A-Aberdeen

Aberdeen is located at the confluence of the Chehalis and Wishkah rivers at the head of Grays Harbor, at the southern end of the Olympic Peninsula. The region’s rich fisheries and abundant timber supported a number of Native American communities and served to attract white American settlement in the mid-nineteenth century. During the latter half of the nineteenth century a number of small communities were established on Grays Harbor, but Aberdeen quickly grew to dominate as the commercial and cultural hub. Lumber, fisheries, and shipbuilding have fueled the local economy for much of the region’s history. More recently extractive industries have declined and tourism and commercial retail have increased. Thousands upon thousands of wooded acres surrounded Grays Harbor. Fish and marine mammals filled the waters offshore. It was not long before white Americans came to the area to exploit those resources. While the harbor could not compete with others in Puget Sound as a major port, it was more than sufficient as a place to load ship holds with lumber and canned fish. In 1852 Benjamin C. Armstrong (1819-1857) and a couple of partners built a sawmill at the confluence of Cedar Creek and the Chehalis River. This lumber was primarily used locally for buildings and houses, and for building scows. (Scows are a type of barge with a shallow draft, allowing them to navigate rivers.)  

In 1859, the first settler at what would become the town of Hoquiam, James Karr, arrived. Other settlers followed, but economic development would occur slowly until the 1880s. The town would not be incorporated until 1890.

"Aberdeen History." City Of Aberdeen Washington. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2013. <http://aberdeenwa.gov/>.