Pacific County Economic History

Long before the first white settlers arrived, the region destined to become Grays Harbor and Pacific counties was inhabited by numerous coastal Indian tribes. In Grays Harbor County, the Chehalis tribe was by far the largest and most powerful. Other tribes in the area were the Hoquiam, Humptulips, Satsop, Quinault, and Wynooche. Of the tribes in the Pacific County area, the largest was the Chinooks, who inhabited the mouth of the Columbia River in what is now southwest Pacific County. Smaller tribes were the Wilapah, Nickomen, Wharhoots, Querquelins, Palus, Nemah, and Nasal - all of whom lived near the coast. The Indian population, though, was decimated by the 1850s because of outbreaks of smallpox, measles, and other diseases introduced by white explorers and settlers.

The Indians were the first to embrace commerce in the region by means of fishing, hunting, and gathering. Foods such as fish and shellfish, meat, and roots and berries made up the Indians' varied diet. Through the use of nets and spears, they caught salmon and sturgeon--which were either consumed fresh or dried and stored for winter use. Also important were clams, oysters, crabs, mussels, and barnacles. The Indians included meat in their diet by hunting deer, elk, and assorted birds. Roots and bulbs, especially camas, and an assortment of wild berries--salmonberries, huckleberries, serviceberries, and strawberries--rounded out the Indian diet.

In July of 1775, non-Indians entered the area for the first time. Spanish explorers Bruno Heceta and Juan Francisco de Bodega y Quadras landed parties ashore at what is now Point Grenville. However, they stayed only briefly and did not claim the area as Spanish dominion. Heceta, after leaving Point Grenville, came upon the mouth of the Columbia River. Thinking that he was at the mouth of a bay, he named it Bahia de la Asuncion. In late June of 1788, the English Captain Meares also came upon the mouth of the Columbia. Thinking it was part of the sea, he named the jetty Cape Disappointment and the water inside Deception Bay. A week later, Meades discovered and named Shoalwater Bay (now called Willapa Bay).

In the late 1780s, the Boston Fur Company was formed to engage the Pacific Northwest Indians in the trading of sea otter furs. The success of the first journey (around Nootka Sound) in 1788, led to the organization of another--this one off the Northwest coast. In May of 1792, Captain Robert Gray sailed his brig, the Columbia, into Bullfinch Harbor (later renamed Grays Harbor). Searching for still more Indians with whom to trade, Gray sailed into the mouth of the Columbia River, advancing some 15 miles. It was May 10, 1792--just three days after he had sailed into Grays Harbor. To commemorate the event, the river was named Columbia in honor of the ship.

Through the turn of the century, the Americans continued to ply the coastline in the interest of fur trading. Still, they showed little other interest and did not venture inland. For example, in 1824, a party from the Hudson's Bay Company passed through the region on its way to Puget Sound. In 1841, an American surveying expedition similarly journeyed through the area. In both cases, their assessment of the area was not flattering; scraggly, stunted pines extending to water's edge, wet and foggy climate, windy exposure to the ocean, swamps, and frequently flooded (at high tide) marshes, etc.

Determined to find a commercial waterway from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean--the so-called Northwest Passage--President Thomas Jefferson directed his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to form an expedition. Lewis chose William Clark as his second in command. Although the expedition found no such route, it did successfully navigate the Snake and Columbia rivers from Eastern Washington to the Pacific. On November 15, 1805, they made camp at what is now the town of Chinook in Pacific County. The party ventured north along the coast as far as Long Beach before turning around to head south along the Oregon coast.

At the turn of the century, John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Company. There were now a total of three principal trading companies--the Pacific Fur Company, Boston Fur Company, and the English Hudson's Bay Company--in the region. The fur trade was abandoned several years later as intense competition depleted the otter population.

The transformation of the geographical area into modern political units occurred in the 19th century as the Northwest became a magnet for immigration during the 1840s and 1850s. The U.S. government actively encouraged settlement of the region, whose ownership was disputed. More American citizens living in the area would give the U.S. a more valid claim than that of the other claimant, England. The Donation Land Act of 1850 bestowed U.S. recognition upon land claims of settlers--320 acres for a single person and 640 acres for a married couple.

Both counties, and most of what is now western Washington, were initially founded as the Oregon Territory's Lewis County in 1845. At that time, Lewis County extended from the Pacific to the Cascades and from the Columbia River up to the 54th parallel in Canada. In the early 1850s, the Washington Territory was founded pulling Lewis County apart from the Oregon Territory.

