Selah is a city in Yakima County, Washington, set along the Yakima River immediately north of Yakima and part of the Yakima metropolitan area. The community's roots trace to the 1880s, when homesteaders began settling the Selah Valley and gradually converted sheep and cattle range into hop yards, orchards, and alfalfa fields. Irrigation water drawn from the Yakima River, followed by early twentieth-century federal irrigation projects, turned the arid valley into productive farmland, and tree fruit became the backbone of the local economy. In 1908, Swedish immigrant Sven Matson planted a twenty-acre orchard northwest of the present-day city, and the cold-storage building still standing along Produce Row east of downtown was built in 1933. Today Selah is a compact, largely residential city of roughly 8,200 people. It sits below the rolling shrub-steppe foothills that rise to the north and east, with the Yakima River and the rugged canyon country of the Yakima River Canyon just beyond. The city is closely identified with its surrounding orchards and juice-processing plants, an association that has earned it the nickname "the Apple Juice Capital of the World." That agricultural identity coexists with a modern role as a residential community for Yakima, whose employment, medical, and retail centers lie only a few minutes to the south. Selah appeals to households drawn to small-town life with quick access to a larger city, as well as to people tied to the valley's agriculture and outdoor recreation. The Yakima River, a nationally known fly-fishing stream, runs along the western edge of the area, and the Yakima River Canyon Scenic Byway begins at the city's northern end, climbing toward Ellensburg through basalt cliffs and wildlife habitat. Residents describe a quiet, family-oriented atmosphere centered on the schools, parks, and community recreation programs.