Prehistoric era The
Wenatchee Reach of the
Columbia River was formed during the
Missoula floods, series of
ice age floods that inundated much of modern-day
Eastern Washington. The earliest known human artifacts in the area were from the prehistoric
Clovis culture and discovered in a cache at the
East Wenatchee Clovis Site. The site was uncovered in 1987 and include stone and bone tools covered in volcanic ash from a
Glacier Peak eruption approximately 13,410 to 13,710 years
before present, as determined by
radiocarbon dating.
Indigenous villages and early settlers Several indigenous villages existed in the area prior to and during Anglo American exploration. The village Nikwikwi'estku was a fishing and gathering camp located in present-day downtown Wenatchee. In 1811,
North West Company surveyor David Thompson encountered a group of Native American horsemen at Wenatchee and was invited into a village with huts, the largest measuring 209 feet long. Fur traders document friendly relations through the mid 19th century, even during the smallpox epidemic of 1817 and food shortages in 1841. During the
Yakima War in 1856, US Army Colonel Wright intervened on a possible alliance between Yakama and Wenatchi tribes by removing the Wenatchi to Kittitas. The resulting march was estimated to include 1,000 horses and extend five miles long. A contingent stayed behind to fish at
Wenatchapam Fishery in preparation for winter. The 1900 U.S. Census counted 451 residents. in Wenatchee
Continued growth The Great Northern Railway completed its railroad line between
St. Paul, Minnesota, and
Seattle in 1893. Its route through the Wenatchee Valley was significant to the development of this region. The railroad not only provided passenger travel to and from Wenatchee, but it provided for freight service for shipments of wheat, apples, and other products to out-of-state markets. By the early 20th century, the Wenatchee Commercial Club, now the
Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce, was advertising the region as the "Home of the World's Best Apples." The tree fruit industry provided the economic backbone for the region for a century and still is an important source of revenue. On May 22, 1910, the Wenatchee
free speech fight occurred when members of the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were arrested for
speaking in the street in front of the local hall of the
Socialist Party of America. The town had freed imprisoned IWW members by June; however, tensions resumed in September 1911 when police raided a house rented by six IWW men and arrested twenty-five migrant workers found carrying IWW literature. Again, the men were all quickly released. In 1922, a
Ku Klux Klan chapter of nearly 100 men demanded that black residents leave on threat of violence. By 1923 they hosted meetings of up to 400 members and burned a large cross above Fancher airfield in East Wenatchee. The Wenatchee chapter hosted the 1926 state Klan convention and marched in the
Apple Blossom Parade. In the wave of
anti-Filipino sentiment, Filipino immigrant workers were targeted by violence and deportation through the late 1920s. is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). On October 5, 1931,
Clyde Pangborn and his copilot Hugh Herndon landed their
airplane, named the
Miss Veedol, in the hills of
East Wenatchee, and thus became the first
aviators to fly nonstop across the Pacific Ocean. The 41-hour flight from
Sabishiro Beach,
Misawa,
Aomori Prefecture,
Japan, won them the
Harmon Trophy for the greatest achievement in flight of 1931.
Miss Veedols propeller is on display at the
Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center. In 1936, with the completion of
Rock Island Dam, Wenatchee was protected from the summer flooding of the
Columbia River, and the first of 14
hydroelectric projects on the Columbia began generating
electric power. The reservoirs thus generated also made it possible to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in the Columbia Basin. In 2019, the Wenatchee Valley was named by
Forbes magazine as one of the top 25 places to retire.
Modern era In 1975,
Stemilt Growers moved its headquarters from nearby Stemilt Hill to Olds Station, Wenatchee. The company grows, packs and ships tree fruit. It went on to become the largest fresh market
sweet cherry shipper in the world. Every year from the last week of April to the end of the first week of May, Wenatchee hosts the
Washington State Apple Blossom Festival, which probably brings in the largest number of people Wenatchee sees annually, with the exception of migrant workers travelling for harvest. It features two relatively large parades: the Apple Blossom Youth Parade on the last Saturday in April and the Apple Blossom Grand Parade on the first Saturday in May, a food fair representing cuisine from around the world, and a
traveling carnival. The
Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions in Wenatchee, Washington, also known as the "Wenatchee Witch Hunt", that occurred in 1994 and 1995, are examples of the
hysteria over child molestation in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the early 1990s Wenatchee had a reputation as the "happy pill town" and "Happy Valley", with psychologist James Goodwin, "the Pied Piper of Prozac". According to
CNN's
Money Magazine, Wenatchee had the second fastest forecast real estate value growth in the country for June 2006–June 2007. In November 2018, USA Today listed Wenatchee as experiencing the 22nd highest employment growth in the country. On July 29, 2013, a large wildfire spreading over south of Wenatchee occurred, affecting over 40 nearby homes. The Riverfront Park Ice Arena closed its doors in July 2008, and Awaken Church was later opened at the site. The Wenatchee Valley also boasts one of only two
aluminum smelters remaining in the
Northwestern United States, at the
Alcoa plant in Malaga. The plant announced in November 2015 that it would be shutting down operations on January 5, 2016. Other growing areas of the regional economy are tourism and information technology.
Wenatchee Pride began organizing
LGBT Pride festivals 2017. The 2023 festival was held at Memorial Park with an estimated 4,000 attendance. ==Geography==