to the city. In 1963, The Boeing Company built a large facility to mill sheet metal skin for jet airliners. Industry and Auto Density forced farms to disappeared as the land was converted to auto parking lots. In 1995, The Supermall of the Great Northwest was built in the valley, enticing fossil fuel motorist from all over the Puget Sound region to make Auburn a smog pollution traffic congested area.
Auburn has an extensive system of parks, open space and urban trails comprising 29 developed parks, 5 undeveloped sites, 2 skates parks,2 water roatary parks, and over 37 km of trails. Including 7.2 km portion of the Inter-urban railroad right of way for bikers, walkers, runners and skaters, and 1.00 km of open space for passive and active recreation.
HOTEL/MOTEL:
Within walking distance* "Will provide shuttle between station-hotel"
STATION FACILITIES:Station Information
Private Railcar & Tour Train Siding
You can get around on foot within the Fairhaven district, but transportation between these areas is best by bicycle or bus between downtown and the University. There is a comprehensive network of bicycle and pedestrian paths throughout the city. Downtown, though small, is something of a maze, with many odd angles and one-way streets.
Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is the seat of Whatcom County, you can venture from downtown in minutes be in rural farmland, the North Cascades or out on the salt waters. In 1903 when the cities of New Whatcom and Fairhaven consolidated from what were once four separate settlements of Fairhaven, Whatcom, Sehome, and Bellingham. Historically the local economy got its start in resource extraction, notably coal and timber.Today Bellingham has diversified from heavy industry to education, services, tourism, and retail.
Fairhaven Station is the western terminus of the second northern transcontinental railroad is noted for its colorful, 19th century historical district, bustled with hotels, taverns, an opera house, concert garden, and restaurants.
Centralia was the halfway stopover point for stagecoaches, then railway operating between the Columbia River and Seattle. In 1850, J. G. Cochran, with a young African-American slave named George Washington, filed a donation land claim on the townsite. Freeing and adopting Mr Washington and in 1852 sold him his claim for $6,000. Mr Washington filed a plat for the town of Centerville and officially incorporated on February 3, 1886. In 1891, the population, over 1,000, found its mail confused with that of another Centerville in the state, and the name of the town was changed to Centralia.
Edmonds is the oldest incorporated city in Snohomish County founded in 1890 by Logger George Brackett, who named the city after Vermont Sen. George Franklin Edmunds or Point Edmund, named by Charles Wilkes in 1841 and later changed to Point Edwards. Brackett came to the future site of Edmonds while paddling a canoe north of Seattle, searching for timber. When a gust of wind hit his canoe, Brackett beached in a location later called "Brackett's Landing".
The town was named Edmonds in 1884, but was not incorporated until 1890 as an official “village fourth class” of Snohomish County. In that same year, Brackett sold 455 acres (1.84 km2) to the Minneapolis Realty and Investment Company. The town was plotted and a wharf was added along the waterfront. Modest houses and commercial structures sprouted up with a row of shingle mills dominating the cityscape.
In 1891, the Great Northern Railroad came through and early settlers and investors grew hopeful that Edmonds would prosper. Unfortunately, the Panic of 1893 created business setbacks and the town owners foreclosed. Brackett reclaimed his town and along with other early settlers continued to develop its infrastructure. By 1900 there was regular passenger ferry service available by the steam-powered “mosquito fleet” of private ferryboats from Edmonds to Seattle.
Edmonds suffered major fires in 1909 and 1928, and many buildings were lost. The first car arrived in Edmonds in 1911. As more roads were established, Edmonds experienced steady growth along with commercial and residential development.
The settlement of Ephrata is quite recent, until 1886, just three years before Washington attained statehood. Frank Beezley,a horse rancher was the first to settle, thus the area was known as Beezley Springs. As the climate and topography were not promising for settlement growth, until several federal congressional actions, including the Northern Pacific Land Grant Act, the Homestead Act and Desert Claims Act, encouraged the settlement of this semi-arid desert.
