Bickleton, Washington
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Bluebird house was built to resemble the local church. |
The unincorporated community of Bickleton is located in east-central Klickitat County, 50 miles east of Goldendale on the Bickleton Highway. The community is famous as the "Bluebird Capital of the Pacific Northwest," as local residents have constructed dozens of bluebird houses along the roads leading into town.
Bickleton enjoys a favored location in one of the finest wheat-growing regions of Washington. The broad, regular areas of farming land, green with the growing crops or brown from the action of the plow and cultivator, the miles of well-kept fences, neat farm buildings, and here and there a schoolhouse or a church, all bear eloquent testimony to the energy of the people. The town is situated upon the upper edge of the prairie at its junction with the pine timber belt of Simcoe Mountain. Its altitude is approximately three thousand two hundred and seventy feet. It is about twenty-five hundred feet higher than the valley of the Yakima at Mabton, twenty-three miles northeast, and three thousand feet above the Columbia at Arlington, an equal distance almost due south. While this height above the sea renders the region subject to a much severer winter climate than is found in the lower altitudes, it makes the summers pleasanter than in the hot valleys.
From the timber's edge the famed wheat plateau, at this point thirty-five miles in width, sweeps northeastward seventy miles to the bend of the Columbia river. At Bickleton the view is a commanding one. To the south, beyond the Columbia, the shadowy outlines of the rugged Blue mountain range in Oregon is an ever attractive sight; from a point a little higher up the mountain west of town, the distant peaks of Mts. Jefferson and Hood in Oregon may be seen.
Bluebird Capital of the World
This small Klickitat County town 75 miles southwest of Kennewick attracts thousands of mountain and western bluebirds each spring, some arriving as early as Valentine's Day. The eye-catching birds have migrated to Bickleton each spring after wintering in
Mexico and California for decades, if not centuries....Jess and Elva Brinkerhoff are credited with building the first bluebird
house and setting it up in Bickleton. After building the original -- a tin can
nailed to a tree -- the couple refined the design, eventually creating a
blueprint for what's become the iconic Bickleton bluebird house. With the help of lifelong Bickleton residents Ada Ruth and Lawrence Whitmore,
thousands of the tall and narrow houses, capped with an A-frame roof and pierced
with a 1 5/8-inch-diameter hole, now dot the roadways around Bickleton.
Source (for full article) see: Tri-City Herald
Bickleton Community Action Planning Committee
PO Box 198
Bickleton, WA 99322
(509) 896-5121
(509) 896-2134
Website: http://bickleton.org/
Electricity: 773-5891
Streets/Road Dept.: 896-5412.
Birding in Klickitat County
Alder Creek Electric
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-5619
Bickleton Fire Dept.
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-5445
Bickleton High School
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-5473 |
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Bickleton Garage
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-5435
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Bickleton Market Street Cafe
106 Market St.
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896- 2671 |
Bickleton Presbyterian Church
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-5244
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Bluebird Inn
121 E. Market St
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-2273 |
| The Bluebird Inn was built in 1882 and is one of the oldest taverns in the state of Washington. For a number of years there was even a barber shop in the tavern! This is the only original building in the town that has not been burned by the periodic wildfires that rage through the region. |
Clark Ranch LLC
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-2341
Jensen Seed Farm
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-2312
Klickitat County Senior Services
115 W. Court St.
Goldendale, WA
509-773-3757
Toll Free: 800-447-7858
Matsen Brynn Office
50 Crider Valley Rd
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-5400
Mt. Adams Transportation
115 W. Court St.
Goldendale, WA
800-774-1699
Powers Ranches
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-896-5200
Simplot Soilbuilders
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-2801
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United States Post Office - Bickleton
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-2934 |
Whoop 'N Holler Museum
1 Whitmore Road
Bickleton, WA 99322
509-896-2344
(Museum by appointment only. Please call ahead.)
Lawrence and Ada Ruth Whitmore's showcase is found probably in the most unlikely of spots for a museum, 11 miles north of Roosevelt on Whitmore Road leading to Bickleton. Lawrence has probably one of the largest antique and classic auto collections in the state. His collection includes Model T Fords, antique pickups, even an antique horse driven hearse on sled runners. You will also find a building devoted entirely to antiques and memorabilia.
Whoop-n-Holler Museum is open through September 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, sponsored by Lawrence and Ada Ruth Whitmore.
History of Bickleton
A century ago, in April of 1879, the travel-weary leader of a group of pioneers prepared to camp for the night. "I'm not going any farther now," the leader said. This is how the town of Bickleton was founded 100 years ago.
Indians were the first inhabitants of the Bickleton area, but Charles Nathaniel Bickle and the David Ransier family were the first white settlers. Bickleton is the central town of Eastern Klickitat County. It has one of the finest wheat growing regions or the state of Washington. The natural beauty of the country is likely to be the first thing to appeal to the visitor. In altitude it is approximately three thousand and thirty-two feet.
Charles N. Bickle, from whom the town acquired its name, built the first store in the county east of Rock Creek in May of 1879. Le Roy Weaver assisted him in the enterprise. Mr. Bickle had come to Alder Creek in 1878, but on account of the Indian troubles had returned temporarily to Goldendale. Owing to the laws in force at that time, Mr. Bickle was unable to secure title to his claim, so his brother-in-law, John Skiller, took the land as a homestead, and from him at an early date Mr. Bickle acquired the property.
Time soon proved that Mr. Bickle had exercised good judgment in selecting a site for his trading post, for the settlers of that region heartily welcomed him and his business. The little store, which stood on the corner near where the town well now is, soon became the trading point of the region for miles around, while the Bickle home furnished shelter and temporary accommodations to many a traveler. The store also became a place of rendezvous for the Indians, who were wont to come either on business or to lounge and engage in sports.
In October, 1880, Samuel P. Flower, an Alder Creek pioneer of 1878, joined Mr. Bickle in his enterprise, organizing the firm of Bickle & Flower. The same fall Mr. Flower built a blacksmith shop near the store, which four years later he sold to James C. Sigler. About the same time William Twitchell opened a like business, but he shortly afterward removed it to the newly organized village of Cleveland. Charles E. Flower erected a drug store in 1882, increasing the business houses of Bickleton to four, namely, a general store, a hotel, a blacksmith shop and a pharmacy. That year also Mr. Bickle formally platted his town, while the government did what it could to help along by granting the settlers' petition for a postoffice. C.N. Bickle was its first postmaster.
April 27, 1887, the town of Bickleton experienced its first great disaster. About noon of that day fire broke out in Samuel Flower's new dwelling, and before the flames were extinguished, every business house in the town except the blacksmith shop and nearly every dwelling were burned. The aggregate loss was not less than twenty-five thousand dollars, of which Flower & Bickle's loss was fifteen thousand dollars with six thousand dollars insurance, and R. M. Graham's, six thousand dollars with twenty-five hundred dollars insurance. But the set-back given the town was only temporary in its effect. Ten days after the fire Bickle & Flower were doing business in a tent.
Source: History of Klickitat County - Bickleton
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