- Yakima — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Yakima is the dominant city of central Washington’s fruitful Yakima Valley and the county seat of Yakima County. It sits on the banks of the Yakima River just below the mouth of the Naches River. A small village located farther south near Ahtanum Creek, which came to be known as Yakima City, emerged in the 1860s, serving the valley’s scattered ranchers…