Category: The Forties (1946-1949)

A center of lucrative agricultural activity, and having civic-minded residents, it has the means and enterprise that are necessary to the development of a good educational system and other advantages uncommon in most settlements of its size.

The population of Yelm is listed as 489, but there are many who are not counted in that figure, as they live outside the city limits, on rich farmlands, supporting the area’s primary income source, dairy farming.

The business section of Yelm is small, but growing rapidly. It boasts many fine stores. The people work hard, putting in long hours, but they can still find time for relaxing at community dances, picnics and other social gatherings. Yelm’s theater attracts many who enjoy the latest movies.

The source of Yelm’s name is a matter of conjecture. It is said that roving tribes of brown-skinned people drifted across the Bering Sea and into Western Washington. One of these early tribes was called Yelm-Pusha. Other historians believe that the early Nisqually tribes gave prairie the name Shelm, which indicated shimmering heat waves observed above the land in the Summer. It isn’t definitely known whether the tribe took its name from the prairie or if the area was named after the tribe, but the name is of Indian origin.

The area is a natural trailway and it is believed that many thousands of persons walked or rode the historic trails that cross Yelm Prairie. Indians, Spanish Seamen, Englishmen and Frenchmen trading for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Japanese blown ashore by adverse winds, Chinese working for prospectors in search of wealth—all these and perhaps many more saw Yelm Prairie hundreds of years ago.

As the white man came in, he improved the rough trails making them wider and better as his needs required. The turn of the century interestingly enough found many persons riding between Yelm and Olympia on bicycles.

These are some of the highlights of Yelm’s history. The complete chronicle of the area was recently published by Richard and Floss Loutzenhiser, titled The Story Of Yelm—The Little Town With The Big History.

The background of another chapter of Yelm, its irrigation system, would fill a book. If one were to ask any resident what his favorite topic of conversation is, the answer would be–irrigation. This is understandable when one examines the situation to find that thousands of persons depend on the land for a living in that vicinity.

J. A. Conner is chairman of the board of directors of the Yelm Irrigation District and Roy Hansen is superintendent.

The district was organized in 1910 when several persons realized the possibilities of developing, by irrigation, that part of the Nisqually Valley which was known as Yelm prairie. It was not easy, however, to bring water into the area. Water was carried from the Nisqually River, thirteen miles away, to Yelm prairie by a series of canals and wooden flumes.

Within the Yelm Irrigation District there are approximately 6,500 acres, of which 4,350 acres are first class land, according to Mr. Conner.

“Our principal crops are green beans, sweet corn, filberts and berries,” Mr. Conner said. “Of course everyone knows that Yelm is famous for blackcap berries which thrive exceptionally well, and that the area is noted for dairy products and poultry.”

Mr. Conner explained that during the war, a great number of farmers of the vicinity went into munitions industries and the armed forces. As a result, the district suffered a serious setback.

“However, since the end of the war, we are rebuilding the irrigation system and right now things look pretty good for Yelm.”

In 1945 the first step was made toward rehabilitation of the system when bonds were voted to install pumps to lift water 75 feet into a canal near the Centralia Dam, it was believed that this plan would eliminate the necessity of replacing all the old wooden flumes above this point and would therefore be more economical. However, the Yelm Irrigation District officials found that several of the wooden flumes would still require replacing the remaining flumes with ditches as soon as funds are available.

“In the last two years, a great deal of work has been on the distribution system,” Mr. Conner pointed out. “This has been mostly maintenance work such as cleaning ditches, replacing wooden siphons with concrete and in general, improving temporary structures with permanent ones.”

Considerable work has also been done, improving the natural streams within the district for the purpose of making full utilization of these streams as integral parts of the system.

Chairman Conner explained that there is a definite trend in the vicinity towards sprinkler irrigation. “This results in better distribution and application of the water, as well as being more economical for each farmer,” he said.

“this method is also very satisfactory for permanent pasture in connection with the production of dairy products,” he pointed out.

In April of last year, the Enumclaw Co-operative Creamery built a new plant at Yelm, of which Art Loney is manager.

“Yes, we dairy people are vitally interested in the Yelm Irrigation Project,” he said. “Proper sprinklage and fertilization are the two main factors one must consider to realize a greater percentage of return from the farm lands in this vicinity.”

He illustrated his point by telling of one man who had four pastures of two acres each. The farmer employed the latest methods of irrigation and fertilization and consequently saw his land return as high as nine tons from the eight acres every month. This is more than double the average yield.

The dairy manager says that the creamery picks up, pasteurizes and ships out more than twenty thousand pounds of grade C milk every day. Grade A milk is shipped directly from the farmers to bottling plants in Olympia and Tacoma. The creamery in Yelm does not bottle and milk, as it is primarily concerned with supplying ice cream manufacturers.

