Lewis County

The Political Genesis of Lewis County

Established by the Oregon Provisional Government on December 19^th, 1845, Lewis County originally covered all the territory north of the Cowlitz River and west of a north-south straight line drawn roughly through the Cascade Mountains.  In other words, it took in the Olympic Peninsula, the Puget Sound area, and Vancouver Island, at least until the Oregon Treaty set the international border at the 49^th Parallel in 1846.  It lost its southwestern corner to the newly established Pacific County in 1851, then its northern extent to Thurston County in 1852.  Historic maps differ, but most sources say that Lewis County reached its current size in 1854.

The Original Inhabitants of Lewis County

The original inhabitants of what is now Lewis County included the Chehalis and the Meshell (Nisqually) Indian tribes.  The Chehalis were a Salish-speaking people known as traders, and the Meshell were, at least linguistically, related to tribes further east, including the Yakama, the Umatilla, and the Nez Perce.  Nisqually lore says that the people migrated to the southern flanks of Mount Rainier, a mountain they called To-Co-Bet (compare the Yakama name To-Ho-Ma) from the Great Basin.  Today, they are centered in Thurston County and have a casino in the town of Yelm.  Prolific fishermen, the Nisqually relied on the salmon who swam up the rivers to spawn.

The Lewis County Courthouse 351 NW North Street Chehalis, Washington
Taken October 23rd, 2016

The Chehalis, also great fishers, lived downstream.  The 1855 Quinault Treaty was designed to take land from various tribes, including the Chehalis, but the Chehalis people refused to sign.  They lived peacefully with the new settlers for many years, but in 1864, a Chehalis reservation was created in what is now Grays Harbor County.

"White" History of Lewis County

As to “white” history of Lewis County, in 1827, Simon Plamondon staked his claim along the Cowlitz River. He married the daughter of a Cowlitz chief.  In 1838, the Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) set up a subsidiary called the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and created a 4,000 acre Cowlitz Farm near today’s Toledo, Washington.  HBC hired Plamondon to run the farm.  This was the first “white” settlement in what is now Lewis County.   Also in 1838, Roman Catholic priests, Fr. Blanchet and Fr. Demers, built the first Roman Catholic mission in the area, also near Toledo, and in 1845, a butcher named John R. Jackson made the first land claim in “North Oregon” on land that would take his name and be called Jackson Prairie.  On October 4^th, 1847, the first meeting of the Lewis County Commissioners took place in Jackson’s home, making it the de facto “county seat” for the County.  In 1851, Stuart Schuyler Saunders settled in the area, and later platted Saundersville, which in time became Chehalis.  In 1855, a courthouse building was built in Claquato, but when the railroad built its north-south line east of the hill separating Claquato and Saundersville, the town of Claquato died and Saundersville, renamed Chehalis in 1879, became County Seat, a title it retains today.

The Historic Claquato Methodist Church, 

Taken October 23rd, 2016

While fishing had been the chief industry of the Native peoples in the area, logging and agriculture are what drew white settlers.  As the Old Settler’s Song (Acres of Clams) puts it, the land was “covered all over with timber thick as hairs on the back of a dog.”  Jenny Tenlen, writing in her Lewis County genealogy blog, notes ninety-eight logging, lumber and milling companies located in the County, many of which show up in the 1901 Business Directory.  The Lewis County Genealogy Trails History Group counts seventy-three “populated places in Lewis County,” but Ms. Tenlen’s research notes an additional one hundred five place names, quite a few in an area roughly twenty-six miles by ninety-six miles in extent (2,436 square miles).

Claquato and Chehalis

Of all those populated places, today Lewis County has eight cities, one town, and a variety of “Census Designated Places” and unincorporated communities.  As for Claquato, where the County Courthouse was built in 1855, today it is known primarily for its Methodist Church (now inactive, but available for rent) and its cemetery.  1850 saw the arrival of Schuyler and Eliza Saunders who built a farm in marshy ground that became known as Saunders’ Bottom.  In 1859, Obadiah and Margaret McFadden bought the southern half of the Saunders’ farm and in 1864, William and Elizabeth West moved into the area.  Saunders had operated a post office out of his home under the name Saundersville, and in 1870, after Schuyler Saunders’ death, McFadden took over the post office, renaming it Chehalis. When the Northern Pacific came through the area, the residents of Saundersville/Chehalis offered a free warehouse and the railroad accepted the offer, laying their tracks east of the hill separating Claquato from Saundersville.  This was the death knell for the older community as commerce and government both moved east.  The Northern Pacific built their Chehalis depot in 1873.  With the completion of the rail line linking the Columbia River to Puget Sound, Chehalis grew, albeit sporadically, and in 1874, after a fight with the residents of Claquato, Chehalis became the County Seat, a distinction it holds today.  The city was incorporated in 1883, and the 1890 Census counted 1,309 residents.  As of 2010, that number had grown to 7,259, and the estimated population in 2017 was 7,533.  A significant increase from the early days, but not nearly as significant a growth as either its Columbia River or Puget Sound neighbors.  Chehalis isn’t even the largest city in Lewis County.  That distinction goes to Centralia.

