Thorp (/θɔːrp/ ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 240 at the 2010 census. The town of Thorp is 100mi east of Seattle, 8mi northwest of Ellensburg, and 17mi southeast of Cle Elum. It is located at the narrow west end of the Kittitas Valley, where high elevation forests of the Cascade Range give way to cattle ranches surrounded by farmlands noted for timothy hay, alfalfa, vegetables, and fruit production. Thorp is named for Fielden Mortimer Thorp, recognized as the first permanent white settler in the Kittitas Valley. He established a homestead at the approach to Taneum Canyon (/ˈteɪn.əm/, ) near the present-day town in 1868. Klála, an ancient Native American village and the largest indigenous settlement in the Kittitas Valley at the arrival of the first white settlers, was located about one mile above the current town site.
