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Community History
When Klickitat County was chartered by a legislative act in 1859, the majority of the population in the new county resided along the Columbia River at a place known as Klickitat Landing (Lyle). The first white settler at Klickitat Landing was Egbert French who arrived from Ohio. He married a Native American woman and one daughter was born to them while they lived here. In 1866 Mr. French sold his holdings to James O. Lyle and moved to White Bluffs on the upper Columbia River.
James O. Lyle, born in Pennsylvania in 1831, married Martha Snipes and in 1863 joined the Snipes family wagon train for Oregon. They arrived at The Dalles on July 10, 1863. For two years Mr. Lyle was located on a farm at Rowena, opposite Klickitat Landing. In 1866 he moved to his new holdings on the Columbia.
Soon after relocating, Mr. Lyle got a post office established and was the first post master. Klickitat Landing was one of the three first post offices north of the Columbia River and east of the Cascades in Washington territory. The other two were Yakima City and Klickitat Creek. Mail was delivered to Klickitat Landing by river steamer.
SP&S Railroad construction was started in 1905 and in 1910 CR&N Railroad became part of the SP&S. The old town site of Lyle, which laid south of the newly constructed railroad was purchased by SP&S and in 1909 the present town site was plotted. Steamboats ceased to operate on the Columbia River after the completion of the North Bank line.
Photos on this Page Courtesy of the Lyle Community.
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