Ellen's Burgh
On July 20, 1875, John and Ellen Shoudy filed an 80-acre plat in the Kittitas Valley for a town that John named Ellensburgh, after his wife. The couple had been living there since purchasing the trading post Robber's Roost in 1871. The fledgling town quickly became a hub for trails and roads, and when Kittitas County was established in 1883, Ellensburgh was chosen as the county seat. The town incorporated a year later, but it wasn't until 1894 that the post office dropped the "h" from the end of its name, shortening it to Ellensburg.
Regular train service helped the town grow, and although a huge fire in 1889 dashed Ellensburg's hopes of becoming the state capital, the community did become home to a state-authorized teacher's college, now known as Central Washington University. The city's other claims to fame include its abundance of blue agates and, of course, the Ellensburg Rodeo.
With a history this rich and varied, it's no wonder that in 1977 Ellensburg's downtown was added to the National Register of Historic Places. That same year, the town hosted the Washington State Conference for Women, which was marked by polarizing debates over the roles and rights of women in modern American society. Ten years later another conference in Ellensburg revisited the first conference's goals and assessed how successfully they had been achieved.
Open Roads
On July 23, 1900, Ralph Hopkins arrived in Seattle after driving his Woods Electric automobile west from Chicago to San Francisco and then north (with lifts from trains helping out here and there). His car was the first to travel Seattle’s streets and most likely was the first one ever seen in Washington.
By 1904 there were enough cars to warrant creation in Seattle of the state's first Automobile Club, the predecessor of AAA Washington. This group collaborated with Sam Hill’s Good Roads Association to improve and promote the construction of public highways. The Good Roads Association also pushed for the creation of a State Highway Board, which was established in 1905.
The need for speed increased once Henry Ford’s Model T was introduced, and cars became affordable to middle-class Americans. In 1911, Governor Marion Hay signed the Permanent Highway Act, which created a fund for construction of hard-surfaced roads between trade centers. The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 assisted in these efforts. Over time, the State Highway Board evolved into the Washington State Transportation Commission, which now oversees the Washington State Department of Transportation.