After the establishment of the Washington Territory, Lewis County was partitioned into a number of different counties. Present-day Grays Harbor and Pacific counties eventually resulted from this territorial legislative action. Grays Harbor County, of course, takes its name from the explorer, Captain Gray, and Pacific County is named after the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the early settlers were drawn to the area by excellent fishing. Not surprisingly, they focused their efforts on plentiful salmon--mostly King, Chinook, Blueback, Steelhead, Silver, and Chum. Many fished the harbor in small boats with nets, gaffs, and hook and line. In the 1850s, the early white settlers, fishing alongside local Indians, set traps and nets at the mouth of the Columbia, Willapa, Chehalis, and other rivers during the spring and summer salmon runs. By the turn of the century, the Grays Harbor County fishing industry employed roughly 300 gillnetters and managed an annual payroll of approximately $75,000.

In addition to supplying a fresh catch, settlers used to salt and pack (or barrel) fish for later consumption. Out of this practice eventually emerged a fish processing and canning industry. The growing East Coast demand for salmon gave rise in 1864 to the area's first cannery at Chinook. By the 1870s, several firms were engaged in this activity. And in the 1890s, processing and canning razor clams and cultivated oysters became equally important in the counties. Some crabs were harvested from deeper waters at the mouth of the Columbia River, Willapa Bay, and Grays Harbor. The industry continued to grow through the 19th century and into the 20th century. By 1930 there were approximately 800 persons employed in Pacific County's canning industry.

Other settlers came to cultivate the land or raise cattle. The farmers distanced themselves from the coast and river valleys, opting instead to seek the open prairies. Although promising at first, the thin topsoil was quickly exhausted, forcing them to retreat to the more fertile valleys. The valleys also provided excellent pasture for cattle. The demand for both industries' products--particularly livestock--surged in the mid-1870s when gold prospectors flocked to areas near the Fraser River.

While dairying became the most successful agricultural pursuit, with its resultant milk, butter, cream, and cheese industries, it spawned others. Forage crops were grown--oats, rye, and vetches-- and poultry became a significant industry. Sheep, beef cattle, and pigs were raised in small numbers, mainly for local use. Pacific County, particularly, developed berry production, especially cranberries, for which its soil and moisture conditions were preeminently good.

No matter their pursuit, few of the early settlers found their journey into the two-county area easy. The shorelines and river valleys were densely forested. Fir, cedar, hemlock, spruce, and a variety of deciduous trees blanketed the area. These obstacles to settlement gave rise to a logging industry as clearings had to be cut. Initially, ox or bull teams were used to pull fallen trees from the forest on skidded (greased) roads. This method was later replaced by splash dams, river driving, steam-driven donkey engines, and tracks.

What started as a means of clearing land for settlement evolved into one designed to meet the demand for lumber as towns sprang up in the wake of homesteading and prospecting in Washington, Oregon, and especially California. By the 1880s, logging was firmly established in the region.

Naturally, a lumber industry evolved from logging. The second half of the 19th century saw numerous sawmills come into existence. In 1853, the area's first sawmill was erected at Cedarville in what is now the southeast part of Grays Harbor County. Sawmills proliferated during the next thirty to forty years: mills were built at Cosmopolis, Hoquiam, Aberdeen, Willapa, South Bend, Raymond, Ilwaco, and other sites. As more mills were built, lumber became the backbone of the regional economy and by the late 1880s, lumber and logging overtook fishing as the principal industry.

Both logging and lumber concerns enjoyed great prosperity through the turn of the century and World War I. The demand for logs and lumber surged when wooden steam ships were mass-produced in Grays Harbor during the course of World War I. This was perhaps the greatest period of economic growth in the area. The economic boom period during and immediately following the war was also a period of growing labor unrest--particularly in natural resource-oriented regions such as the two-county region. The onset of the Great Depression devastated the timber industry and contributed to the growing strength of the International Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies, as they were more commonly known. The labor movement had a tremendous influence on those who lived and worked in the area and even today the counties retain a strong attachment to unionism.

As with the rest of the nation, it was World War II that actually brought the Great Depression to a halt in the two counties. And the aftermath of the war ushered in national economic prosperity during the 1950s and 1960s. The accompanying housing boom created a modest surge in the region's logging and lumber industries. During the 1970s, however, national economic recessions and rising interest rates took their toll on the county's natural resource-oriented economy.

Employment and population losses were exacerbated in the early 1980s when construction on one Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) plant at Satsop was terminated and another plant was placed in moth balls. Construction work on the plants, located roughly 15 miles east of Aberdeen near Elma in Grays Harbor County, had employed a very large number of construction workers from both the counties. The aftermath caused substantial unemployment and out-migration--both of which had an adverse effect on the area's service sector.