Add to ORKGThomas Gamble and Walter Reed homesteaded in the Cle Elum - Teanaway area in the northern portion of Kittitas County in the early years of the 1880s. With the discovery of coal in 1884 by Walter Reed and Pete Brosious and the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1886, Cle Elum became a major coal mining district in Washington Territory. Lumber mills were built to supply materials for the railroad, mines and homes for miners and their families. Walter Reed and his wife Barbara built the Reed House in 1886 and for years was the only place that could be used for a public meeting hall. The amount and quality of iron ore did not warrant widespread iron mining in the area.Lithograph from Volume II. History of the Pacific Northwest: Or...