Joseph Catholic Mission was established at Ahtanum Creek, 15 miles southwest of present-day Yakima. Trappers traversed the country in the early 1800s. The site of the future Yakima City, near where the Yakima River cuts through a gap in the Ahtanum Ridge, was a tribal winter gathering place. The fertile grasslands attracted game and waterfowl. They gathered roots and berries on the nearby mountain slopes. They fished the abundant salmon and steelhead. The city of Yakima occupies what was once the traditional hunting and gathering grounds of the region's tribes, known collectively as the Peoples of the Plateau. By 2009, Yakima had 84,850 residents and was the 10th largest city in the state. Hispanic farmworkers began to settle in the area beginning in the 1930s and in increasing numbers by the 1980s. Yakima grew consistently through the twentieth century, supported by the abundant orchards, hop fields, and, later, vineyards of the valley. In 1918, the "North" was dropped from the name and it became simply Yakima. The now bustling North Yakima soon established itself as the commercial center of the rich valley. North Yakima was incorporated in 1886 and the county seat moved from Yakima City. The railroad paid the moving costs for residents and shop-owners to move to the new city, called North Yakima. However, in 1885, the Northern Pacific Railway arrived in the Yakima Valley and established a new, modern city four miles north. A small village located farther south near Ahtanum Creek, which came to be known as Yakima City, emerged in the 1860s, serving the valley's scattered ranchers. It sits on the banks of the Yakima River just below the mouth of the Naches River. Yakima is the dominant city of central Washington's fruitful Yakima Valley and the county seat of Yakima County.
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