Ephrata was incorporated on June 21, 1909 and the county seat for the newly created Grant County and generally believed that the city was named Ephrata by a man who worked for the Great Northern Railroad.
At the turn of the century great herds of wild horses that roamed the land, as Horse trading was an important element of the local economy, served as the staging area for the horse round-ups. The last "Grand Horse Round-up" was held in Ephrata in 1906, then developed as a trade and service center for cattle and sheep ranches in the area until the construction of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project.
Everett started in 1861 when Dennis Brigham built a cabin on a 160-acre claim on the shore of Port Gardner Bay.
In 1890, Henry Hewitt along with Charles L. Colby and Colgate Hoyt founded the Everett Land Company for the purpose of building the city and officially incorporated on May 4, 1893, the year the Great Northern Railroad came to the town.
Everett hoped that James J. Hill owner of Great Northern Railroad would make the town the terminus of his railroad. However railroad continued along the shoreline of Puget Sound to Seattle. Railroads and mines played an important part in Everett's future as ore was smelted, then sawmilling and port activity began to develop, along with shipbuilding as a dozen steam riverboats were built for the Yukon gold rush.
Everett was the place where several survivors of the Bellingham riots settled, until they were beaten and forcefully evicted by a mob on November 5, 1907. Everett also was the site of the Everett Massacre of 1916 which was an armed confrontation between a mob led by local Sheriff Donald McRae and IWW members.
Everett streets are named after each of the three founders, Colby Avenue, Hoyt Avenue, Hewitt Avenue and Bond Street named for Judge Hiram Bond, President of the Everett & Monte Cristo Railroad.
Situated at the mouth of the Snohomish River on Possession Sound, the Port of Everett was established 1918 includes both a deep-water commercial seaport and a marina with over 2000 slips. It is home port to the Navy and Kimberly-Clark paper mill. Redevelopment began in 2006 to convert the north end of the waterfront into a community of maritime business, retail shops and condominiums. The waterfront is also home to the Everett Yacht Club, which was founded in 1907, although it existed as early as 1895.
During summer, the marina is home to the Everett Farmer's Market and the Waterfront Concert Series. In September, Tenth Street Park on the waterfront is home to the annual Everett Coho Derby, while each August the marina promenade is gowned in local art during the Fresh Paint Festival of Artists. The historic district is between 8th Street to 25th Street and from Broadway to Grand Avenue. The district contains many old stately homes including the home of the former U.S. Senator Henry M. Jackson on Grand Avenue.
Native Americans from the Cowlitz tribe were original inhabitants of Kelso were separated into the "Taidnapam" and Mountain" tribes, who were members of the Sahaptin and Salish language families. In 1855 Kelso was founded by Peter W. Crawford, a surveyor who took a donation land claim and on it platted dated and filed in October 1884, a townsite named after town of Kelso, Scotland. Known as "little Chicago" because of the large number of taverns and brothels that catered to local loggers. The economy continues to be based largely on wood products.
On May 18, 1980, Kelso saw the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Many areas of the city, such as Three Rivers Mall, are built on volcanic ash that was dredged from the Cowlitz River from the volcanic mudflow.
In March 1998, Aldercrest Community began to shift; eventually 129 houses were destroyed by this landslide. Investigation report provide information that community was built on top of an active landslide area, and heavy rains had set the earth into motion.
Leavenworth was officially incorporated on September 5, 1906. A small timber community, was located across the Wenatchee River from Icicle and was named Leavenworth the same year the rail construction began. Captain Charles Leavenworth, president of the Okanogan Investment Company, purchased the land in the present-day downtown and laid the streets parallel to the new railroad tracks. Lafayette Lamb and his brother, Chauncery Lamb arrived in 1903 from Iowa to build the second largest sawmill in Washington state.
Leavenworth struggled until 1962, when the "Project LIFE", known as "Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone Committee" was formed to transform the city into a "Bavarian village" to revitalize its economy. Leavenworth's annual Oktoberfest celebration is claimed to be one of the most attended in the world outside Munich, Germany. Leavenworth's transformation into a theme town was inspired by, and assisted by Solvang, California.
