Tampico, Washington

Tampico is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Yakima County, Washington, United States, located approximately eighteen miles west of Yakima on Ahtanum Creek. The population was 312 at the 2010 United States Census.[2]

Tampico, Washington
Unincorporated community & census-designated place
Tampico, Washington Location of Tampico, Washington
Coordinates: 46°32′06″N 120°52′02″W[1]
Country	United States
State	Washington
County	Yakima
Population  (2010)[2]
• Total	312
Time zone	UTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)
ZIP code	98903
Area code(s)	509
FIPS code	53-70245[2]
GNIS feature ID	1526923[3]

History

The community was named Tampico by pioneer cattleman A. D. Elgin, for a town in Mexico where he once lived.[4] Early pioneers settled in Tampico by at least 1872. By 1887, there were from 16 to 20 families living in the community.[5]

Chief Kamiakin—who led the Yakama, Palouse, and Klickitat in the Yakima War—was born at Ahtanum Creek near Tampico in 1800.[6] Near that site, St. Joseph's Mission was built in 1852,[7] to be subsequently destroyed and rebuilt more than once; services are still regularly performed there.

References

1. "Tampico". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
2. "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
4. "Washington Place Names database". Tacoma Public Library. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
5. Bristol, Chris (March 28, 2004). "Hops Once Ruled in Tampico". Yakima, WA. Yakima Herald-Republic. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
6. Thrapp, Dan L. (1991). Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, Volume 2: G-O. University of Nebraska Press. p. 757.
7. Becker, Paula (February 23, 2003). "HistoryLink.org Essay 5285, St. Joseph's Mission on Ahtanum Creek". Retrieved April 16, 2013.