Cle Elum is a city in Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,872 at the 2010 census. About 96 miles (154 km) by car from Seattle, Cle Elum is a popular area for camping and outdoor activities.

Some^[who?] assert that the selection of the Stampede Pass was sure by the coal discovery^{[clarification needed]}. In the spring of 1886 the railroad engineers below Mr. Virgil Bogue and Mr. Herbert Huson were making their survey through the region past the intent of establishing a station. At the site of the forward-thinking city, a Northern Pacific Railway station was named Clealum after the Kittitas read out Tle-el-Lum (tlielləm), meaning “swift water”, referring to the Cle Elum River. In 1908, Clealum was altered to Cle Elum. The declare was perfect to the river, the city, and Cle Elum Lake. Walter Reed entered into a partnership like Thomas Johnson of Ellensburg and laid out sixty-five acres as a site. This was legally dedicated on July 26, 1886. Mr. Johnson had owned a sawmill upon Wilson Creek, in Grant County and he moved the mill to the extra location in the vicinity of the new town. The partners, Reed and Johnson, established what was undoubtedly the largest mill in the works to that grow old in central or Eastern Washington, cutting 40,000 feet of board lumber per day. At the same time, Frederick Leonhard, who, with his brother-in-law, Gerrit d’Ablaing, had been carrying on a mill upon Cooke Creek and later on the Naneum, moved to the vicinity of Cle Elum. They clip a large portion of the lumber for the Stampede Tunnel.

Cle Elum was officially incorporated on February 12, 1902.

Tragedy struck the Place when upon July 16, 1908, two carloads of blasting powder creature unloaded by the Northwest Improvement Company exploded, killing at least nine people including miners, NIC stock employees and a associates with kids living in a tent close the building. The explosion, located roughly three-quarters of a mile from Cle Elum’s downtown, scattered debris and human remains and shattered windows across town. Accounts from residents equated the explosion to an earthquake.

In December 1910, loggers working for the Cascade Lumber Company near Cle Elum went upon strike after the company shortened pay and began charging $5 per week for board. (equivalent to $137 in 2019)