Klickitat, Washington — Mill Town Inside the Canyon

Klickitat occupies a narrow canyon where river, road and former railroad all compete for workable ground.

Timber created the modern town. Large sawmills processed logs from surrounding forests, and workers built homes along the Klickitat River.

Rail carried lumber toward the Columbia.

When the timber economy contracted, the railroad eventually disappeared too. Its old grade became the Klickitat Trail, carrying cyclists and hikers through a corridor once used by freight trains.

The river's history reaches much deeper.

Indigenous peoples used the Klickitat watershed for fishing, travel and food gathering long before the mill town existed.

Modern Klickitat remains inhabited after losing much of the industrial machinery that built it.

The canyon never got wider.

The community simply learned to use it differently.