Ephrata is the county seat of Grant County, located on the high plateau of central Washington's Columbia Basin, roughly midway between Seattle and Spokane. The area is dry and open, with wide skies, sagebrush steppe, and irrigated farmland defining the landscape, and its modern identity was shaped by water: beginning in the 1950s, the federal Columbia Basin Project delivered irrigation water from Grand Coulee Dam to more than 600,000 acres of formerly arid farmland, and Ephrata served as the Bureau of Reclamation's project headquarters. Today the surrounding countryside produces grain, alfalfa, hay, dry beans, and fruit, and agriculture remains the backbone of the local economy. The settlement dates to 1886, when horse rancher Frank Beezley arrived near a cluster of natural springs, giving the place its early name, Beezley Springs. Ephrata later became the seat of the newly created Grant County in 1909 and grew during the 1940s when the U.S. Army Air Corps built a large training base on the town's edge. After the war, portions of the base were converted for the Columbia Basin Project operations, reinforcing Ephrata's role as a government and agricultural center. With roughly 8,900 residents, Ephrata offers a small-town pace with the services of a county seat. State Routes 17 and 28 connect it to Moses Lake, Soap Lake, and other Columbia Basin communities, and Amtrak's Empire Builder makes a daily stop in town on its route between Chicago, Spokane, and Seattle. The city's parks, recreation center, and golf course, together with the nearby Columbia National Wildlife Refuge and the Sun Lakes–Dry Falls area, anchor outdoor life for residents, while the larger amenities of Moses Lake remain a short drive away.