Ephrata, Washington
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Ephrata-Soap Lake census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98823. The Survey maps it on the Ephrata quadrangle. 8,477 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,276 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Ephrata
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 3 records
Bell Hotellisted 1997
Grant County Courthouselisted 1975- Columbia Basin Project Irrigation Division Headquarters Officelisted 2019
Population over time
2 figuresEphrata grew from 7,664 to 8,477 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 7,664 | |
| 2020 | 8,477 | +813 (+11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1953 USGS Ritzville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Ephrata quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Ephrata quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Ritzville quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Ritzville quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Moses Lake quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Ephrata between 1994 and 2020, burning about 5,025 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Spokane District | DRUMHELLER NORTHEAST |
| 14 July 1994 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 28 June 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | ROCKY FORD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 17 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Ephrata: 17 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ds-Gt-175 | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Ephrata Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Curtis Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Ephrata Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Nelson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Soap Lake Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Tommer Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ephrata in 10 storm reports between 1997 and 2018: 2 heavy rain, 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | Lightning | Ephrata | $150,000 | A direct hit by lightning set a two-story home on Johnson Road ablaze, completely destroying the home and its contents. The family living in the home escaped without injury. |
| May 2018 | Flash Flood | Ephrata | $100,000 | Flooding from heavy rain producing thunderstorms occurred in Ephrata during the late evening of May 17th. Basin Street, the main road through the downtown business district was flooded with 4 to 8 inches of water with first floor damage to multiple businesses in the downtown area. A portion of the ceiling in the Department of Corrections building collapsed due to standing water on the roof. |
| July 1998 | Flash Flood | Ephrata | $40,000 | over 3 inches of rain in 3 hours dumped on Ephrata causing its downtown to flood. water was a foot deep in some area, floodng a local grocery store. |
| October 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ephrata | $30,000 | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ephrata | $10,000 | numerous large trees down |
| May 2006 | Lightning | Ephrata | $7,000 | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Heavy Rain | Ephrata | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2018 | Funnel Cloud | Ephrata | - | Multiple members of the public reported and photographed a small funnel cloud near Ephrata. |
| July 1998 | Hail | Ephrata | - | one inch diameter hail |
| May 1997 | Heavy Rain | Ephrata | - | 6 inches of water on streets of ephrata |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeview Park | 4.7 miles | 10 | |
| Lakeview | 4.7 miles | 12 | |
| Naylor | 5.0 miles | 12 | |
| Soap Lake | 6.0 miles | 10 | |
| Winchester | 10.0 miles | 11 | |
| Adco | 12.2 miles | 10 | |
| Gloyd | 15.0 miles | 9 | |
| Mae | 16.2 miles | 22 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Ephrata | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1507694 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1512192. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





