HISTORY OF YELM
The shimmering, fertile prairie stretched and rolled as far as the eye could see. In the shadow of Mt. Rainier, the pristine Nisqually River carved its path through the endless prairie long before the feet of countless travelers etched their own silent mark.
According to Nisqually legend, the area was first known as Shelm, the name given to the shimmering heat waves which dance and play above the prairie when the summer sun shines hot. A great prairie creates a great haze. This was emphasized by the Nisqually by drawing out the syllable to say "S-S-S-SHELM". The impatient Euro-American settlers eventually shortened this to Yelm.
The Yelm prairie was the crossroads of Native American trails leading north from the Cowlitz River and the Bald Hills trail leading to Naches Pass over the Cascades. These trails were utilized by the Nisqually Indians, then fur traders, the British operators of the Hudson Bay Company, American settlers and eventually the Northern Pacific Railroad.
A business and residential district quickly grew along the intersection of the railroad and the old east/west Bald Hills Trail.
Yelm is located about 20 minutes SE of Lacey, WA. It is at the south end of Fort Lewis Military base. I think the estimated current population is 5,000. We have a lot of little towns around the area and we took some pictures of a few interesting things that we drive by every day!
If you click on the picture to make it bigger it makes all the difference. We love the seattle seahawks manikin on top of the building.
This is a gun shop in an old church!
Our new huge walmart in the middle of farmland! Yes this is what the parking lot typically looks like.. empty. I love it!
And directly across from Walmart... Farmland.
This picture I found on a website but it is right near our house and on a good day when there are no clouds.. mt. Rainer would be right in the back ground. Hopefully I can get a better picture later but we have some great views of the mountain.
