Ephrata history to be highlighted all over town

EPHRATA - Everybody knows the local effort that helped bring the U.S. government's attention to the Grand Coulee Dam site began with a conversation in a restaurant in Ephrata, in the summer of 1918. Well, not everybody knows it - Mike Scellick didn't, and he's an Ephrata native.

"I grew up here and I didn't really know the history," he said. He wants to change that for residents and visitors in the future with the construction of history information kiosks around town.

Two have been completed and installed, he said. One is on First Avenue Northwest and tells the story of Ephrata's connection to Grand Coulee Dam, and the history of the two bank buildings on Basin Street. The other is outside the Nat Washington House, right across from the Grant County Courthouse on C Street Northwest.

Nat Washington's ancestors included George Washington - yes, that George Washington - and he was a longtime Ephrata resident, state senator and historian. Scellick owns Nat's house, which is rented for events.

A third kiosk is in the planning stages. There are enough good historical stories and sites for 42 kiosks and maybe as many as 50, Scellick said. "There's just a lot of history here that people don't realize," he said.

Everybody knows that Beezly Springs and its water played a pivotal role in Ephrata's growth. In a time of steam power, the spring water was crucial for trains coming east out of the Cascade Mountains or about to head west over them. Well, OK, maybe not everybody knew that, or that there was a bowling ball factory up on the hill.

Most people know that Ephrata was home to a bomber training base in World War II, because a lot of the buildings are still there, Scellick said. But not everybody knows that in its early days Ephrata had its own bank-robbing bandits holed up in the hills.

Scellick said he's interested in telling those stories, like the tales of the pre-Columbian tribes who used the spot with the spring, at the base of the hills. Or the racetrack. There's a photograph of a July 4 celebration at the racetrack in the 1920s. "There are all these Model Ts surrounding the racetrack (in the photograph). At least 200 Model Ts. You think about, where in the world did all those Model Ts come from?" The answer was they came from all over sparsely populated Grant County.

It's part of Scellick's effort to promote tourism in Ephrata, a way to differentiate the city from its neighbors. He estimated the cost of each kiosk at $700 to $800. "We have two of them up, and we're creating some interest," he said. He hopes to get other business owners and individuals involved in the project, he said.