Kelso, Washington
| Kelso, Washington | |
|---|---|
| City | |
| Motto: "City of Friendly People" | |
 Location of Kelso, Washington |
|
| Coordinates: 46°8′31″N 122°54′22″W / 46.14194°N 122.90611°WCoordinates: 46°8′31″N 122°54′22″W / 46.14194°N 122.90611°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Washington |
| County | Cowlitz |
| Platted | 1884 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Council-manager |
| • City manager | Steve Taylor |
| • Mayor | David Futcher |
| Area | |
| • Total | 8.50 sq mi (22.01 km2) |
| • Land | 8.14 sq mi (21.08 km2) |
| • Water | 0.36 sq mi (0.93 km2) |
| Elevation | 75 ft (23 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 11,925 |
| • Estimate (2015) | 11,901 |
| • Density | 1,465.0/sq mi (565.6/km2) |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 98626 |
| Area code(s) | 360 |
| FIPS code | 53-35065 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1512343 |
| Website | http://www.kelso.gov |
Kelso is a city in southwest Washington State, United States, and is the county seat of Cowlitz County. At the 2010 census, the population was 11,925. Kelso is part of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 102,410. Kelso shares its long western border with Longview. It is near Mount St. Helens.
The earliest known inhabitants of Kelso were Native Americans from the Cowlitz tribe. The Cowlitz people were separated into the Upper (or Taidnapam) and Lower (or Mountain) Cowlitz tribes, who were members of the Sahaptin and Salish language families, respectively. In 1855, European explorers noted that there numbered over 6000 individuals of the Cowlitz Tribe.
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 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.
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