KELSO

A short history of Kelso

The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the Cowlitz people, part of the Sahaptin and Salish people. About 6,000 Cowlitz were living in longhouses in villages along the Cowlitz River in 1855. The Cowlitz Tribe met with others at the Chehalis River Treaty Council in 1855 and declined to sign a treaty with the Washington Territory which would have required them to move away to a reservation. Many remained in the area until the tribe received federal recognition: its current headquarters is in nearby Longview.

Kelso was founded by Peter W. Crawford, a Scottish surveyor, who, in 1847, took up the first donation land claim on the lower Cowlitz River. Crawford platted a townsite which he named after his home town of Kelso, Scotland. The original plat was dated and filed in October 1884. It became incorporated in 1889.

In its early days, Kelso obtained the nickname "Little Chicago" as it became famous for its large number of taverns and brothels that catered to local loggers. On weekends, trainloads of loggers would come into town from the surrounding region looking for women, liquor, gambling and fights. The FBI finally forced the mayor to shut them down in the 1950s, with the last tavern/brothel closing in the mid-1960s. The economy continues to be based largely on wood products.

In the late 19th century and into the first part of the 20th century, Kelso was the center for commercial smelt fishing on the Cowlitz River. In 1910, according to the Oregonian Newspaper, 5,000 tons of fish were caught. The Kelso Chamber of Commerce created the slogan in 1956 and became known as the Smelt Capital of the World. The Cowlitz River has historically had heavy runs of smelt and were shipped to markets around the country. Smelt numbers have declined significantly in the past several decades possibly due to overharvesting, global climate change and habitat loss. By 2010, the Cowlitz was the last U.S. watershed with smelt runs, and after the Cowlitz tribe's advocacy, the fish were labeled with a threatened status in 2010.

The Allen Street Bridge disaster occurred on January 3, 1923, in Kelso. As of 2024, the event is recognized as the deadliest bridge disaster in the state. The wooden drawbridge collapsed under a combination of high, rushing waters of the Cowlitz River, a log jam, and the poor condition of the overpass. The disaster happened during the end of work day, and 17 people were formally listed as having died due to the event. Also that year, Robert Alexander Long founded the lumber company town of Longview across the Cowlitz River from Kelso. Kelso wanted both towns to merge, but when Long declined, a rivalry grew between them.

In 1941, Kelso obtained the Kelso-Longview Regional Airport. Moulton Taylor, who grew up in Kelso, invented some of the first flying cars and lived nearby in Longview. In 1947, two military officers who were investigating the Maury Island incident (a UFO hoax) died when their plane crashed in southeast Kelso. In 1966, Vern Salsbury built a 600-foot wooden track for a skateboard park in West Kelso, creating the first skateboard park in the U.S. It closed two years later when its admission was not enough to cover its costs.

On May 18, 1980, being only 24 miles (39 km) away, Kelso residents experienced the shock wave caused by the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Called the largest volcanic eruption in historic times in the contiguous United States, Kelso received large amounts of volcanic ash through the air and from the massive mudflow caused by the eruption transported by the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers. Many areas of the city, including the Three Rivers Golf Course are built on volcanic ash dredged from the Cowlitz River by inmates in state custody and volunteers.

In March 1998, the Aldercrest-Banyon landslide began shifting the foundations of 64 homes and local infrastructure in the east Kelso neighborhood of Aldercrest. Eventually, 129 houses were destroyed by this slow-moving landslide. Investigation showed that these houses had been built on top of an ancient active landslide area, and three straight years of higher-than-average rains set the earth into motion.

In October 1998, President Bill Clinton declared this slide a federal disaster. It was the second worst landslide disaster (in cost) in the United States, following the 1956 Portuguese Bend Landslide on Palos Verdes Hills in Southern California. This disaster at Aldercrest led to stricter city zoning ordinances and oversight over geological surveys.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Kelso, Washington, revision 1376403493 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.