Yelm, Washington
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1990. It stands in the Olympia East census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98597. It stands on Yelm Prairie. The Survey maps it on the McKenna quadrangle. 10,617 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 354 feet above sea level.
On record in Yelm
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 4 records
L. N. Rice Houselisted 1988
Salsich Lumber Company Superintendent's Houselisted 1988- Johnson Houselisted 1988
- Lackamas Schoollisted 1990
Population over time
2 figuresYelm grew from 6,848 to 10,617 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 | 6,848 | |
| 2020 | 10,617 | +3,769 (+55%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 19 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.
- 1916 USGS Chehalis quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1944 USGS Yelm quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Yelm quadrangle1:62500
- 1953 USGS Hoquiam quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Hoquiam quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Hoquiam quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS McKenna quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Yelm quadrangle1:62500
- 1962 USGS Hoquiam quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Centralia quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Mc Kenna quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
169 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 169 fires within 5 miles of Yelm between 1992 and 2020, burning about 158 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 7 were 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 | 48 |
| Debris and open burning | 44 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 24 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 17 |
| Fireworks | 10 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Other causes | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.2 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | 700 |
| 8 September 2001 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 8 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 8 September 1996 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 8 September 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 7 September 2003 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 7 September 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.5 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 6 September 1997 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Yelm: 5 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gehrke Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Olsen Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Price Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Yelm Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Yelm in 3 storm reports between 1997 and 2017: 1 hail, 1 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yelm | $700,000 | Severe thunderstorm wind gusts peaked around 70 mph during the event between 3 and 5 PM, knocking down trees and power lines leaving nearly 50,000 without power. Several homes had trees fall on them. |
| October 2003 | Tornado (F0) | Yelm | $5,000 | A weak tornado, on the ground for less than a minute, damaged a few power lines and knocked down some tree limbs. |
| September 1997 | Hail | Yelm | - | A thunderstorm with golf ball sized hail broke car windshields in Yelm. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five Corners | 1.1 miles | 19 | |
| North Yelm | 1.5 miles | 19 | |
| Four Corners | 2.5 miles | 19 | |
| Rainier | 5.7 miles | 19 | |
| Vail | 7.2 miles | 18 | |
| Saint Clair | 8.4 miles | 17 | |
| Kellys Korner | 9.1 miles | 21 | |
| Skookumchuck | 9.1 miles | 21 |
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 Yelm | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1510424 | 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 1512817. 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.










