Our Community.

Our People.

The City of Cashmere, the acknowledged geographical center of Washington State, is located at the foot of the Cascade Mountains on the Wenatchee River. To the west is Mount Cashmere, rising to 8,500 feet. To the east is the Columbia River, providing electrical power for the Pacific Coast and irrigation water to convert hundreds of thousands of desert acres into farmland. Cashmere is blessed with bountiful agriculture and its rural setting is home to populations of deer, elk, bear, coyote and native fowl.

Cashmere is home to an internationally famous fruit candy, fruit packing and processing industry and a world-class historical museum. It is also home of state champion athletic teams and schools meriting national acclaim as innovators in public education. It is also a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts looking for year-round activities including golf, fishing, hiking, rock climbing, road and mountain biking, skiing and boarding, x-country skiing, snowmobiling and snowshoeing.

Our History. 

In 1863, a Catholic missionary, Father Respari, came to the area to convert the local Native Americans at a place they called N’tuatckom (the Marsh). On the east bank of a tumbling creek, a mile upstream from its confluence with a rushing river, he built a one-room log mission. For 20 years he dedicated himself to his task before being succeeded by Father Grassi, who carried on his work.

In 1881, Alexander Brender, a German immigrant, arrived as the first white settler and filed a claim in what is still called Brender Canyon. In 1889, a post office, identified as Mission, was established. In 1892, with the slow, but steady arrival of settlers, a town began to form with the opening of a general store.

When the Great Northern Railroad route was planned through Mission, the town was platted. Soon it was discovered that this name competed with several other towns named Mission in the state. At the urging of Judge Chase, the citizens changed the name to Cashmere, after the beautifully mountainous Vale of Kashmir in northwest India.

The town was incorporated on July 1, 1904. Telephone lines were installed in 1909, paved walks in 1913, electric lights in 1914, and paved streets in 1919. In a few short years, with the construction of major irrigation canals, Cashmere blossomed forth from barren sagebrush desert into one of the most beautiful and productive agricultural areas in the Wenatchee Valley. The name “Mission” still survives in the names of streets, roads, businesses and the creek, which tumbles down out of the mountains from the south and passes through town to join the Wenatchee River.