Visit Toppenish - A Town of Murals and Museums
From the SR-97 highway the small town of Toppenish looks rather plain.
Single story businesses and homes are the norm. A few two-story structures also exist near the center of town. It would be easy to pass the town by, but this would be a mistake. You would miss the murals. They have become an important piece of eastern Washington history.
Toppenish is roughly 20 miles south of Yakima accessed by highway SR 97. Several of the town’s buildings are now used as makeshift art canvas. Subjects include scenes of Native American life, western settlement, wagon train movement and farming; and murals now decorate much of the town. According to the local Chamber of Commerce, mural painting formally started here in 1989. Each June, a nonprofit organization called the Mural and Historical Society sponsors a “mural in a day” event. Approximately 10-12 professional artists are involved in the now traditional project. Sixty-seven murals are already available to see somewhere in town and in my opinion, are first class artwork.
Toppenish is part of the Yakima Nation and they govern over 1.3 million acres in the surrounding area as part of their 1855 treaty.
The Town boasts the Northern Pacific Railway Museum utilizing the renovated train depot for its display. Toppenish hosts the only Hop Museum in the country. It is appropriate that the museum be located here since seventy percent of all the hops in the United States are produced in this region. The Yakima Nation Museum is located next to the highway allowing comprehensive viewing of both Native American history and their craft. Drive south of town and you will see both hop and asparagus fields plus a view of the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge.
Half the fun of visiting scenic eastern Washington towns is taking the drive to get there.
This trip was no exception. We chose a detour from Ellensburg by taking the old SR-821 Highway through the Canyon to Yakima. This drive is nostalgic for me and has always been a favorite of mine. I have often climbed the canyon walls or paddled my canoe through the river’s gentle rapids. Bighorn sheep feed on the hillsides and countless fly fishermen pit their skills against wary trout in this catch & release section of the Yakima River. Most fishermen use their chest waders to enter the stream, while others float the river with drift boats. Drift boats periodically make room for student “party boats” to pass, when scores of students from Central Washington drift their flotillas of rafts lashed together. Several popular rafts maintain six packs of beer hanging over their sides. This technique tends to keep the beer cool during the student’s merry trip through the canyon.
We make a brief stop in Yakima to visit their Botanical Garden area and were fortunate to find their crab apple trees in full bloom. We convinced an onsite docent to give us a tour. He was well versed in their trees and pointed out the many variations of crabapple growing here while rating them in popularity. May is the best time to see this impressive display of colorful flowering trees and to select the one might best fit your yard. Several people were fishing the ponds along the freeway. We have heard that Tiger Musky have been planted to keep down the local spiny ray population. The musky have been sterilized to keep their population in check and grow quite large.
