This file made possible by: The State of Washington
Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation

The incident known as the Mashel Massacre occurred in late March 1856 on the Mashel prairie just north of the confluence of the Mashel and Nisqually rivers (present-day Pierce County). It was the last episode of the Puget Sound Indian war [...]

Introduction: Some scenes from Y.H. S. life.
Band Concert in the Gym

Basketball Team, 194-49

Cheerleaders

Introduction: Yelm High School scenes from the last year before World War II.
High School and Gym

The Yelm High School Gym

Football Scenes

Girls’ League

Patterson’s Drugstore

Prank Photo:  Easy Way Out

Introduction:  D. B. Ward was not among Yelm’s first or permanent settlers, but he did write an account of his family’s move from Arkansas to the northwest.  His connection with Yelm is teaching there in the mid-1860’s, a little over a decade after Yelm’s first settlers.
 
Across the Plains in 1853
By Dillis B. Ward
 
To the Prairie [...]

Introduction:  John Edgar arrived in the northwest as an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He eventually terminated his service them, married a native women, Betsy, and moved on to the Yelm prairie. They were the first family to settle there. The following depicts part of there life there.
Betsy & John Edgar: Pioneers on the [...]

Introduction:  Bridget and James Hughes were born in Ireland, migrated to Massachusetts were they met and married, then headed to the northwest where they settled on the Yelm Prairie for a short while.  The fighting the 1850’s inspired them to relocate in Steillacoom, which seemed safer than the prairie.  The following is from Bridget’s obituary [...]