Centralia, Washington
City in the United States in Lewis County
About Centralia
Centralia () is a city in Lewis County, Washington, United States. It is located along Interstate 5 near the midpoint between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. The city had a population of 18,183 at the 2020 census. Centralia is twinned with Chehalis, located to the south near the confluence of the Chehalis and Newaukum rivers.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
How Centralia is governed
Form of government not yet listed.
1 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.
Residents of Centralia
Registered voters elect the officials below.
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Mayor
Executive
- Kelly Smith Johnston per Wikidata
The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.
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City Manager / Administrator
Executive
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The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).
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Police Chief
Administration & departments
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Leads the police department.
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Fire Chief
Administration & departments
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Leads the fire and emergency services department.
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Public Works Director
Administration & departments
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Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.
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Finance Director
Administration & departments
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The budget, taxes, and city accounts.
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Planning & Zoning Director
Administration & departments
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Land use, zoning, building permits.
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Parks & Recreation Director
Administration & departments
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Parks, programs, and public facilities.
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City Council
Legislative
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The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.
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City Clerk
Administration & departments
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Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.
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City Attorney
Administration & departments
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The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.
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Boards & Commissions
Legislative
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Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.
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Municipal Court
Judicial
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Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.
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Municipal Judge
Judicial
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Presides over the municipal court.
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- Website
- cityofcentralia.com
Looking for your county, state and federal representatives too? See who represents 98531 or everyone in Washington.
Population over time
From 16,336 in 2010 to 18,183 in 2020 (+11.3%).
Show the numbers
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 18,183 |
| 2010 | 16,336 |
History
Skookumchuck
The area was first settled by the Upper Chehalis people, who had several villages at the confluence of the Skookumchuck and Chehalis rivers. The first non-indigenous settlers arrived in 1845. In 1850, J. G. Cochran and his wife Anna were led there via the Oregon Trail by their adopted son, George Washington, a free African-American. The family feared Washington would be forced into slavery if they stayed in Missouri after the passage of the Compromise of 1850. Cochran filed a donation land claim near the Borst Home in 1852 and was able to sell his claim to Washington for $6,000 because, unlike the neighboring Oregon Territory, there was no restriction against passing legal ownership of land to African Americans in the newly formed Washington Territory.
The town was originally called Skookumchuck after the nearby river, itself named for a Chinook Jargon word meaning "rapids." As it grew, local Upper Chehalis people continued to live there each summer for the harvest, and some took jobs in town. However, their community was devastated by a smallpox epidemic in 1852, and after they abandoned a nearby village, settlers burned it down. Skookumchuck settlers then built and moved into Fort Henness near the site, worried that the Upper Chehalis would attack them during the Puget Sound War. A few settlers remained in town, with one writing that he saw the fort as "injurious to our friendship". The Upper Chehalis did not fight in the war and remained connected to Skookumchuck. Although the Upper Chehalis had not signed the Treaty of Point Elliott due to concerns over the reservation terms, some moved to the Chehalis Reservation when it was created in 1864.
The Skookumchuck community was connected to the Columbia and Puget Sound regions via the first major road in the area in 1857. In the 1850s and 1860s, Centralia's Borst Home, at the confluence of the Chehalis and Skookumchuck Rivers, was the site of a toll ferry, and the halfway stopping point for stagecoaches operating between Kalama, Washington and Tacoma.
Centerville and Centralia
Upon hearing of the imminent arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) in 1872, Washington and his wife, Mary Jane, filed a plat for the town of Centerville, naming the streets with a Biblical theme, and offering lots for $10 each with one lot free to buyers who built houses. Washington also donated land for a city park, a cemetery, and a Baptist church. Responding to new settlers' concern about a town in Klickitat County with the same name, the town was renamed Centralia by 1883, as suggested by a recent settler from Centralia, Illinois, and officially incorporated on February 3, 1886. The town's population boomed, then collapsed in the Panic of 1893, when the NP went bankrupt; entire city blocks were offered for as little as $50 with no takers. Washington (despite facing racial prejudice from some newcomers) made personal loans and forgave debt to keep the town afloat until the economy stabilized; the city then boomed again based on the coal, lumber and dairying industries. When Washington died in 1905, all businesses in the town closed, and 5,000 mourners attended his funeral. The city bestowed an honor to Washington in 2023 by declaring August 15, his recognized birthday, as Centralia's Founder's Day.
A large fire on June 26, 1908, part of a string of arson attempts spanning between the Twin Cities that month, decimated a block in the city's downtown district. The early morning blaze, which began at the Star Saloon, caused the loss of twelve buildings but only one person was reported injured.
On November 11, 1919, the Centralia Massacre occurred. Spurred on by local lumber barons, American Legionnaires (many of whom had returned from WWI to find their jobs filled by pro-union members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)), used the Armistice Day parade to attack the IWW hall. Marching unarmed, the Legionnaires broke from the parade and stormed the hall in an effort to bust union organizing efforts by what was seen to be a Bolshevik-inspired labor movement. IWW workers including recently returned WWI veteran Wesley Everest, stood their ground, engaged and killed four Legionnaires. Everest was captured, jailed and then brutally lynched. Other IWW members were also jailed. The event made international headlines, and coupled with similar actions in Everett, Washington and other lumber towns, stifled the American labor movement until the economic devastation of the 1930s Great Depression changed opinions about labor organizations.
During the Great Depression, Centralia's lumber industry contracted, and many sawmills shut down. However, lumber and mining remained Centralia's main industries over the next decades, and Centralia had Washington state's largest open-pit mine during the 1960s. In the 1980s, Centralia's downtown revitalized as a historic retail core. Centralia's TransAlta mine, the last coal mine in the state, closed in 2006.
The town's name was originally a reference to the town's location as the midway point between Tacoma and Kalama, which were originally the NP's Washington termini. This central moniker continued to have longevity when it became the midpoint between Seattle and Portland, Oregon after the constructions of Interstate 5 and its predecessor, U.S. Route 99.
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