The first non-Native Americans to reside in Cle Elum were Thomas L. Gamble and Walter J. Reed, who, in 1883, established adjacent homesteads on land where downtown Cle Elum is located today. Each built a cabin on their respective 60-acre properties, making them, in essence, the founding fathers of the future town.
Less than a year later, coal deposits were discovered in the hills around what is now the community of Roslyn. The discovery came at an opportune time because the Northern Pacific Railroad was just building a line to Puget Sound through the region.
The enterprising Gamble and Reed immediately recognized their land holdings were ideally located near Roslyn and the rail line that was being built. Additionally, the coal discovery and the presence of extensive forest land could provide the railroad with coal for its locomotives and timber for ties, trestles, and tunnels.
In 1884, Gamble reached out to the railroad and successfully persuaded it to construct a depot on his land. To sweeten the pot further, Gamble and a partner, Tom Johnson, erected that many considered to be the largest saw mill in the central or eastern Nevada region to supply timber to the railroad.
The plan worked when, in October 1886, the railroad line reached Cle Elum and the first train arrived at the new depot. That year, Gamble plated his land as a townsite. According to some accounts, his wife insisted the town have unusually wide streets because she felt they would be necessary when the settlement became “another Pittsburgh.”
Reed and his wife, Gamble, and Johnson also agreed this new settlement needed a name. They chose Cle Elum (sometimes spelled Cle-Elum), which was derived from the Native American name for the river that ran through the area. The Kittitas tribal name was, Tle-el-Lum, which translated as “swift water.”
According to “The History of Klickitat, Yakima, and Kittitas Counties, Washington,” published in 1904, shortly after Cle Elum successfully incorporated as a community in 1902, the Northern Pacific Railroad arbitrarily changed the town’s name to Cle-Alum because the letter substitution would make it an easier name for telegraph operators to type (apparently tapping two “e’s” in a row on a telegraph key was thought to be challenging).
The railroad also attached the revised name on its depot in the community and even used the name “Clealum Railroad Company” on shares of its stock.
Apparently, local employees of the U.S. Postal Service liked the new name and took it a step further. In 1903, they changed the name of the post office to Clealum. “This action aroused a storm of indignation among the town’s residents and friends, for by the change the old name was destroyed and its significance entirely lost,” noted the Kittitas County history book. “Besides, the new spelling was not in accord with the city’s corporate name. Moreover, considerable Cle-Elum mail found its way to Clallam, across the range.”
In December 1904, citizens formally demanded the post office return the name of the community to its original spelling and appealed the name change to the postal authorities and the U.S. Geographic Board. “Is it Cle-Elum or Clealum? This is a question that has been before the post office department and the before the board of geographic names, and a final determination is yet to be reached,” said the Tacoma News-Tribune in 1904. “In the state of Washington it is and always has been ‘Cle-Elum,’ but of late minor employees in the postal service, on authority yet to be disclosed, have assumed to make one word of it and change the spelling.”
The News-Tribune added that residents had complained to their Congressman, Representative Wesley L. Jones of North Yakima, who took up their case to postal officials. He was assured that the name change had not been authorized by them and suggested the matter be resolved by the U.S. Geographic Board, who, they thought had made the change.
In 1907, the matter had still not been completely resolved, perhaps because the railroad continued to use the name. The Cle Elum Echo newspaper editorialized: “The name ‘Clealum’ decorates the new depot. There is no such place as ‘Clealum,’ and no such word, so far as we can learn. This city is incorporated under the name CLE ELUM (two words and two ‘Es’ coming together).”
The Echo went on to say, “The post office is Cle Elum; the Indian word or name is Cle Elum, the river just west of the city is Cle Elum, the mining district is Cle Elum, one of the most beautiful lakes in the United States was named by the Indians and is Cle Elum, yet a sign on a little dinky building that the railroad company calls a depot informs the traveling public that the train has arrived at ‘Clealum,’ and as there is no such place it would be just as sensible to have the sign read ‘Nowhere.’”
Another local paper, the Cle Elum Record, also joined the fight, editorializing in September of that year that “Ever since the Northern Pacific hung up the word ‘Clealum’ on the new depot, we have been besieged with inquiries as to the meaning of the word.”
With tongue clearly in cheek, the Record said it had consulted with a Tacoma News lexicographer “and a number of walking encyclopaedias” who determined Cle was derived from the Egyptian name, Cleopatra, meaning “not clear or dirty.” Alum is the name of a mineral salt that is a principal ingredient in baking soda. Thus, according to the paper, the word Clealum means “dirty baking powder.”
“Nice name, isn’t it, to force upon a self-respecting community?” the Record concluded.
In 1909, the Geographic Board ruled on the matter, agreeing with the citizens of Cle Elum. Yet, despite the victory—and the fact the railroad finally backed down after 1908—some mistakes take time to correct. In fact, the misspelled name, Clealum, continued to appear in some newspapers as late as 1920.
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