Toppenish wears its history well

A trip to Toppenish, billed as a place "Where the West still lives," can mix outdoor fun and local history.

The town is best known for its large murals — there are about 70 — painted on the exterior of buildings in the Yakima Valley town.

"In 1989, the state of Washington wanted to do something to celebrate the centennial and [in Toppenish] the first historically painted mural was painted in one day," said Effie Burton, a volunteer at the Toppenish Chamber of Commerce and Toppenish Mural Society.

Clearing the Land, a 14-by-40-foot mural, was painted in 1989, by about a dozen artists. The mural shows a settler using a horse to clear sagebrush and a woman in the distance tending to a pile of burning brush.

The first mural-in-a-day was "done as much as a stunt to see if it could be done," Burton said.

It was such a success that it started a tradition. Each year, on the first day of June, a mural goes up in Toppenish and is completed in one day. "It really is incredible" to watch, Burton said. "That's when you come to Toppenish to watch paint dry."

Other murals have been painted in a more relaxed fashion over time. All are privately funded and painted by professional artists. They have to be approved by the Mural Society for historical accuracy and quality, Burton said.

"They're from the 1850-1950 era" and are images of "things that either actually were here or what might have been here," she said.

The Yakima Valley Visitor Guide includes a map of Toppenish that shows all the mural locations around town. The guide can be picked up at the Toppenish Mural Society office, 5A S. Toppenish Ave.

Visitors can take a self-guided walking tour of the murals (or in spring and summer a guided tour in a horse-drawn wagon is offered by Toppenish Mural Tours).

Those needing to refuel can stop downtown at Gibbon's Soda Fountain. The old-fashioned soda shop features everything from cream sodas and root beer to burgers and onion rings. Then browse the small shops of downtown Toppenish.