Tacoma Daily Ledger July 17, 1910
How the name of the settlement came to be selected is a matter that will probably interest a large number of people who travel on the railroad to points beyond this place. The brakeman’s yell of “Yelm” generally nettles the person who has not yet hear the name before, and repeated yells of the station’s title do not enlighten the puzzled listener who doesn’t succeed in clearing the mystery until he reads the name painted in big white letters on the little red depot. It has happened here just like it has in many more of the towns of Washington at the time settling-the Indian titles were drawn upon to fittingly designate the community. . .
Yelm’s main thoroughfare is the road from Tacoma to Olympia that is used by auto owners, and it is a dull day in the buzz-wagon line when the machines that whizz through the place do not number two score.