A Lewis County Farm Near Toledo, Washington
Taken October 23rd, 2016

George Washington--the other one--and Centralia

George Washington was born in Virginia in 1817.  His father was a slave and his mother a white woman.  When Washington’s father was sold and forcibly moved to another area, his mother gave her son to a white couple, James and Anna Cochran who raised him, moving him west from Virginia to Ohio, then Missouri, and eventually to Oregon Country. In 1852, Washington started farming at the confluence of the Skookumchuk and Chehalis Rivers, but because the Oregon Donation Land Act did not allow Blacks to own land, the Cochrans filed the claim.  In 1853, Washington Territory was created, and as it had no law against non-whites owning land, the Cochrans deeded the claim to Washington.  Washington lived until 1905 and during that period he filed a plat for a city which he named Centerville, and sold lots at a reasonable rate to anyone willing to settle in his new town.  Unfortunately, a Centerville, Washington already existed east of the Cascades, so in 1883 the town name was changed to Centralia after the similarly named town in Illinois, and in 1886, Centralia, Washington was incorporated.  The name is appropriate as the community is roughly half way—the center point—between the Columbia River and Puget Sound.  Over the years, Washington had become a very wealthy man and in many ways was the father, and indeed a very kind father, to the city he founded.  At his death, Centralia’s mayor declared a day of mourning, asking businesses to close, and Washington’s funeral may well have been the largest Centralia ever held.

Mural in Downtown Toledo, Washington
Taken October 23rd, 2016

By the early 1900s, Centralia was becoming an industrial center.  Not only timber, including wood shingles and wooden gutters made by the Wooden Eave Gutter Factory, but iron and brass fixtures, dairy products, and mining operations led to the growth of the town.  The Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies) had a presence in town and in 1919, following the Armistice (now Veteran’s Day) Celebration, the Wobblies and the Veterans got into a fight, leaving four Veterans dead.  The Wobblies were jailed and Vigilantes broke into the jail and took one of the Wobblies out to be hanged.  This is now known as the Centralia Massacre and is one of the darkest times in Centralia history.  Today, Centralia is a city of 16.336 residents (2010 US Census), and thrives as a tourist venue at its mid-point between the great waterways of western Washington.  It’s history is recent enough that should you take the Historic Centralia Walking Tour, you can still find George Washington’s home among others, and just a short distance away the remains of Fort Borst and the Borst home which dates from the 1850s and the fear of Indian wars (which never happened in this region).

The Washington Egg & Poultry Co-operative Association Warehouse, Winlock, Washington.
Taken October 23rd, 2016

Other Lewis County Communities

Other cities in Lewis County include Toledo, 2010 population 725, named not for the Ohio or Spanish cities, but rather for a side-wheel paddle steamer that operated in the area.  Today, a mural in the center of Toledo proudly claims that the city is the Gateway to Mount St. Helens, not the only place to make such a claim.   Like Toledo, Morton, Mossyrock, Napavine, Vader and Winlock all have fewer than 2,000 residents, but all are incorporated as cities.  Winlock is home to the “World’s Largest Egg,” as certified by Ripley, a 1200 pound sculpture located directly across the railroad tracks from the Washington Egg & Poultry Co-operative Association Warehouse.   Pe Ell, the only incorporated “town” in Lewis County, lies near the western edge of the county and has almost as many residents as many of the County’s cities.  There are several explanations for the town’s unusual name, most of which seem to center on the difficulty the native people had pronouncing the names of various white settlers.

World's Largest Egg, Winlock, Washington
Taken October 23rd, 2016.

My Drive Through Lewis County

I have driven across Lewis County on Interstate Five, either driving from Portland to Seattle or the reverse, but on  Sunday, October 23rd, 2016, I got off the Interstate and did some exploration of the County for myself.  Actually, I left the Interstate in neighboring Cowlitz County, heading east on Washington Highway 504 past Silver Lake and following the Toutle River until I turned north on Washington Highway 505 and entered Lewis County.  Passing the farm seen above, I went through the town of Toledo,, the aforementoned "Gateway to Mount St. Helens."  I stayed on 505, now heading west, and crossed Interstate 5 to arrive in Winlock.  Northwest of Winlock, I came to the Chehalis River and the historic site of Claquato, when I headed east once more, crossing Interstate 5 again and stopping in the Lewis County Seat, Chehalis..  After taking several photographs in Chehalis, I returned to Interstate 5 heading north to Centralia and  then into Thurston County.

