The two barns visible north of the road are the Rachske Barn (westernmost) and the Tramm Barn (easternmost). The Augusta Rachske barn is a large hay barn built in 1914 by John Schwartz. It sits on land homesteaded by Augusta and Minnie Rachske in 1903, which remained in the family until 2000. The H.L. Tramm Barn was built in 1890 as a hop, hay and dairy barn, it was sold...

Mile: 45

Built in 1918 by the State of Washington as the Chehalis Salmon Fish Hatchery. Timbers were milled on-site by workers living there in canvas tents. The hatchery was created by diverting Hope Creek with wooden culverts and passageways.

Mile: 37

A timbered recreation area, it was named for rainbows which form in the falls under certain light conditions. A local story states has that it was named by George Onn of Dryad, for the Rainbow Division, which participated in World War I. The park features shoreline on the Chehalis River and 120-acres of old-growth timber. Five miles of shady trails wind through the park. A 200-foot cable footbridge, suspended over...

Mile: 35

One of many lumber towns that were once on the Chehalis-South Bend branch of Northern Pacific Railway. The town was once two miles south of the present location, and was called Salal. It moved when Leudinghaus Brothers of Chehalis built a saw mill at the present site. Its name, supplied by the Northern Pacific Railway at the suggestion of W. C. Albee, who was superintendent of the South Bend branch...

Mile: 34

The third barn built on this site, and one of two historic barns remaining on the farm. It was built in 1936 as a hay and straw barn. The lofts were built with the remnants of the earlier barns. It is currently used for sheep and dairy operations.

A lumber town that was intended to be called Pierre, but became known as Pe Ell through the inability of the Native Americans to pronounce the “r’s” in the French name. The town was platted in 1891 by Omar Maurmann, first white settler; later many Polish families, attracted by the growing lumber industry, settled here. A large many-windowed Catholic church, a school, and a three-story rectory are among the outstanding...

Mile: 38

The town once depended on a large sawmill and when the mill cut the available timber the place was nearly abandoned. It was named for Harry W. McCormick, owner of McCormick Lumber Company. Mr. McCormick became post master on May 31, 1899 and the post office operated until July 15, 1929 and the sawmill closed the next year. By 1941 the town was a ghost of a formerly thriving sawmill...

Mile: 26

A lumber town, it was named for the lumber company of Walworth & Neville in 1903 taking the first syllable of Walworth and the last of Neville. An older name for the place is Rock Creek, taken from the nearby creek. By 1941the weathered but once pretentious offices and residences of the mill staff contrasted with the shabby shacks occupied by Japanese and other laborers, long since gone, like the...

Mile: 25

The highest point between Chehalis and South Bend at the crest of a divide southeast of South Bend in east central Pacific County is called Pluvius. W. C. Albee, when superintendent of South Bend branch of Northern Pacific Railway, devised the name because of the heavy rainfall in the region. The name is an alteration of the Latin word Pluviosus which has the significance of heavy rains or precipitation. The...

Mile: 22

A former logging community on Half Moon Prairie, the original name was Half Moon. When a post office was established, postal officials objected to the two-word name. They accepted the present name, offered by the town's founder, Joseph W. Goodell, which was his daughter Mabel's name spelled backward.

Mile: 15

Established when the Northern Pacific Railway lines were built through the Willapa Valley in the late 1880s. When John Brophy, a pioneer settler, platted a town site, he erected a large sign on the property which read Menlo Park, in memory of his former home in Menlo Park, California. Railway employees cut the sign in half, leaving only Menlo. The original name given to this station by Northern Pacific officials...

Mile: 6

Willie Keil was 19 when he died in Missouri. His father, Dr. William Keil, was on his way to the Willapa Valley to start a religious colony of Germans and Swiss pioneers. Dr. Keil promised Willie that he could ride in the lead wagon of the wagon train, and he kept that promise by placing Willie’s body in a metal coffin filled with alcohol and bringing him to this site...

Mile: 5

Settled in 1852 it is one of the oldest communities in the state. In the early days it was the head of navigation on the Willapa River, and a supply point for Willapa Valley, until the railroads were built. The first name was Woodard's Landing, for Samuel Lowell Woodard, the first settler, who arrived in 1852. When postal service was established, the present name became official. It is for the...