The City of Yelm is celebrating its past 100 years by offering a self-guided walking tour for residents and visitors to learn about Yelm’s history.
The tour includes 10 locations in Yelm’s downtown business district and allows for participants to explore some of the city’s most historic buildings at their own pace. Participants can use a guide on the City of Yelm Parks and Recreation Programs website to explore the places and events that helped shape the city. The 10 destinations, in order, include:
• Masonic Temple Lodge Hall, 302 E. Yelm Ave.
• Historic Water Tower, Second Street Southeast
• Senior Multipurpose Center, 201 E. Yelm Ave.
• Chief Yelm Tavern, 107 E. Yelm Ave.
• The Old Firehouse, 105 E. Yelm Ave.
• The Brown House, 201 First St. S.
• H.L. Wolf & Company Store, 102 E. Yelm Ave.
• Brown Brothers Garage, 103 First St. N.
• Yelm Scout Cabin, 301 W. Yelm Ave.
• Assembly of God Church, 204 Jefferson Ave. NW
Line Roy, Yelm’s communications and recreation coordinator, created the walking tour to highlight Yelm’s historic events, particularly the series of fires in 1924 that forced the city to rebuild its business district.
“There’s been really interesting things that have happened in our downtown corridor that a lot of people don’t know about,” Roy said. “By introducing this walking tour, we can let people learn about those things at their own pace and take advantage of this community that has seen so much change over the past 100 years.”
She decided to skip scheduled walking tours with a tour guide so that participants can choose when to take the tour, which will be available all year. Roy added that narrowing the list of destinations down to 10 was the hardest part of creating the tour.
“If you look at our downtown, all of it is so historic. I think when you’re walking down that corridor, you’re going to see all of the historic places in between that maybe weren’t included on that list, too,” she said.
The tour is also part of Yelm’s Parks Passport Program, which allows children to collect stickers at various city events. Participants can grab their park passports from Yelm City Hall, and at the end of the year, they can redeem their passports for Yelm swag.
“This year, we’re incorporating our stickers into our events. If kiddos and their families take the historic walking tour, they can come back into City Hall, tell us about their little adventure, and they’ll get a sticker for their passports,” Roy said.
For those interested in exploring Yelm outside of the 10 destinations included in the tour, Roy recommends taking the walk from Yelm Cinemas to Cochrane Memorial Park, as well as the Yelm-Tenino Trail.
She added that the tour is just one of many events she is coordinating as part of Yelm’s centennial celebration.
“I hope that this year, people take advantage of the different events that we’re offering. We have big announcements that are going to come out here in the next couple of weeks for our summer entertainment,” Roy said. “Just be ready for a good time because we’re going to offer it this summer.”
