Master Timeline

1854 Chehalis County created (Grays Harbor County)
1856 Quinault River Treaty - 10,000 acres reservation near Taholah
1858 Government attempts to enforce laws against cutting timber on public lands
1859 Steamboats travel to Montesano
1860 Construction of Fort Chehalis at Westport
1861 First commercial oyster beds in Grays Harbor
1864 Chehalis Reservation (4,200 acres) created by executive order
1873 Northern Pacific Railroad reachs Tacoma
1882 Captain Asa Simpson and builds the North Western Mill
1882 Pope & Talbot buys lumber mill - Cosmopolis becomes a company town (Grays Harbor Commercial Co.)
1883 First newspaper in Grays Harbor County
1884 A.J. West lays foundation timbers for Aberdeen's first sawmill
1884 Aksel Seaborg builds salmon cannery in Aberdeen
1885 First train arrives in Montesano
1886 Montesano becomes seat of Chehalis County
1889 Washington becomes a State
1890 Aberdeen incorporated May 12
1890 Hoquiam incorporated May 24
1890 Northern Pacific Railroad's new Tacoma, Olympia & Chehalis Express goes into service.
1891 Cosmopolis incorporated
1892 Northern Pacific Railroad builds line from Chehalis to Grays Harbor; Ocosta is railroad's terminus
1892 Northern Pacific Railroad operations begin from Montesano to Ocosta, Washington. (24.6 miles)
1893 Quileute Reservation established on the Hoh River
1893 Queets The BIG Snow 4' deep
1893 April 20th Streater's cabin burned down and everything he had in it.
1894 FIRE
1895 November 7 Adam Matheny,as in Matheny Creek and Matheny Ridge, died
1896 The Olympic Penisula Railroad Company is incorporated.
1902 September 12 - “Dark Day” in Chehalis county as major forest fires blot out sunlight.
1903 Aberdeen fire destroys 22 city blocks
1906 Chehalis Tribe petitions federal government for payment for appropriated lands
1908 Aberdeen Daily World
1910 34 lumber and shingle mills line Aberdeen harbor and Chehalis River estuary
1914 Finns settle in the Grayland area and pioneer area's cranberry industry
1911-17 Grays Harbor booms with mills, canneries, and shipbuilding yards
1914 Westport incorporated
1914 The Taholah Agency was established
1915 Chehalis County changed to Grays Harbor County
1916 Grays Harbor jetties completed
1918 Apr 15 William Gowans dies age 83 Quinalt, Grays Harbor, Washington
1929 Grays Harbor Commercial Company in Cosmopolis closes, bought by Weyerhaeuser