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Ephrata ( ) is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 7,664 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Grant County.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 ==History== Ephrata was officially incorporated on June 21, 1909 and was given the county seat for the newly created Grant County.〔(City of Ephrata website )〕 Historically, the settlement of Ephrata is quite recent. There was no known settlement until 1886, just three years before Washington attained statehood. The horse rancher Frank Beezley was the first to settle near the natural springs, thus the area was known as Beezley Springs. As the climate and topography were not promising to settlement, the entire region remained sparsely populated until several federal congressional actions, including the Northern Pacific Land Grant Act, the Homestead Act, and Desert Claims Act, encouraged the settlement of this semi-arid desert. Originally, Douglas County spread over the entire territory of the Big Bend of the Columbia River. In 1909, the Washington State legislature divided it, creating Grant County. When the time came to present arguments to the state legislature regarding which town should be the county seat, someone apparently intentionally intoxicated the representative of a rival community, and Ephrata was chosen.〔http://www.ephrata.org/217.html〕 It is generally believed that the city was named Ephrata by a man who worked for the Great Northern Railway. The name Ephrata is derived from a biblical description of an orchard in the middle of the desert. It is also the ancient name for the town of Bethlehem. The region was known at the turn of the century for the great herds of wild horses that roamed the land. Horse trading was an important element of the local economy, and Ephrata served as the staging area for the horse round-ups. The last "Grand Horse Round-up" was held in Ephrata in 1906. Ephrata then developed as a trade and service center for cattle and sheep ranches in the area until the construction of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project. In 1939, one of the state's longest runways was built at Ephrata and served the U.S. Army Air Corps until 1945, when the field was turned into a commercial airport. The airport and hangars were used in Steven Spielberg's 1989 film ''Always,'' the final movie of Audrey Hepburn. It was used for the airport scenes for the fictional Flat Rock, Colorado. Ephrata was in the national spotlight in a segment on 60 Minutes II after the 2003 murder of Craig Sorger by Evan Savoie and Jake Eakin. The two accused were the youngest defendants in state history to be tried as adults.() In January 2011, Jim McCullar bought his half of a $380 million Mega Millions lottery ticket at a Safeway supermarket in Ephrata. It was the second largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. Grant County Public Utility District has its headquarters located in Ephrata. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ephrata, Washington」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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