Enumclaw

The Stevenson Siding

Enumclaw stands on a plateau between the White and Green Rivers in the Cascade foothills, about 25 miles southeast of Seattle, and came into existence in 1885.^3,6 In 1879 Frank and Mary Stevenson took up a 160-acre homestead there.⁴ In 1885 the Northern Pacific Railroad ran its transcontinental line through the homestead after the couple offered cleared, level land for a siding.^1,3 The National Register nomination for the Trommald Building gives an earlier date, 1883, when the railroad completed its transcontinental line to Tacoma.⁷ HistoryLink says the Stevensons filed a plat with the King County Auditor on October 1, 1885, while the Federal Writers’ Project guide gives October 3 and the library history gives October 31.^3,5,6 They built a hotel, which the Federal Writers’ Project guide called the first building erected in the town and found still standing at 1704 Railroad Avenue.^3,6 Settlers first called the place Stevensonville, but the Stevensons declined the honor, and the railroad asked for a name that did not end in -ville.⁴ HistoryLink says one settler suggested naming the town for nearby Mount Enumclaw, while the Federal Writers’ Project guide credits Frank Stevenson and his wife, who named it for the mountain about six miles to the north.^4,6 The Writers’ Project guide tells of a band of Indians who camped at the base of the mountain and fled in fright from a thunderstorm, while HistoryLink says they fled a loud crashing sound from the mountain’s interior.^4,6 The Writers’ Project guide says that in the early years a small rowboat ferried people across the White River, and anyone who wanted to cross blew a cow’s horn hidden in a stump that all the settlers knew.⁶

Hops, Cream, and Shingles

Plateau farmers took part in a hop craze in the 1880s and early 1890s, until hop lice and a drop in the world market turned many of them to dairying.³ Danish immigrants led in organizing cooperatives, beginning with Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Company in 1898 and followed by the Cooperative Creamery in 1899, the Rochdale Department Store in 1905, and the Enumclaw Grange in 1909, and George Bruhn, S. L. Sorenson, and Otto Tamm were among the prime movers.³ In 1897 six Swedish immigrants, among them Charles M. Hanson and his three sons, bought the White River Lumber and Shingle Company, which became the town’s major employer.³ In June 1909 Dr. J. J. Smith reported that the White River Lumber Company produced about 100,000 feet a day and that nearby coal mines produced in round numbers 600 tons.² The town had 483 people at the 1900 census and 1,129 by 1910.^3,4 In 1910 the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ran a branch line through town, which made Enumclaw the supply center for the area’s cooperatives, mines, and lumber operations.³

Incorporation and Brick Blocks

After an incorporation vote failed on March 15, 1912, store owner John Blake held meetings with other business people, and on January 24, 1913, the citizens voted in favor.⁴ Enumclaw was incorporated on February 1, 1913, and its first council named John Blake mayor, though one local account gives the date as January 27.^4,5,8 City leaders pushed to replace wood-frame buildings with brick for protection against fire, and HistoryLink says the city built the neo-classical Municipal Building in 1922, designed by Harlan Thomas to resemble Monticello, though the history museum’s timeline dates it to 1921.^3,9 Its National Register nomination says that in 1920 the Trommald Building joined the Kitchen building of 1908 and the Jensen Building to form the first all-brick half block in the downtown core.⁷ In November 1953 the Trommald Building was badly damaged by fire, and the fire departments of Enumclaw and Buckley were needed to fight it.⁷ The People’s Cash Store then held a fire sale in a hangar at Enumclaw Airport and sold off stock it had kept for years, including 1939 Golden Jubilee hats.⁷

Gateway to Naches Pass

In 1929 citizens of Enumclaw and Yakima met at the summit to open the Naches Pass Highway with a mock wedding of Yakima Peaches to Enumclaw Cream.³ When the Federal Writers’ Project guide was compiled, the town had 2,627 people who lived on lumbering, dairy and poultry farming, and the recreation trade, and the cooperative creamery at 2nd and Myrtle Streets employed 48 men.⁶ Jim Merritt went to school there from 1926 to 1938, when the population stayed around 2,500, and he remembered that people simply named Tom Smith, the town marshal, when there was trouble to handle.¹⁰ In the 1950s trucking replaced the railroads, Mutual of Enumclaw became a major local employer, and the White River Lumber Company merged with Weyerhaeuser.³ The Enumclaw Plateau Historical Society, chartered in 1995, bought the two-story lodge that the Masons built of local timber in 1909.⁹ Between the mid-1980s and 1998 the city’s population doubled to 10,000 and the plateau’s reached 40,000, though the city has limited growth because its drinking water supply is limited.³ HistoryLink found older family dairies and farms still on the plateau, some worked by farmers of the fourth and fifth generation.³