Once the center of cranberry culture on the Pacific Ocean it is now a resort community and the center of the local trading area.

Features with the name Copalis refer to an Indian term meaning, “…opposite the rock…” having to do with a large rock off the shore of the Pacific Ocean north of the mouth of the Copalis River. A local band of Native Americans were called Copalis. Toward the end of the time when the sea otter trade was still a big business local hunters would climb up the rock to shoot the otters as they played in the surf.