Leavenworth is home to the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, which opened in 1995 and contains more than 5,000 nutcrackers dating from prehistoric to modern.
The first route across Stevens Pass was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1892, was completed during the winter of 1893, it became the headquarters of the Great North Railroad in the early 1900s. The railroad relocated to Wenatchee in the 1920s, greatly affecting Leavenworth's economy.
Longview is the location of Mount Coffin, a native ancestral burial ground for the local indigenous people. The City is located fork of the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers, was first settled in the early 1850s and remained sparsely populated for nearly 60 years, consisting mostly of farmland and wilderness. In 1918, Robert A. Long decided to move the Long-Bell Lumber Company, to Longview, do to dwindling supplies in Missouri. Then in 1921, Wesley Vandercook decicide to build a mill near the small town of Kelso, Washington.
Kelso, with a population of barely 2,000 would not be able to support the 14,000 men, so Long-Bell Company hired George Kessler, to build the city that would support the two mills that were now planned. Longview was officially incorporated on February 14, 1924 was the only planned city of its magnitude to have ever been conceived of and built entirely with private funds.
A number of prominent buildings in Longview were purchased with Mr. Long's personal funds, including R. A. Long High School, the Longview Public Library, the YMCA building and the Monticello Hotel.
The Port of Longview, established in 1921, has eight marine terminals handling a wide range of cargo from windmills, pencil pitch, calcined coke, pulp bales, lumber, logs and steel.
Mount Vernon is known for its annual Tulip Festival, where the climate is similar to that of northern France.
In 1870 Jasper Gates and Joseph Dwelley first settled on the banks of the Skagit River, where the City of Mount Vernon now lies. Harrison Clothier, a school teacher, join in business with a former student, E.G. English, together they are recognized as the city's founders. The city was named after Mount Vernon, the plantation estate of George Washington and was officially incorporated on July 5, 1893.
Stepping from the train a passenger finds the Historical District of Mount Vernon, althought many building have been replaced, still many provide distinguished merchant services. Downtown is a place for walking, shopping and 1920 Linclon Threater spotlights the rail experience for afternoon adventure. Relax as Mount Vernon is pedestrian friendly seating bench line sidewalking with shade trees to make you feel relaxed and comfortable.
The Skagit Multimodal Train Station, provides commuters and national-international travelers with easy transfer connections between other modes of transportation in downtown.
Mount Vernon is the center and access point of surrounding rail line communites such as Burington, Concrete, Sedro-Woolley, Edison and Blachard including the gateway to Northern Cascades Mountain Range. The area is mostly a farming community, with large agriculture and dairy farms, which can be seen from both sides of the train.
HOTEL/MOTEL:
Within walking distance* "Will provide shuttle between station-hotel"
In 1841, the Wilkes Expedition named the area Point Elliott. The Point Elliott Treaty was signed between Governor Isaac Stevens and 22 chiefs representing Puget Sound tribes, along with 2,500 Native Americans meet on January 22, 1855 at Mukilteo. Native Americans ceded land to the United States from Point Pully/Three Tree Point to the Canadian border in exchange for a variety of benefits, including land, education, health care and hunting and fishing rights. The town first settled by Europeans in 1858 and was the county seat of Snohomish County from 1861 to 1867, then relocated to city of Snohomish. Mukilteo was officially incorporated on May 8, 1947
Point Elliot/Mukilteo becamea fishing village, trading post, and a port-of-entry, witn surrounding wooded hills filled with Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock supported a lumber mill and the town also had a cannery, a brewery, and a gunpowder plant near Powder Mill Gulch. Japanese Gulch provides rail access from the Mukilteo waterfront to the Boeing wide-body plant at Paine Field.
In 1901, the Federal Lighthouse Board decided to put a light and fog signal at Mukilteo was completed in 1906.
