Ephrata ( ee-FRAY-tə) is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 7,664 at the 2010 census. It is the county chair of Grant County.

Ephrata was officially incorporated on June 21, 1909 and was firm the county seat for the newly created Grant County.

Historically, the agreement of Ephrata is quite recent. There was no known deal until 1886, just three years since Washington gained statehood. The horse rancher Frank Beezley was the first to settle near the natural springs, thus the Place was known as Beezley Springs. As the climate and topography were not promising to settlement, the entire region remained sparsely populated until several federal congressional actions, including the Northern Pacific Land Grant Act, the Homestead Act, and Desert Claims Act, encouraged the agreement of this semi-arid desert-like area. Originally, Douglas County spread higher than the entire territory of the enormous Bend of the Columbia River. In 1909, the Washington State legislature separated it, creating Grant County. When the times came to present arguments to the permit legislature concerning which town should be the county seat, someone apparently carefully intoxicated the representative of a enemy community, and Ephrata was chosen.

It is generally believed that the city was named Ephrata by a man who worked for the Great Northern Railway. The say Ephrata is derived from a biblical financial credit of an orchard in the center of the desert. It is in addition to the ancient publish for the town of Bethlehem.

The region was known at the slant of the century for the good herds of wild horses that roamed the land. Horse trading was an important element of the local economy, and Ephrata served as the staging area for the horse round-ups. The last “Grand Horse Round-up” was held in Ephrata in 1906. Ephrata next developed as a trade and service center for cattle and sheep ranches in the Place until the construction of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project.