Yelm, WA

Yelm is a small Thurston County city southeast of Olympia, near the Nisqually River and the Pierce County line. Its name is commonly traced to a Coast Salish word connected with heat shimmer or mirage, a detail that gives the town an older landscape story than its modern growth suggests. Yelm has become a commuter-friendly community on the south Puget Sound edge, with Yelm City Park as a longtime civic space and Mount Rainier often part of the wider horizon.