Plans for My Next Drive Through Lewis County

Obviously there are many things I missed on that Sunday drive.  Next time I'm in Lewis County, I want to go to Mayfield Lake and Riffle Lake, both of which are on U.S. Highway 12.  I'd like to go to the town of Morton, just east of Riffle Lake.  In western Lewis County, I'd like to drive Washington Highway 6 west from Chehalis and Claquato and on to Rainbow Falls State Park ending up in the intriguingly named town of Pe Ell.  Of course, I need to spend more time in  the County's largest city, Centralia, and its seat, Chehalis.  There's always more to see and photograph.

Clark County

Depending on how you define “county creation,” Clark County, Washington’s first, was created on June 27^th, 1844, or perhaps August 20^th, 1845, or even September 3^rd, 1849.  In 1844, the Provisional Government of Oregon decreed that henceforth, all land north of the Columbia River would be called the District of Vancouver.  At that time, Oregon Country was disputed land, claimed by both Great Britain and the United States, and extended from the Mexican state of Alta California at the 42^nd parallel to what is now northern British Columbia (54 degrees 40 minutes North latitude).  East to West, Oregon Country reached from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.  The newly created Vancouver District thus extended all the way from the Columbia River to Russian Alaska.   The Provisional Government of Oregon was “provisional” in that it understood that the United States did not have any official say in matters governmental and it was set up to last only until the US did recognize the territory.  In 1845, seeking to bring their region into conformity with U.S. norms, the Provisional Government renamed the District of Vancouver to Vancouver County, with the same extent.  The county boundaries changed almost immediately when all land west of the Cowlitz River was taken to form Lewis County.  In 1846, the U.S. and Great Britain established a national border at the 49^th parallel, and on September 3^rd, 1849, Oregon Territory, now definitely part of the U.S., renamed Vancouver County in honor of Capt. William Clark of the Corps of Discovery.  Over the years, more land was taken to form other counties, so that today, what was originally the largest county in Washington is one of the smallest in extent (35^th of 39), but fifth most populous according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

Clark County Court House

1200 Franklin Street, Vancouver, Washington

The Oregon Donation Land Act of 1850 was a federal statute that recognized existing 640 acre “homesteads” in Oregon Territory and authorized new tracts of up to 320 acres for white and “mixed-blood Indians” (but not blacks or other ethnic groups).  This brought new settlers to Clark County and started the growth of agriculture in the area.  Over time, communities grew up to serve the farmers and by the 1890 U.S. Census, the first after the admission of Washington State in 1889, Clark County showed 11,000 residents out of a total 18,000 for the entire state.  The Klondike Gold Rush in the next decade changed matters drastically, as Seattle and the Puget Sound area became the main “jumping off place” for those seeking wealth in the North.  The 1900 U.S. Census counted 13,419 residents in Clark County, but over 500,000 in the state.  By contrast, the 2010 U.S. Census tracked 425,363 people living in the County.

Histories written by European Americans tend to see things in terms of what white men did and accomplished, but the fact remains that when Lewis and Clark camped on Diamond Island on November 3^rd, 1805, there were already people who had been living along the Columbia for hundreds, if not thousands of years.  The Chinook, the Cowlitz, the Klickitat, and other tribes lived all along the Columbia River and in the uplands both north and south of that waterway.  After spending the Winter on the bleak Pacific Coast, the Corps of Discovery turned back eastward, and spent a week hunting and drying meat at what is now Washougal, a Clark County city east of Vancouver.  On a side note, apparently Lewis and Clark were much impressed with the Chinook canoes and attempted to buy one.  When the native locals refused to sell, Lewis and Clark simply stole a canoe.  This matter was finally rectified at the Corps of Discovery Bicentennial when descendants of Capt. Clark presented the Chinook with a new canoe, supposedly the largest canoe now owned by the tribe.

