Have you ever wondered how Cashmere got its name?

In celebration of Founders Day this weekend, we’re setting the antiques aside for a moment and turning this week’s Fun Fact Friday toward the town itself.
Before it was Cashmere, our town was known as Mission or Old Mission, named for the Catholic mission established here in the 1800s and the small log mission built by Father Respari in the 1860s. Long before that, this area was home to the Wenatchi people, with a village site near the Wenatchee River.
In 1903, due to mounting confusions with another town called Mission within the state, the town decided to change its name. Judge James H. Chase reportedly suggested Cashmere because the surrounding hills reminded him of the foothills of Kashmir, India (Look them up. The similarity is definitely there). The spelling was changed, and the town officially incorporated the following year in 1904.
Railroad access, irrigation, and orchard land helped shape Cashmere into an important fruit-growing community. In the early 1900s, Armenian immigrants Mark Balaban and Armen Tertsagian looked at all that lovely fruit and decided to add something especially sweet to the town’s story: Aplets and Cotlets inspired by Turkish delight and made with Washington fruit and nuts.
From Native village site, to mission settlement, to railroad stop, orchard town, and candy landmark, Cashmere has carried a lot of history in one small place.