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Ritzville - Rich in German/Russian Heritage

© Jerri Brooker

I'm back in Eastern Washington again. Join me, won't you?

As with Sprague, a town I covered earlier, there's not much to look at from the freeway as you drive I-90 east or west by Ritzville, Washington. You see a Perkins (we stop there to eat occasionally) and a small drive-in. You also see some metal pioneer statues along the road into town. What you don't' see is what's not viewable from the freeway, like this metal statue of a pioneer woman. (My photography is not the best, but what looks like a large tree trunk on the right of the photo is actually a metal sculpture of a woman holding a baby while her skirt floats in the wind.) Nor do you know the history.

Some Town History

The first homestead in Adams County was granted early in the 1870's just south of Ritzville at Cow Creek. Then Phillip Ritz homesteaded in 1878 on ground that is now the town of Ritzville, located on the northern border of southeast Washington. He was followed by a group of German-Russians who settled in the community during 1891-1900. In 1950 these folks were still a large presence in town; two out of eight churches were still German-speaking.

Ritzville was also once the the home of the Sahaptin-speaking Palouse Indians. Archaeologists examined a rock shelter on Jake Harder's ranch near Ritzville and discovered it had been used for 3,500 years. There are buttes located nearby the tribes used for outlooks.

Later, Dr.Frank Burroughs settled in Ritzville after he was summoned from the train to help with a local emergency in 1888. He soon became the first doctor, and served as mayor and postmaster. He lost his only child in 1923, so his family lineage ended. But his preserved home now houses the Burroughs Historical Museum and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It lies in a two-block area of the town's historic district.

If you visit the museum you'll see a bell in the dining room used to summon the help and a doctor's office still filled with records of births, deaths, etc. The kitchen is full of implements not recognizable to lots of folks doing the restoration. Sounds like he was pretty cosmopolitan in those days.

Water was scarce in early days of Ritzville, so records show only five trees were planted there. There was a big fire and the town rebuilt with brick after wood structures were ravaged by the angry fire that couldn't be stopped.