Wiley City, Washington — City Mostly in Name

Wiley City lies southwest of Yakima amid irrigated farms and rural homes.

Despite the confidence of the name, it never became an incorporated city. That mismatch gives Wiley City one of the more entertaining identities in the Yakima Valley: urban ambition in the title, decidedly rural geography on the ground.

Agriculture supplies the real scale. Orchards, vineyards, hops and field crops depend on the Yakima Basin's irrigation system, while nearby Yakima provides most of the commerce and public services a small settlement would otherwise need.

Western promoters were rarely shy about naming places for the future they hoped would arrive.

At Wiley City, the future kept driving to Yakima—but the “City” stayed on the sign.