Cle Elum in Kittitas County, Washington — The American West (Northwest)
Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company (1920)
Cle Elum Historical Register
Photographed by Jimmy Emerson, June 12, 2017
1. Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company (1920) Marker
Replacing the building destroyed in the 1918 fire, this sturdy brick box housed switchboards, operators, and maintenance crews until 1966. Cle Elum was a link on the "Old Transcontinental Lead" that connected Western Washington with the rest of the country when copper wires were the only means of telephone communication. Until Sept, 18, 1966, every call in or out of Cle Elum required the assistance of an operator plugging and unplugging switchboard wires inside this building. The town was the last in the Pacific Northwest Bell service area (Washington, Oregon, and northem Idaho) to install rotary dial phones. Seattle had received its first dial phones in 1924, forty-two years earlier. In recognition of that milestone, Bell donated the building and equipment illustrating the development of telephone technology from 1876 to 1970 to the Historical Society. The exhibits include models of Alexander Graham Bell's early patents, one of the switchboards "retired" in 1966, and a working dial phone switching system.
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Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Architecture
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Location. 47° 11.677′ N, 120° 56.106′ W. Marker is in Cle Elum, Washington, in Kittitas County. It is at the intersection of East 1st Street and N Wright Ave, on the left when traveling east on East 1st Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 221 E 1st St, Cle Elum WA 98922, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Washington’s Columbia Basin and in Yakima Valley. It is also in the American Mountain West and in the Lewis & Clark Corridor. Globally, it is in North America, the Cascade Range, the Pacific Rim, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere.
Other nearby markers. At least 2 other markers are within 4 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Douglas A. Munro (approx. 1.2 miles away); Roslyn Coal Mining (approx. 3.4 miles away).
Photographed by Jimmy Emerson, June 12, 2017
2. Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company Building & Marker
Credits. This page was last revised on June 20, 2026. It was originally submitted on June 17, 2026, by Jimmy Emerson of Dalton, Georgia. This page has been viewed 14 times since then. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on June 17, 2026, by Jimmy Emerson of Dalton, Georgia. • James Hulse was the editor who published this page.
