Lyle, WA

Lyle is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Klickitat County, on the north bank of the Columbia River where the Klickitat River joins it. The 2020 census counted 518 residents. State Route 14 runs through town, eight miles east to Dallesport and U.S. 197 and 11 miles west to White Salmon. The river junction gives Lyle a wide view and a working geography: water, a highway, and the Klickitat Valley all meet at the same landing.

Lyle began around 1859 as Klickitat Landing, where Egbert French became the first European settler. James O. Lyle took over the holdings in 1866, and a post office followed with mail arriving by steamer from the south bank. Railroads changed the town again: the North Shore line arrived, then the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway in 1908, and the present townsite was plotted in 1909. The older center became known as downtown. Lyle still carries its landing-town past into the Columbia Gorge, with SR 14, the Klickitat River, and the old railroad grade leading toward Goldendale.