Native history Cle Elum was originally inhabited by the
Kittitas band of the
Yakama tribe. The tribe fished
salmon,
steelhead, and
trout from the
Yakima River. The Salmon la Sac trails in the northern area of the region were created by the Kittitas people and were used as layovers for journeys into the higher altitudes of the
Cascade Range. In 1855, after the arrival of Catholic missionaries, and the passing through of settlers and coal miners on their way to the
Puget Sound, a treaty resulted in the Yakamas ceding most of their land for a reservation in the lower Yakima Valley and guaranteed access to fish, including what would later be incorporated as Cle Elum. By 1859, the Kittitas had been forced to relocate to the
Yakama Indian Reservation. In 1908, Clealum was altered to Cle Elum. The name was given to the river, the city, and
Cle Elum Lake. Walter Reed entered into a partnership with Thomas Johnson of
Ellensburg and laid out as a town site which was legally dedicated on July 26, 1886. Johnson had owned a
sawmill on
Wilson Creek, in
Grant County and he moved the mill to the new location in the vicinity of the new town. The partners Reed and Johnson established what was undoubtedly the largest mill up to that time in central or
Eastern Washington, cutting of board lumber per day. At the same time, Frederick Leonhard, who, with his brother-in-law, Gerrit d'Ablaing, had been carrying on a mill on Cooke Creek and later on the Naneum, moved to the vicinity of Cle Elum. They cut a large part of the lumber for the
Stampede Tunnel.
The early 20th century Cle Elum was officially incorporated on February 12, 1902. Tragedy struck the area when on July 16, 1908, two carloads of
blasting powder being unloaded by the Northwest Improvement Company exploded, killing at least nine people including miners, NIC store employees and a family with children living in a tent near the building. The explosion, located about three-quarters of a mile from Cle Elum's downtown, scattered debris and human remains and shattered windows across town. Accounts from residents equated the explosion to an earthquake. In December 1910, loggers working for the
Cascade Lumber Company near Cle Elum went on strike after the company reduced pay and began charging $5 per week for board. () In 1913, steps were taken to improve automobile access across the Cascade Mountains via
Snoqualmie Pass. A $1,500,000 levy () was approved in 1913 to improve and expand the state's highways. The largest project award from the levy ($590,743) went to construction of the Sunset Highway between Spokane and Seattle. This major cross-state highway would pass directly through Cle Elum's business district, and as it was one of the first towns reached after traveling east across the pass, would greatly benefit from its construction. That same year, reflecting on the prosperity of the coal mines, the city's second bank was chartered. By 1914, Cle Elum's population had risen to 3,000 from about 100 at the turn of the 20th century.
Great fire of 1918 Cle Elum's greatest disaster occurred on June 25, 1918, when a huge fire wiped out over seventy acres of the city (29 city blocks) causing over $500,000 (about $ today) in damages. The cause was later determined to most likely to be a cigarette butt thrown into a pile of garbage behind a theater. Thirty businesses and 205 houses were destroyed, leaving more than 1,800 people homeless. Following the incident, aid from across the state began pouring in. The Red Cross brought tents from
Camp Lewis to house displaced citizens while soldiers were sent from Ellensburg to guard businesses.
Yakima and
Portland also sent aid to the city. No people died in the incident. High insurance rates on Cle Elum's many wooden structures inhibited many people from purchasing them. One of the few buildings in downtown Cle Elum to survive the fire was the Cle Elum State Bank Building, built in 1906; it still stands today. The rest of downtown was quickly rebuilt with brick and many of these buildings still stand.
Bankruptcy In 2011, the city government approved a development agreement with City Heights, who sought to create a
planned community with 962 homes on in the Cle Elum area. City Heights announced in 2019 that it would begin construction of the development, named "Ederra", under the existing agreement, while the City of Cle Elum proposed new conditions to address various concerns. City Heights filed a lawsuit against the city government for a breach of the original agreement. An arbitrator ruled in November 2024 that the city government owed $22.2 million to City Heights for violating the agreement along with reimbursement of legal fees and other expenses. Cle Elum became the second city in Washington to file for bankruptcy after
North Bonneville in 1991. ==Geography==