In 1859 the town was given its name by the early homesteader John Golden, a Pennsylvania-born farmer who settled with his wife from Oregon.

[5] On June 9, 1918, William Wallace Campbell, director of the Lick Observatory, and astronomer Heber Curtis journeyed to Goldendale to view a total solar eclipse.

Lacking proper equipment and instead only using multiple cameras Campbell and Curtis were unable to confirm stars' deflection.

[5] In 2008 Goldendale hosted the International Gravity Sports Association's 'Festival of Speed,' on a segment of the historic Maryhill highway.

After a local aluminum plant that once employed many residents closed, the small community struggled economically.

[citation needed] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.52 square miles (6.53 km2), all of it land.

Bloodgood Creek, an entirely spring-fed year-round water source, runs through the northwest part of town and intersects with the Little Klickitat just west of the city.

Both are sources of rainbow trout as well as being home to waterfowl such as the great blue heron and several species of duck.

Bloodgood Creek provides a portion of Goldendale's drinking water and is capped at the source for that purpose.

U.S. Route 97 runs along the eastern boundary of the city and connects Goldendale with Interstate 84, 21 km (13 mi) south in the state of Oregon and State Route 14, which is 19 km (12 mi) south and runs along the Washington side of the Columbia River.

This produces a landscape of open bunch-grass prairies dotted with sagebrush and rabbit brush containing the occasional juniper tree, while the more sheltered areas consist of ponderosa pine and oak savannahs.

Summer thunderstorms occur intermittently, particularly in July and August, but due to high cloud bases, rain seldom reaches the ground in any appreciable amount.

Spring and summer can be very blustery since the Chinook winds off the Pacific Ocean are funneled through the Columbia Gorge.

Fall tends to be almost windless, and the autumnal oak leaves add a lovely touch of golden rust red to Observatory Hill on the north side of town.

This plant added payroll strength and diversity of the timber- and agricultural-based Goldendale area economy.

At this time Rabanco Regional Disposal is the largest single employer of residents in the Goldendale area.

[18] The town has a weekly newspaper, the Goldendale Sentinel, which is published on Wednesdays and has a readership of approximately 3,200 subscribers across Klickitat County.