The Cle Elum Fire of 1918

Cle Elum, Washington, was founded in 1883 by Walter Reed and Thomas Gamble. The name, from Tle—el—Lum, is a rendering of the local Native American phrase for swift water. Nestled in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Cle Elum grew as a railroad town, transporting lumber and coal, both from nearby Roslyn and later from Cle Elum itself. In 1891, it survived its first fire. In 1918, after reaching its population high of over 2,700 residents, a catastrophic fire broke out on a wind...