In explaining the routine of his creamery, Mr. Loney pointed out that the plant receives pickups from seven trucks, each bringing in capacity loads—some trucks even making two trips daily.

“Our most important development in the offing right now,” Mr. Loney said, “is a condensing machine which we hope to install very soon. We would use it primarily during the peak months of March through August, when the creamery handles more than forty thousand pounds daily.”

“Yes we believe that Yelm is a pretty good place in which to live,” Mr. Loney explained. ”The irrigation project is a big one, but it has the support of everyone in the vicinity—and with that many people behind something how can it fail?”

Yelm is a neighboring community, 22 miles south and east of Olympia, and it was there that Mr. Fristoe had to make a decision 27 years ago. He had been a traveling advertising salesman and was growing tired of living out of a suitcase. His wife was expecting their first child so the Fristoes decided to settle in Yelm, because Mrs. Fristoe’s parents lived there.

In his own words, Elmer tells why he became a newspaperman. “I had my choice of the road or a real home and a steady job, so I chose the latter. I had an opportunity to go into partnership with another man who had the idea of starting a newspaper in Yelm, so it seemed pretty logical to us to make our home near my wife’s folks.”

At first, Mr. Fristoe handled the outside work for the publication, selling advertising and promoting new accounts. But his partner, after a year, gave in to his wanderlust and sold out to Elmer, who has been the sole operator of The Nisqually Valley News ever since. He has printed more than 1,400 editions in his 27 years of publishing and estimates that he has turned out enough newsprint to stretch coast to coast.

Handling everything from the editor’s job down to copy boy, Mr. Fristoe has been a week-by-week historian for the residents of Yelm.

“I’ve recorded their marriages, births and deaths; I’ve written of their joys and sorrows, their ambitions and their disappointments,” he remarked. “Why, I guess that I know just about everyone around here—at least, they all know me, because they want to make sure I spell their names correctly!”

The Nisqually Valley News moved into its present building in 1924, right after the big fire which destroyed most of the town. Mr. and Mrs. Fristoe also live in the same structure because, as they put it, “We like to be close to our work.”

While The Daily Olympian reporter was talking with Mr. Fristoe, one of the residents dropped in to give him a bit of news. Excusing himself, the editor took out a copy pencil and in a matter of minutes had chronicled another personal incident about Yelm.

“Yes, that’s the way it goes,” Publisher Fristoe explained when his visitor had left. “We put out a weekly newspaper that is all about Yelm and this vicinity, and we think it’s pretty interesting to the people around here. Because it’s about their activities. We don’t try to compete with the metropolitan newspapers because we’re well-supplied from Olympia and surrounding cities. But the one thing that everyone likes to see in a newspaper is his own name—and that’s what the people of Yelm read in The Nisqually Valley News.”

Elmer believes that the expected cannery and food processing plant will bring many more persons to the neighborhood. This means more money spent and, consequently, more homes and interests.

As pointed out in a previous article in this series, a large corporation plans to build a modern cannery and a processing plant in Yelm for handling frozen foods—primarily berries, for which the community is noted.

“When we came here in 1921 from Seattle, we liked it right away,” the venerable newspaperman said. “Our early circulation figures showed we were distributing only 200 copies weekly, during the first year, in 1922, but now my wife and I are printing more than 1,000 copies every week.”

In speaking of the original purpose for which Yelm was founded, Mr. Fristoe said that to his knowledge, The Hudson’s Bay Company came into the territory in 1840 bringing cattle with it. The region was not only a herding area for beef cattle, but also a jumping-off place for persons traveling to Mount Rainier. It was in this manner, Mr. Fristoe believes, that Yelm began.

Farmers realized the wonderful opportunities of the soil and moved in to work it. They brought their families with them, necessitating the construction of schools, shops, stores, churches, and the introduction of doctors and civil government. The irrigation project has saved thousands of dollars for these farmers and they are proud of what they have done on their lands.

Elmer’s family life has been a happy one. He has two daughters living in Olympia. One is the wife of Robert G. Herness, who is a teacher at Tumwater School. The other, Mrs. Donald R. Miller, lives at twenty-second Avenue West. The State Department of Employment Security employs her husband. A son, Elmer Robert is head of Phi Alpha Delta, which is an honorary legal fraternity at the University of Washington. Hw is also a member of the State Law Review Board, and according to his father, will take his examination before the bar in approximately six months.

As he prepared to sit down at his linotype machine, Printer Fristoe commented, “Yes, I get a big kick out of this newspaper business. If you print things people agree with, you’re a nice guy and a good reporter, so far as your readers are concerned. However, if you write something that doesn’t exactly please everyone, your telephone rings like everything; you catch the dickens,” he smiled.

With his remark, Elmer Fristoe adjusted his eye-shade and went to work, writing news as he believes it should be, and which is his newspaper’s unwritten motto; “The news—true and timely.”