Ridgefield is located near the site of Cathlapotle, a Chinookan village that had been occupied since 1450. Landmarks include Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Abrams Park and Davis Park. Ridgefield is the birthplace of Phil Spencer, business executive.
Ridgefield, Washington gifts and souvenirs: 35 designs made from Ridgefield's own map, landmarks and history, from $10 to $99. Printed to order and shipped free in the USA.
| Popular | Price |
|---|---|
| Ridgefield Hometown Ornament | $23 |
| Ridgefield Landmarks Photo Poster | from $40 |
| Ridgefield Vintage Travel Poster | from $40 |
| Ridgefield Varsity Crewneck | from $57 |
| Ridgefield Est. Tee | from $33 |
| Ridgefield Town Line Mug | from $26 |
Ceramic keepsake, gold ribbon, in 4 styles
Nine local landmarks, archival matte
Its landmark photo in a classic travel-poster layout
A local landmark photo as a gallery print
Classic large-letter postcard art, filled with local photos
Six local landmarks as instant photos on kraft paper
The town's story in dates, from its own records, for home or classroom
Map of local landmarks, washable fabric
Heavy-blend fleece, street map printed on the back
Red heavy-blend crewneck, knit-stitch town print
Soft Bella+Canvas jersey
Kids' Bella+Canvas jersey, youth sizes
Bella+Canvas toddler jersey
Bella+Canvas baby bodysuit
Large-letter postcard art filled with local photos
Glossy ceramic, dishwasher safe
Large-letter postcard art filled with local photos, 11 oz ceramic
Weatherproof, for the front walk
24″×16″, printed coir-look fibers, rubber back
12″×12″ printed wood, ready to hang
Soft-touch, zip cover
A local landmark photo with the town name, 18″×18″
Sturdy all-over-print tote
Large-letter postcard art on a sturdy tote
Foam-front trucker, printed (not embroidered) with local photos
Glossy top, cork back
Soft fleece, 50″×60″
Six local landmarks as instant photos, soft fleece 50″×60″
20 oz, double-wall stainless
6″×4″ postcard, glossy front
6″×4″ postcard, glossy front
6″×4″ postcard, glossy front
6″×4″ postcard, glossy front
6″×4″ postcard, glossy front
The town's earliest Sanborn fire-insurance map, drawn building by building and hand-coloured, from the Library of Congress
Population 2010: 4,763 → 2020: 10,319
From Wikidata (CC0).
Ridgefield is located near the site of Cathlapotle, a Chinookan village that had been occupied since 1450. It was potentially the latest version of a town that had existed there for over 2000 years. Cathlapotle participated in the fur trade since 1792, when villagers embarked on canoes to meet the Vancouver Expedition. The area has important ties to the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806, which visited the town and described its layout in journals. By then, it was a settlement of 700–800 people, with at least 14 substantial plank houses. Malaria epidemics killed many of its residents during the 1800s, and most people left the village in the early 1830s. Some surviving Chinookan, Cowlitz and Klickitat people used the village until the 1850s, when white settlers began to establish themselves nearby. Use of the village ended when the U.S. forced local tribes to move onto reservations. The community's ties to the Chinookan people was commemorated by the construction of a replica of a Cathlapotle plank house at the nearby Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, which was dedicated on March 29, 2005.
James Carty, an Irish immigrant, built a log cabin at Cathlapotle in 1839 and lived with the remaining residents of the town for the next ten years. Three other men settled on a Lake River island nearby, which is now called Bachelor Island after them. In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Donation Land Claim Act, and over the next few years white settlers began to file land claims near Cathlapotle. Carty began a ferry over Lake River in 1851, and Arthur Quigley and Frederick Shobert created mud landings for passing steamboats to stop at the town, which became known as Shobert's Landing.
The community was an important trading center as early as the 1860s with its key location near the mouth of the Columbia River. Asa Richardson opened the first post office of Shobert's Landing in 1865 or 1873, which prompted the town to name itself Union Ridge. It was either named to reflect the town's overwhelmingly pro-Union sentiments during the Civil War or to honor the wave of Union veterans who moved there in the war's last year. This name is preserved in the current name of Union Ridge Elementary School. The town continued to grow, getting its first store in 1882 and its first church in 1883, a Presbyterian church that still stands on Main Avenue.
Union Ridge was renamed Ridgefield in 1890 at the prompting of a new postmaster from Virginia, who did not want the name to reference the Union. A school, more industry, and an inter-town telephone line were added during the 1890s. A near-unanimous petition by town residents succeeded in closing the town's only saloon soon after it opened around 1900, and the next attempt to open a saloon there failed as well. In 1903, after years of delay, a railroad from Kalama to Vancouver was built through Ridgefield. Ridgefield voted to incorporate itself as a city in 1909, and also gained its first newspaper, the Ridgefield Reflector, that year.
Shingle mills were Ridgefield's primary industry until they shut down by 1957. The town dealt with recurrent destructive fires throughout the early 1900s, and grew slowly between 1920 and 1940. During the Great Depression, the town let people live on its Poor Farm and grow their own food. The town expanded again after voters approved the Port of Ridgefield in 1940. The arrival of I-5 in the 1960s increased access to Ridgefield further. In 1965, the land between Ridgefield and the Columbia River was turned into the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge by the U.S. Congress to protect the nesting grounds of Canada geese.
Ridgefield grew in population and land annexation during the 1990s. Excavation of Cathlapotle began in 1991, conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Portland State University archaeologists. The city began a two-decade cleanup of the waterfront site of the Pacific Wood Treating plant after the company went bankrupt in 1993. In 1999, Ridgefield voted to switch from a strong-mayor to a council-manager city government, inspired by Battle Ground's recent change.
Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Ridgefield, Washington, revision 1378582428 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
We share a part of every Ridgefield sale with local partners, and we'd love to print from your collection. Old photographs, maps and postcards make the best keepsakes.
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5 free coloring pages of Ridgefield, each traced from a photo of a local landmark. Print them at home, at school or for story hour.
Ridgefield's population was 10,319 in the 2020 U.S. Census, up from 4,763 in 2010.
William Henry Shobert House
Abrams Park
Davis Park
Ridgefield Cemetery