Passing a small co-operative creamery, the road swings through irrigated orchard lands. The name of Yelm, in the midst of the prairie, preserves in modified form the Indian word for heat waves such as rise from sun-baked earth; the Indians reverenced Chelm, as they called the waves, believing that the Unseen Power radiated them to render the earth fruitful.

Among the earliest settlers on Yelm Prairie was the family of James Longmire, who crossed the Naches Pass with the first immigrant train in October 1853. Longmire, who took up cattle raising, was one of the earliest explorers of the Mount Rainier region. Until the introduction of irrigation, the prairies served as grazing land for beef cattle and sheep; and in early days the Hudson’s Bay Company, which maintained a herdsmen’s station and a farm here, established Yelm Ferry across the Nisqually River on the road to Fort Vancouver.

By the 1940s young cowhands in sombreros and high-heeled boots drove to McKenna in modern automobiles, and truckloads of stock passed through the streets on their way to Puget Sound cattle markets. Irrigation made possible the cherry orchards, prosperous farms, filbert groves, and berry patches that sprinkle the prairies near the town.

Yelm is now home to the first Class A Water Reclamation Facility and distribution system in Washington State. This system reclaims all of its wastewater to irrigate landscaping at churches, parks, a football field and one residence. The water also is added to streams and is used to recharge water underground at a city wetland park that includes a catch-and-release fishpond for rainbow trout. The Ramtha School of Enlightenment, a religious organization, also draws people to the town and provides economic support.