Our history
From a mission served out of Ellensburg to the brick church on Second Street, a parish shaped by coal, fire, and perseverance.
Mission years
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1886
The Northern Pacific Railway reaches the upper Kittitas Valley and the coal seams open. Catholic families from Italy, Croatia, Poland, and Ireland arrive to work the mines.
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1890s
Cle Elum’s Catholics gather as a mission of St. Andrew in Ellensburg, worshipping in homes and rented halls whenever a priest could make the journey up the valley.
A church of their own
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1902
The first Catholic church in Cle Elum is built, a frame building raised largely by the labor of mining families.
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1914
The mission becomes an independent parish under the patronage of St. John the Baptist, with its own resident pastor.
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June 25, 1918
A catastrophic fire sweeps through Cle Elum, destroying much of the city along with the church and the rectory. The parish is left to begin again.
The brick church
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1921
The present brick church, with its distinctive wooden belfry, is completed. It has served the parish ever since.
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Mid-century
Generations of mining families, ranchers, and railroad workers are baptized, married, and buried from this church as the coal industry winds down and the valley reinvents itself.
One pastor, two parishes
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2000s
Retirees, remote workers, and young families join the longtime residents in the pews. The parish shares a pastor with Immaculate Conception in Roslyn.
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2026
Both parishes adopt a single shared visual identity: two places, one faith, one future in Christ.
Pastors who have served
- Fr. Anton Gradjanich1911
- Fr. Augustine Osginiach, O.S.B.1911–1914
- Fr. Alfred Gendreau, O.S.B.1915
- Fr. Edward Weckert, O.S.B.1933–1963
- Fr. John Shaw1963–1967
- Fr. Patrick Burke1967–1974
- Fr. William Byron1974–1985
- Fr. John Marasciulo (later Msgr.)1985–1997
- Fr. Ronald J. Patnode1997–2000
- Fr. Lawrence T. Reilly2000–2012
- Fr. Brooks F. Beaulaurier2012–2018
- Fr. Francisco Higuera2018–present
Our history is still being written by the families who fill these pews. If you have photographs, documents, or stories from the parish's past, the office would love to hear from you.