1947 there was ferry service to Whidbey Island, a fuel storage facility for the Air Force on the waterfront, and a major rail line for the Great Northern Railroad along the city’s entire waterfront. In 1991, the Harbour Pointe area shift the Town's Commercial Center near the shoreline to new shopping and banking facilities at Harbour Pointe. In 1954, the state acquired 17 acres of land around the lighthouse and made it into a state park. In 2003, the state ceded the park to the city and was renamed Mukilteo Lighthouse Park.
Native Americans made this area home for thousands of years, including Squaxin, Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish tribes or the Lushootseed-speaking peoples. Europeans explored area in 1792, when Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition charted the site. In the 1840s, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia.
In 1853 Olympia was offically named, by Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, due to its view of the Olympic Mountains and the farthest point on The Oregon Trail. The U.S. Congress established the Customs District of Puget Sound for Washington Territory in 1851, and Olympia became customs house. Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet Steamboats once served area. Today Olympia is State Capital and has become a hub for artists and musicians.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in the Pasco area October 16, 1805 at a site now commemorated by Sacagawea State Park, which was frequented by fur trappers and gold traders. Northern Pacific Railway/BNSF was built near the Columbia River in 1880s, opening trade and bringing many settlers to the area. Pasco named by Virgil Bogue, a construction engineer for the Northern Pacific Railway after Cerro de Pasco, a city in the Peruvian Andes, where he had helped build a railroad. Pasco was a small railroad town, but the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1941 brought irrigation and agriculture to the area making it a larger railway town. Pasco was officially incorporated on September 3, 1891.
The presence of the Hanford Nuclear Site, provided the Tri-Cities/Richland-Kennewick-Pasco area grew rapidly from the 1940-1950s, most of the population influx resided in Richland and Kennewick, as Pasco remained primarily driven by the agricultural industry, and Pasco rail yards.
In the 1990s, developers purchased large farm in Pasco for residential and commercial development, resulted in growth in the city's retail and tourism industries. The new development is referred to as "West Pasco", distinguishing it from the older East Town
Between 1830 and 1840 Native Americans Settlement was discovered in the Puyallup Valley, then European settelers arrived in the 1850s. In 1877, Ezra Meeker platted a townsite and named it Puyallup after the local Puyallup Indian Tribes. By the 1880s Puyallup had become a major hop growing region, as the town grew rapidly throughout the 1880s being incorporated in 1890, with Ezra Meeker the first mayor. During the 20th Century the valley with the growth of nearby Tacoma and the Interurban rail lines, gave way to Western Washington Fairgrounds development giving local farmers a place to show off their crops and livestock. During the early part of World War II the fairgrounds were home to over 7,000 Japanese-American residents, known as Camp Harmony.
Seattle was named after Chief Sealth, of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes, today it is the most populous city in the northwestern United States. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan statistical areas compose the 15th largest in the United States and Pacific Northwest. A coastal city and major seaport, between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, is major economic, cultural, educational center and the county seat of King County.
Seattle area has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years, only until the European settlement began in the mid-19th century with the first permanent white settlers Arthur A. Denny, known as the "Denny Party" arrived November 13, 1851. The settlements was referred as "New York-Alki" meaning "by and by" in the local Chinook Jargon and "Duwamps".
Doc Maynard in 1853, suggested that the settlement be renamed "Seattle", an anglicized rendition of the name of Sealth, the chief of the two local tribes. From 1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the "Queen City", currently the official nickname is the "Emerald City", but is also referred to informally as the "Gateway to Alaska", "Rain City", and "Jet City".
Seatte hosts many annual fairs and festivals such as the "International Film Festival", "Northwest Folklife", "Seafair"as in "Chevrolet Cup hydroplane races", "Bite of Seattle", "Gay Pride festivals", "Bumbershoot" and "Hempfest" ll are typically attended by 100,000 people. Other significant events include numerous Native American pow-wows, a Greek Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and numerous ethnic festivals.
Historically the railways and streetcars once dominated its transportation system have largely been replaced with an extensive bus route and the city's outward growth has caused fossil fuel vehicle to become the mode of transportation.
