EllensburgWashington history

The Ellensburg Academy, a private Presbyterian school, opened September 10, 1884.

The first telephone was installed in 1889 to connect two downtown stores.

The university was established as Washington State Normal School in 1890.

Washington State Normal School (now Central Washington University), chartered in 1891, became a major employer.

In 1893 the worldwide financial panic brought conditions in Ellensburg even lower.

In 1894 the United States Post Office dropped the final "h" and the town became Ellensburg.

By the late 1860s, cattle ranchers established land claims in Kittitas itself. As a result, the federal government began to regulate grazing in 1897.

The Ellensburg Carnegie Public Library first opened its doors in January 1910, and has been a vital part of the lives of city and county residents ever since.

W. D. Lyman's 1919 History of the Yakima Valley Washington called Wilson "hardly a real settler, certainly not a builder in any true sense.

Residents throughout the Kittitas Valley gathered on June 14 and 15, 1923, to clear brush and grade land in the area below and just north and west of Craig's Hill.

Arriving in Ellensburg in 1924 as the newly hired City Engineer, Fred continued photographing points of interest in the Pacific Northwest.

On December 19, 1925, the United State Secretary of the Interior signed a contract to build an irrigation system for the Kittitas Valley.

In 1926 Ellensburg contracted with Puget Sound Power and Light for additional power.

In 1941, he began a photography project that lasted for the next 25 years.

In 1977 it became Central Washington University.

In August 1980, Roger and Deborah Fouts brought chimpanzee Washoe and other chimpanzees that comprise her family to Central Washington State University.

On May 7, 1993 Washoe and her family were moved into the newly created 7,000-square foot Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute on the grounds of the University.