Lewis and Clark's Columbia River
Lewis & Clark's Columbia River - "200 Years Later"
"Yacolt, Washington"
Includes ... Yacolt ...
Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Chelatchie Prairie RR tracks, heading north, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.


Yacolt ...
Yacolt, Washington, is a small Clark County community located 2.5 miles north of the East Fork Lewis River, at approximately E.F. Lewis River Mile (RM) 24. Yacolt is located in T4N, R3E, Section 2. The small community of Amboy is located 3.5 miles northwest and the community of Chelatchie is located over four miles north.

Early Yacolt ...
Edmund S. Meany wrote in "Origin of Washington Geographic Names" (1923, University of Washington Press):

"Yacolt ... a town in the northeastern part of Clarke County, was named for the prairie on which it is located. Glenn N. Ranck writes that forty years ago an old Indian gave him the following origin of the name: "Many years ago a small tribe of Indians went huckleberrying on the prairie and some of their children were mysterioiusly lost. Since they could not find the children they concluded that they had been stolen by evil spirits. Thereup they called the prairie Yacolt, meaning 'haunted place'"."

Robert Hitchman wrote in "Place Names of Washington" (1985, Washington State Historical Society):

"Yacolt ... Town 20 miles northeast of Vancouver, central Clark County. At one time, 2 post offices were in competition at this place. Yacolt and Garner. Eventually, they were combined under the present name. The Indian word means "place abounding in evil spirits" or "haunted place." It derives from an incident, many years ago, in which 5 Indian children were lost while picking wild berries."

According to "Names in Clark County" ("The Columbian", 2014):

"Yacolt ... The Indian word Yacolt means “place abounding in evil spirits” or “haunted valley,” derived from an incident in which five Indian children were lost while picking wild berries, the demon, Yacolt, had gotten them, so the story goes! Two post offices competed in the area, Yacolt and Garner. They were combined under the present name."

"Yahkohtl Prairie" (Klickitat Trail) ...
"Yahkohtl Prairie" was a four-mile long and two-mile wide prairie located on the historic Klickitat Trail, a loosely defined "trail" of prairies and plains between the Yakima River and the Klickitat River drainages to The Dalles and Fort Vancouver. This "trail" allowed the indigenous tribes to move between central Washington to the Columbia River. These plains and prairies were first mapped between 1853 and 1855 by Pacific Railroad surveyors George McClellan (1853) and James G. Cooper (1854, 1855). The McClellan party camped at Yahkohtl Prairie between July 25 and July 31, 1853.
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Early Maps ...

Image, 1855, Steven's map, RR surveys, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		1855 Map detail, McClellan's 1854 route along the Lower Klickitat Trail. Original map from Isaac Stevens' "Reports of Explorations and Surveys ...", 1855, Map No.3, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, courtesy Washington State University Digital Colletions, 2018.

"Mankas", "Yahkotl", "Chalacha", "Spilyeh", "Lakas", and the "Ca-la-ma R." (Kalama River), "Cath-la-pootle R." (Lewis River), and "Yah kotl Riv." (East Fork Lewis River).
Map detail, 1858, Cadastral survey map showing Yacolt Prairie, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		1858 Cadastral survey (tax survey) map detail for T4N R3E (lower) and T5N R3E (upper), showing early trails (ticked path, left) and Yacolt Prairie. Original map courtesy U.S. Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office (GLO) Records database, 2018.


Views ...

Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Railroad tracks at the south end of Yacolt Prairie, heading north to Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 29, 2018.
Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Home, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.
Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Mercantile, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.
Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		City Hall, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.

This old brick building was occupied by City Hall from 1908 until 2009, when City Hall moved a few blocks over into a newer building. After the Yacolt Burn of 1902, the building was made of brick to last forever. The building also doubled as the town jail. Today the town of Yacolt hopes to turn the building into a museum.


Yacolt, etc.

  • Cell Phone Tower ...
  • Chelatchie Prairie Railway Depot ...
  • Sasquatch ...
  • Yacolt Burn, 1902 ...
  • Yacolt's Monk Parakeets ...
  • Yacolt Prairie ...


Cell Phone Tower ...

Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Cell Phone Tower, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.
Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Cell Phone Tower, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.


Chelatchie Prairie Railway Depot ...
[More]

Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Depot, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.
Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Depot, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.
Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Chelatchie Prairie RR and Yacolt Trading Post, signs, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.


Sasquatch ...
[More]

Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Bigfoot, Yacolt Library, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.
Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Bigfoot, Banner, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken August 8, 2018.


Yacolt Burn, 1902 ...
In 1902, a fire known as the "Yacolt Burn" became the largest forest fire ever recorded in the State of Washington, a position it held until being passed by the 2014 Carlton Complex and the 2015 Okanogan Complex (information good as of 2015). Between September 11 to 13, 1902, the "Yacolt Burn" fire burned more than 370 square miles (nearly 240,000 acres), destroying an unknown number of structures, and killed 38 people. Smoke darkened the skies. A steamboat on the Columbia River had to use a searchlight to navigate, Portland, Oregon was covered in one-half an inch of ash, while the street lights were on at noon in Seattle, Washington, 160 miles away. The town of Yacolt, Washington, was evacuated as the fire neared the town, coming close enough to blister paint on the town's 15 buildings. Fortunately the wind changed, causing the fire to veer north towards the Lewis River, where it burned itself out.
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Yacolt's Monk Parakeets ...

Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Monk Parakeet nest, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.
Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Monk Parakeet nest, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.
Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Monk Parakeet, at nest, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.
Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Monk Parakeet, at nest, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.
Image, 2011, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Monk Parakeet, Yacolt, Washington. Image taken April 19, 2011.


Yacolt Prairie ...
(to come)

Image, 2018, Yacolt, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Yacolt Prairie, Washington. Image taken August 29, 2018.


From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...

Clark, ...
 



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*River Miles [RM] are approximate, in statute miles, and were determined from USGS topo maps, obtained from NOAA nautical charts, or obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website, 2003

Sources:
  • "The Columbian", 2014, "Clark History, Names in Clark County";
  • "historylink.org" website, 2011, written by David Wilma, 2003;
  • Hitchman, R., 1985, "Place Names of Washington", Washington State Historical Society;
  • Meany, E.S., 1923, "Origin of Washington Geographic Names", University of Washington Press, Seattle;
  • U.S. Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office (GLO) Records database, 2018;
  • Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Yacolt Burn State Forest Map (notes on reverse), 1991;


All Lewis and Clark quotations from Gary Moulton editions of the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Nebraska Press, all attempts have been made to type the quotations exactly as in the Moulton editions, however typing errors introduced by this web author cannot be ruled out; location interpretation from variety of sources, including this website author.
/Regions/Places/yacolt.html
August 2018