Ritzville, WA

Ritzville is the Adams County seat, a city of 1,767 residents in the 2020 census at the junction of I-90 and U.S. 395 in eastern Washington. The Northern Pacific Railroad established a station here in 1881, and wheat shipping soon made Ritzville a regional business center. A major fire destroyed the early wooden downtown; the brick buildings that followed are the reason the historic district still has such a clear, unified look. The county-seat role and the highway junction keep the place tied to the wider Columbia Plateau.

Downtown is still the best place to get the local read. The Ritz Theatre, historic storefronts, the 1902 Burrough House, and the Adams County Historical Society collections give the city more than a passing-through identity. The annual Ritzville Rodeo adds another established tradition. The local scoop is that Ritzville's history is not tucked away in one museum: it is built into the brick blocks, the old rail corridor, the courthouse-town routines, and the wheat country spreading out beyond town.