Adna - The community of Adna is six miles west of Chehalis on the Chehalis River in west central Lewis County. It has had several names. When a post office was established, a pioneer named Browning suggested the name "Willoway" for his wife's favorite quotation, "Where there's a will there's a way." Postal authorities objected because there was too much resemblance to Willapa. They accepted an alternative suggestion of Pomona, which was used for several years. When the Northern Pacific Railway built its lines in the area the locating engineer, W. C. Marion, called the station Edna for Mrs. Edna Browning. Postal authorities changed the name of the post office to Adna however, as there already was a post office called Edna in the state.

Concrete - Concrete is a community on the Skagit River at the mouth of the Baker River in north central Skagit County. In 1890, the place was named Baker for the Baker River, by Magnus Miller. In 1905, when the cement plant was built the name used was Cement City. In 1909, when the town was incorporated, the present name was chosen.

Connell - North Franklin SD - Connell is a community thirty-six miles northeast of Pasco in north central Franklin County. In 1883, when established by the Northern Pacific Railway Company, it was named Palouse Junction. In 1888, the name was changed to honor a former station agent J. H. Connell or W.C. Connell, an early settler.

Eatonville - Eatonville is southeast of Tacoma near the Pack Demonstration Forest. T.C. Van Eaton platted the townsite in 1888. His store served as the first post office when it was founded June 25, 1890. Van Eaton hall, the second story of the building was the town's early social center. (Hlavin, p. 10). T.C. Van Eaton was born in Pope County, Minnesota, June 27, 1862. He came to Eatonville where he served as post master for eighteen eyars and in the state legislature from 1894 to 1895. He died in October of 1951 and is buried in Eatonville.

Forks - Forks is a logging town between the Bogachiel and Calawah rivers, a dozen miles east of the Pacific Ocean in southwest Clallam County. It has many small, independent logging operators, commonly called gypos. The town is named for Forks Prairie.

Ocosta - Ocosta was a boom town established in 1892, and nearly deserted by 1930, on the south shore of Grays Harbor, across South Bay from Westport in southwest Grays Harbor County. It was named by Judge William H. Calkins of Tacoma and Mrs. George E. Filley of Olympia. They used the Spanish La Costa, but substituted O for La, to make a one-word name acceptable to postal authorities. A poetic variation, used in advertising the embryo town, was Ocosta By The Sea. The Indian name was Nu-shis-tska. The name is now used by the community and the local school district which now includes the community of Westport.

Quillayute - The Indian name Quillayute which is found along the Pacific Ocean coast of Washington means "...joining together of rivers..." It is the name of the indian people who live in the area. It has been variously spelled as Quillehute, Quillyhuyte, Kwilleute, Quallayute and Quelaiault.

Wapato - Wapato is a community on the Yakima Indian Reservation ten miles southeast of Yakima in central Yakima County. When Northern Pacific Railway established a station in 1885, the town, which was an early trading center for Indians and white settlers, was called Simcoe. On October 24, 1902, a townsite was platted; the name used was that of the Indian potato, wapato, or arrowroot (Sagittaria latifolia). This native root was an important food for Indians before it was replaced by the potato.

Wellpinit - Wellpinit is a community three and a half miles north of the Spokane River in southeast Stevens County. It is the only town of its size on the Spokane Indian Reservation and includes tribal headquarters and an Indian school. During World War I, the name was changed from Germania to the present name, which is a Nez Perce Indian word meaning "water gushing" because an underground stream surfaced there and was a source of good water.

White Salmon - White Salmon is a community on hillside above the north bank of the Columbia River directly across the river from Hood River, Oregon in southwest Klickitat County. A post office was established in 1872 and was named for the White Salmon River, directly west. Rivalry with Bingen, a town directly adjoining White Salmon on the southeast and on the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle Railway line, caused the station to be marked with both town names. Efforts to combine the towns have been made for many years, but so far have proven fruitless. White Salmon takes its name from the White Salmon River. The river was named by the Indians. It used to be the spawning grounds for the Steelheads, whose pink flesh was so much lighter, in comparison with the dark red flesh of the Chinook salmon, that the Indians spoke of the river as the place where the "white fish" came.

 Tacoma Public Library Washington Place Name Database

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Copyright 1999, Straathof, Bruce and Rantschler. Last updated March, 2000.

Contact the authors: wahist@concrete.k12.wa.us