The Fort Vancouver Stockade (Rebuilt in the 1960s)

With the Interstate Bridge Visible on the Right

In 1825, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) established Fort Vancouver as a trading post interested in collecting furs from the native people and sending them off to Great Britain and the world. In this, HBC was continuing what the native people of the area had been doing for generations. HBC planted the first farms and orchards and began the region’s timber industry. As the Oregon Trail brought more and more settlers west, HBC, and by extension Great Britain, looked at the Columbia River as a natural border between US occupied Oregon and Great Britain’s land in the Northwest. Any settlers who crossed the river were given help by HBC Chief Factor John McLoughlin, but this was counter to HBC policy, and by 1846, McLoughlin had resigned. He was replaced by Peter Skene Ogden who was determined to keep at least his corner of the British Empire, and under Ogden’s command the soldiers stationed at the Fort repeatedly attempted to remove the one family who had built their home directly west of the Fort’s stockade, Amos and Esther Short and their eight children. The Shorts, Esther in particular, proved stronger than Ogden, and in truth his time was short. On June 15th, 1846, the signing of the Oregon Treaty divided British and US Oregon not at the Columbia, but at the 49th Parallel, several hundred miles north. HBC was allowed to keep their trading post, but by 1849, the US Army established what would become Vancouver Barracks to protect US settlement of the region. HBC held on for over a decade, but finally closed the Fort in 1860, moving their operations north of the border.

One American McLoughlin refused to help was Benjamin Bonneville who came west under the sponsorship of John Jacob Astor.  In an ironic twist, after the British moved north, Bonneville became the commander of Vancouver Barracks, one of a long line of distinguished men to hold that position.  Bonneville’s predecessor was William Wing Loring, a colonel in the U.S. Army who lost an arm in the Mexican War, came to Vancouver Barracks as its first commander, joined the Confederate Army where he was commissioned Brigadier General and clashed with both Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.  After the war he became a general and advisor to the Khedive’s Army in Egypt.  A fascinating guy, I’d say.  Other commanders at Vancouver Barracks include Ulysses S. Grant, Phil Sheridan, and George Marshall, among others.  Today the Barracks as well as a reconstructed version of the HBC Fort Vancouver are part of the National Park Service’s Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Once settlers arrived, agriculture was the first major occupation in Clark County.  Washington’s first orchards were planted near Fort Vancouver, and even today there are producing orchards near the heart of the city.  According to city-data.com, today 278 acres of Clark County are set aside as orchards, and the average farm size in the County is 44 acres.  As with the rest of the U.S., two world wars increased manufacturing across the County.  During World War I, Vancouver had shipyards, lumber mills, and aluminum processing.  Alcoa (The Aluminum Company of America) processed aluminum sheeting for aircraft.  Alcoa’s website indicates that the company has been in business in Vancouver since 1888 and is still an important player in the County’s economy.  During World War II, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser built a shipyard on the Columbia River, a plant he converted to automobile construction after the war.   Bonneville Power Administration dams on the Columbia brought reasonably inexpensive electric power to the region, which also played into increased industrialization.  Today, the ten largest employers in the County include three health organizations, three public school districts, Bonneville Power, Clark County itself, and two private businesses: one retail (not Walmart) and one manufacturer.  In truth, however, Clark County is largely a bedroom community for its much larger neighbor, Portland, Oregon.

Apple Growing in Orchard Near Downtown Vancouver

Two fun facts about the County:  1) while the Oregon Territorial Legislature named Clark County for Capt. William Clark, once Washington Territory was created in 1853, all official paperwork spelled the name with an final “e,”  Clarke County.  It wasn’t until 1925 that the spelling error was corrected.  Fun fact 2)  The northern border of the County is the Lewis River, which was not named for Capt. Meriwether Lewis, but rather for an early settler in the region.  Lewis County, on the other hand, was named for the great explorer.

Thus was born one of Washington’s most important cities.  Vancouver, like its Canadian cousin to the north, was named for British  sea captain George Vancouver, one of the early explorers of the northwest Pacific coast.   In the early 1850s, Vancouver, then known as Columbia City, was chosen to be the County Seat of Clark County.  In 1855, Columbia City was renamed Vancouver and under that name, the city was incorporated in 1857.   Through natural growth and annexation, the city has grown to be the fourth largest in Washington.  Indeed, had officials not balked at annexing the area just north of the city limits, Vancouver would now be larger than either Tacoma or Spokane, currently Washington’s third and second largest cities. 

                 At the Interface of Rural and Urban, Vancouver, Washington

Other cities in Clark County include Battle Ground, where no battle  was ever fought, Camas, La Center one of the original centers of commerce in the county, Ridgefield, and Washougal.  There are numerous named communities, “Census Designated Places,” spread around the County, including Amboy and Yacolt, and the city of Woodland spans the county line and lies in both Clark and neighboring Cowlitz Counties.

A Clark County Farm, Near Battle Ground, Washington