Portal Into the Past - Ritzville, Washington History

Portal Into The Past

Hello everyone, 

Today I bring you the second Portal Into the Past. If you read my first one, called "Portal Into the Past - Egypt, Washington Missile Silo (Site 8)" you should have an understanding of what these Portal Into the Past posts are all about. Because of this, I will continue on to the part I am hoping many of you want to read: Ritzville, Washington History. No, I don't plan to give you a full-on history lesson because yes, learning about a thousand dates and times are not all that fun (in my opinion). Instead, I will give you some of that mixed with facts about the people who live there, the buildings, and plenty of pictures I took, plus more. So take a seat (if you have not already) and enjoy reading the second Portal Into the Past - Ritzville, Washington History:

The red star is where Ritzville is located

Over the weekend - before I had the flu, luckily - my family and I went Geocaching as usual, but this time to the historic town of Ritzville, located in Adams County, Washington. In fact, it is the county seat of Adams County since 1883 because it was the only place that could be called a town. Ritzville first started up in 1881 when it was established as a station stop for the railroad. Because of this, its population was much higher than the other Adams County towns. In present times, Ritzville is known as a very important wheat-shipping point and historic area. But even in the past, Ritzville held its role for wheat-shipping. 

Metal Statue of Philip Ritz

But what is so amazing or interesting about a historic town? Especially one with the name Ritzville? Well, let's start off with the name, shall we? Ritzville was named after one of the first settlers, Philip Ritz. Philip Ritz was a very important person in Ritzville's history. One of the things he did was land the contract for grading ten miles of the railroad bed which was important because Ritzville was a main station stop for the railroad station. Even though Ritz was not the first settler - William McKay was - the town had still been named after him because of what he did.

As I mentioned, the first settler was William McKay, a Canton immigrant. On arriving to Ritzville, he settled by building a 8-room house which he used to rent out rooms to the railroad workers. He then built a second building which was a general store for the railroad workers and travelers. McKay also used his house as a hotel, restaurant, dance hall, and a theater. By 1881, the small town of Ritzville had three buildings total because the railroad had built a depot as well. By 1882, there were only about 50 people living in Ritzville.

In 1883, a large population of Ritzville was the Volga Germans who had settled in. They liked the

Statue of one of the builders

dry-land wheat farming and had decided to settle there. The Volga Germans had resided in Russia for generations until around 1878 when Russia began taxing them, recruiting them into their army, and forcing them to assimilate. Finally, after these problems, they left Russia. Overall, about 17 Volga German families settled in Ritzville to do wheat farming.

More people arrived later on, including the Hoefel family which had left Odessa, Russia with plans to meet other Volga German immigrate families in Odessa, Washington. Once they arrived at New York, they could not find Odessa Washington on the train map so instead they went to Ritzville which they knew that Volga Germans resided there as well. The Hoefel family arrived to Ritzville on December 2, 1901.

The eruption of Mt. St. Helens - on May 18, 1980 - effected Ritzville greatly. They were buried in the ash deeper than almost every other town in Eastern Washington. In fact, Ritzville got four to six inches whereas other Eastern Washington towns got only an inch or less of the ash. Because of this, about 2,500 travelers were stranded in town which nearly doubled the population for a few days. They were all inside every building like the Ritzville hospital, school gym, and all the restaurants, churches, and hotels. It was like this for five whole days where Ritzville was blocked out from every other town around them. Three months later, in August, the residents of Ritzville were still shoveling ash out of their town and discovered that the ash was an amazing thing for their farms.

The population of Ritzville started declining overtime. But the all-time highest population record was 2,173 in 1960. Yet, even then, it was no longer the biggest town in Adams County. Othello, Washington - another town in Adams County - took the record as the biggest town. As of 2013, Ritzville had about 1,679 people in population.

Currently, Ritzville is greatly centered on its historic value and recreation. The town has two museums, a Public Library which is the original Carnegie Library (shown on the left), their old city swimming pool is now a water park with two pools, and they have a golf course. Ritzville is known as the center of both Adams and Lincoln County.

I hope you enjoyed and learned from today's Portal Into the Past - Ritzville, Washington History. Also, I am sorry for the random assortment of the pictures I took. Since I did not have ones of the actual people, these will have to do for now. The map is not mine, but it gives the location of Ritzville. Hopefully, the next Portal into the Past should be on the 6th of this month. Until then, keep an eye out for any new things such as Minecraft Monday - or... or even a surprise post coming up? Hmm... I wonder...

So, passing past that something of a hint, let me say: thanks for reading this, and I hoped you enjoyed the second Portal Into the Past - Ritville, Washington History.