Seattle is ranked as one of the most fossil fuel congested cities in the United States, however, recent efforts has begun to reverse this trend with plans for an inner-city streetcar network and a regional light rail system. In addition Seattle is also serviced by two commuter rail routes connecting it to many of its more distant suburbs, and a 16 mile light rail line between Downtown Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The University of Washington is consistently ranked among the country's top leading institutions in medical research. Seattle has seen local developments of modern paramedic services with the establishment of Medic One in 1970 and is refereto as "the best place in the world to have a heart attack".
Three of the largest medical centers are located on First Hill. Harborview Medical Center is the only Level I trauma hospital and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center serving Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Virginia Mason Medical Center and Swedish Medical Center's two largest campuses, as this concentration of hospitals resulted in the nickname "Pill Hill". Seattle is also served by a Veterans Affairs hospital on Beacon Hill, a third campus of Swedish in Ballard, and Northwest Hospital and Medical Center near Northgate Mall.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has a campus in the Eastlake neighborhood and also shares facilities with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and University of Washington Medical Center.
Skykomish from the 1890s to 1974, was a maintenance and fueling station for the Great Northern Railway and western terminus for electric operations (1909-56) on the Cascade Tunnel route to Wenatchee. Careless waste disposal practices common during that era resulted in the contamination of its soil and groundwater seeping oil and heavy metals in Skykomish River. In the mid-1980s, BNSF and the Washington State Department of Ecology began remediation discussions and in 2006, agreed to a plan to clean up the area over a three-year period. This $50 million project will involve massive excavations to removing the contaminated soil and the rebuilding of a levee. Many of Skykomish's historical buildings will have to be moved and returned to new foundation. Located in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest,near Deception Falls on the Skykomish River, founded as railroad town and officially incorporated on June 5, 1909.
The first Native Americans arrived between twelve to eight thousand years ago and were hunter-gatherer societies that lived off the plentiful game in the area. Over time the forests in the area began to thin out, Spokane Tribe became more dependent upon roots, berries and fish settled in the region, or descendants of tribes from the Great Plains. The Northwest Fur Company sent two white fur trappers west of the Rocky Mountains to search for fur, became the first two white men met by the Spokane tribe, who believed them to be Sama/sacred, and set the trappers up in the Colville River valley for the winter. Canadian David Thompson explored the Spokane area and began European settlement with the westward expansion and establishment of the North West Company’s Spokane House in 1810.
Spokane House was the first long-term European settlement in Washington and the center of the fur trade between the Rockies and the Cascades. In the late 1800s, gold and silver were discovered to be one of the most productive mining districts in North America. "Spokan Falls" was settled in 1871 and officially incorporated as City of Spokane in 1881, which name comes from the Native American Tribe known as the Spokane, which means "Children of the Sun" in Salish. Spokane is nick named "Lilac City", after the flowers that have flourished since their introduction to the area in the early 20th century. Completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1881 brought major settlement to the Spokane area and became known as "Inland Empire".
In 1906 East Stanwood was platted and incorporated in 1922, Centerville Post Office was established in 1870 at the mouth of the Stillaguamish River and incorporated on October 19, 1903, merging the two towns in 1960.
Winter Station Advisory:
Dress in warm winter clothing and complete body covering rain gear protection. As this station is without weather shelter protection. Also it is recommended to plan a dinner at local restaurant, inorder to stay out of winter weather conditions. If you are unable to find local merchants to allow temporary seating, bring a warm blanket and plastic rain covering. Remmber, many local merchants close at 5pm.
In 1853 a settlement was established by members of a wagon train which crossed over the Cascade Mountains through Naches Pass. In 1883, the town was platted on the 160 acres owned by John Kincaid. The establishment of the Northern Pacific rail line through the Sumner area and the construction of the depot influenced the development of the community.The City was incorporated at a special election held on January 27, 1891 and George H. Ryan was the first Mayor.
