Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Ellensburg, WA

Ellensburg is a city and the county seat of Kittitas County, located just east of the Cascade Range near the junction of Interstate 90 and Interstate 82, along the Yakima River in the Kittitas Valley.

The town was founded in 1871 by John Alden Shoudy, who bought the Robber's Roost trading post and named the new town Ellensburgh after his wife, Mary Ellen; the final 'h' was dropped from the name in 1894.

Ellensburg was incorporated on November 26, 1883, grew rapidly after the Northern Pacific Railway arrived in the 1880s, and was among the first cities in Washington to have electrical service.

Ellensburg mounted a serious bid to become Washington's state capital in 1889, but a fire on July 4 of that year destroyed much of downtown and derailed the campaign; voters ultimately chose Olympia, and Ellensburg was instead selected as the site of the State Normal School.

The 2020 census counted 18,666 people in 8,110 households in Ellensburg, and the city's median age of just 27.3 years reflects its large student population.

Ellensburg is home to Central Washington University, founded in 1891 as the Washington State Normal School, whose main campus covers more than 226 acres and is the only four-year university in the region.

The surrounding Kittitas Valley is a major producer of timothy hay, which is processed in the Ellensburg area and shipped to international markets.

The Ellensburg Rodeo, held every Labor Day weekend since 1923, is a stop on the PRCA professional rodeo circuit and the largest rodeo in Washington state; it runs alongside the Kittitas County Fair, which dates to 1885.

Downtown Ellensburg is a National Historic District of brick commercial buildings rebuilt after the 1889 fire, including the Davidson Building completed in 1890, and its public library opened in 1910 with funding from Andrew Carnegie.

Ellensburg High School serves the city as the single high school of Ellensburg School District 401.