 The community's ties to the Chinookan people was commemorated by the construction of a replica of a Cathlapotle plank house at the nearby Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, which was dedicated March 29, 2005.The town was formerly known as Union Ridge, named by the many Union veterans among the first large wave of settlers after the Civil War and was renamed Ridgefield in 1890.The town's original name is preserved in the name of Union Ridge Elementary School.