Bickleton, WA | The Bluebird Capital of the World

Founded in 1879 and named after its founder, Charles N. Bickle, Bickleton is a small town in northeastern Klickitat County.

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The town's economy was initially largely based on cattle ranching and dryland wheat farming; there are still several multigenerational family farms in business today.

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Bickleton, Washington, is called the Bluebird Capital of the world because of the thousands of bluebirds that spend most of the year in the area. The majority are Mountain Bluebirds, with a few Western Bluebirds in or near the forest.

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Fires have threatened the town on several occasions, with many of the original buildings being destroyed during fires in 1937 and 1947. Last summer (2023), the largest fire in the county's history, Newell Road Fire, burned just a couple of miles west of town. The oldest surviving building in Bickleton is the Bluebird Tavern, billed as the oldest functioning tavern in the state.

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Although quite small (roughly a population of 90), Bickleton hosts the state's oldest rodeo, The Pioneer Picnic And Rodeo, which will celebrate its 113th edition the second weekend of June this summer. At the picnic and rodeo grounds is one of the West's oldest carousels, a 1905 Herschell-Spillman. It was purchased from Oaks Park in Sellwood, Oregon, in 1929 and moved to Bickleton. The ponies are stored and displayed at the ACPA Carousel Museum on Market Street in Bickleton.

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If you wish to learn more about our little town, stop in at the museum and discover more of its history!