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A Brief History of Lewis County
Established in 1845 by the Oregon Territory Provisional Legislature, Lewis County was named for Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The members of the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the Columbia River and the Southwest Washington region in the autumn of 1805. They were the first Euro-American explores to reach this region by the overland route.
If you are not from Washington state or Oregon you may be wondering where we got the name for this website. Many local towns, counties and rivers are named after the tribes who lived in the region. Chehalis is the name of one of the tribes that settled in the region we now call southwest Washington before the arrival of European settlers. Chehalis is also the name of a major river which originates in the Willapa Hills in eastern Lewis County and flows north by northwest into Grays Harbor County and out to the sea.
The actual word "Chehalis" comes from the Native-American (Indian) word "Chi-ke-lis", meaning shifting sands. Lewis County's second largest city, and county seat, is also named Chehalis. Several local place names are taken from Native-American words such as the town of Napavine, from the word napavoon meaning "small prairie" and town and river Newaukum, from the word nawakum meaning "gently flowing water."
In 1851 the land that is now the city of Chehalis was part of Stuart Schuyler Saunders' 640-acre claim. In 1872 that land was incorporated into the city of Saundersville. The name was later changed to Chehalis. As we mentioned earlier Chehalis grew over the years and became the county seat and second largest city in Lewis County.
The largest city in Lewis County is Centralia, just to the north of Chehalis. The history of Centralia dates back to 1872 when the city was founded by George Washington, a former slave. Centralia is also the home of Centralia College the oldest community college in the state.
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