Tacoma known as the "City of Destiny" adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally called Mount Tahoma. The City become western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 1800s, by connecting the bay with the railroad Tacoma’s motto became “When rails meet sails.” Today Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma as a center of international trade on the Pacific Coast.
Tacoma suffered a prolonged decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization, divestment, and federal urban renewal programs. Today the city is undergoing a renaissance, investing in the downtown core to establish the University of Washington, Tacoma; Tacoma Link Rail is the first modern electric light rail service in the state; art and history museums; and a restored inlet, the Thea Foss Waterway.
With a long history of blue-collar labor politics from the railroad workers of the 1800s, to the longshoremen of the 20th century, to the Labor Ready workers of today, Tacoma has long been known for its rough, gritty image.Today, the City has been named one of the most livable areas and the 19th most walkable city in the country.
Native Americans named Tukwila for the lush forests of hazelnut trees which grew around them and were known as Duwamish who made their homes along the Black and Duwamish Rivers. The Duwamish lived in cedar longhouses, hunted and fished, picked wild berries and used the river for trade with neighboring settlements.
Joseph Foster "Father of Tukwila" settled in 1853, a Canadian pioneer who had traveled to the northwest from Wisconsin and serve in the Washington Territory Legislature for 22 years. Today, Foster's legendary home on the banks of the Duwammish River is preserved as Fort Dent Park,which served as a military base during 1850s Indian Wars.
Early electric rail trains traveled along Interurban Avenue in Tukwila, connecting to Seattle, Renton and Tacoma Markets The Interurban Railroad operated a commuter line from 1902 to 1928, making it possible to travel from Seattle to Tacoma in less than an hour. The first macadam paved military road in Washington State was in Tukwila and bears the name of this new method of street paving. Tukwila was incorporated as a city in 1908.
Native American tribes Chinook/Chinookan and Klickitat inhabited the Vancouver Area with permanent settlements of timber longhouses. In 1775 the first European explorers,introducted small pox, approximately half of the Native Americans dead, before the Lewis and Clark expedition camped in the area in 1806. During the next fifty years, measles, malaria and influenza had reduced the Chinookan population from 80,000 to a few dozen refugees, landless, slaveless and swindled out of a treaty.
The first permanent European settlement was established 1824, as fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Vancouver. Meriwether Lewis wrote that the Vancouver area was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains." The settlements were under US and Britain authority as a "joint occupation agreement", which led to the Oregon boundary dispute amd ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. Henry Williamson in 1845, laid claim west of the Hudson's Bay Company, called Vancouver City and registered claim at the U.S. courthouse in Oregon City. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857.
In 1859-1860 legislature was seated in Vancouver briefly the capital of the Washington Territory, before being returned to Olympia, Washington, in accordance with Isaac Stevens' concern that proximity to Oregon might give its southern neighbor undue influence.
U.S. Army Captain Ulysses S. Grant was quartermaster at what was then known as Columbia Barracks in September 1852. Other notable generals to have served in Vancouver include George B. McClellan, Philip Sheridan, Oliver O. Howard and 1953 Nobel Peace Prize recipient George Marshall.
Archeological discovery in East Wenatchee have uncovered Clovis stone and bone tools dating back 11,000 years, indicating that people migrating to this region during the last Ice Age. Archeological discoveries are on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center.
As early as 1811, fur traders from the Northwest Fur Company entered the Wenatchee valley to trap and trade with the Indians. In 1863, Father Respari, a Catholic priest, began his missionary work with the Indians followed byFather De Grassi 20 years later. Throughout the 1800s settlers came to homestead the land, thus Wenatchee was platted in September 1888 and officially incorporated on January 7, 1893.
Wenatchee Commercial Club was advertising the region during 1900's as the "Home of the World's Best Apples." The fruit industry provided the economic for a century and still is an important source of revenue along with tourism and other industries.
Great Northern Railway completed its railroad between St. Paul, Minn. and Seattle in 1893, passing through the Wenatchee Valley. The railroad not only facilitated passenger travel, but provided the opportunity for freight shipments of wheat, apples and other products to national markets.
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