Five things
#1. Samuel and Sarah Olmstead and their three children settled here, about two miles east-southeast of present-day Ellensburg, in 1875. They built the still-standing-but-much-modified log cabin and raised beef cattle. Samuel died in 1882, and Sarah and the kids stayed put, working the land and witnessing the changes as more settlers arrived from the East and Native peoples were pushed off their traditional homelands. In 1886, the Northern Pacific railroad arrived and demand for farm products took off. Within a few years, Sarah switched from beef to dairy cows and supplied butter to Seattle and other markets. She died in 1918 at age 76.
#2. The main house, built in 1906, is a mix of styles, with diamond-mullioned window uppers, dentils along the roofline, Ionic column toppers on the now-enclosed porch, and a Craftsman-style window or two. Painted farmhouse red, it sits solidly on its foundation, but even a cursory glance shows it needs a lot of restoration work. This is a huge challenge for State Parks, which manages more than one-quarter of all state-owned buildings, more than half of which are historic. Unfortunately, historic preservation is rarely a sexy budget ask.
#3. By the time granddaughters Leta May and Clarita Olmstead donated the property to State Parks in 1968, it had become a time capsule that showed how homesteading evolved with advances in farm technology and socio-economic-political changes. In what can be interpreted as one way women exercised agency in an era when they didn’t always have it, one story has it that Leta May and Clareta refused to donate the homestead until Interstate 90 had been rerouted to avoid it. I love this girl power story but haven’t been able to confirm it.
#4. A loop from the main house leads past the farm outbuildings to Coleman Creek, which supplied water for the Olmsteads and their animals and fields. The Altapes Creek Interpretive Trail (it follows Coleman Creek, likely a later name for the waterway) leads to the one-room Seton Schoolhouse, moved here from its original site northeast of the homestead. Small critters have gotten inside but hollow knotholes allowed us to peek in at the floor, covered with fluff and feathers, dirt and plants. The nearby Smith House is another homestead building that’s been converted to a museum. Complete the loop by walking the road back to the main house past the hay barn, where a display of farm equipment sits in front and a painted quilt square motif on the outside wall overlooks the road.
#5. You may be able to get a tour of the main house and museum. Call in advance and see if a ranger is available. We showed up on time for an appointment made a month earlier for a guided tour, but no dice. After wandering around the grounds, looking at the house from the outside and the various buildings, and trying to reach the ranger by phone, we gave up, chalking it up to State Parks’s perpetual state of understaffed-ness. Still, it would have been nice to see the inside of the main house and listen to the site’s story from an expert perspective.
Fast Facts about Olmstead Place Historical State Park
- 217-acre, day-use park, open year-round
- restrooms
- picnic tables
- hiking, biking, birding, wildlife viewing, seasonal fishing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing
- Discover Pass required, $10 daily or, for a very reasonable $30, purchase an annual pass
- Campsites, cabins, yurts, group camps, vacation houses, kitchen and picnic shelters, marina spots, and retreat centers vary by park and are reservable online.
- park brochure
- park map
Land Acknowledgment
Olmstead Place Historical State Park occupies the traditional lands of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, who have lived and travelled here since time immemorial.