Winlock

History

Winlock began as a Northern Pacific Railroad construction camp called Wheeler's Camp in c. 1871. The railroad was then in the process of extending its line from Kalama to Tacoma, Washington. Dr. C. C. Pagett, an early resident, donated the land for the townsite. In 1873, he named it for General William Winlock Miller of Olympia, a man of some renown in the area. Miller had promised to give a school bell to the town if it were to be named after him. The town was incorporated on February 28, 1883. Lumbering was the initial economic driver. A number of sawmills were established beginning in the late 1800s. In the late 1920s there were four mills in operation, employing 350 men and producing over 30 million board feet of fir lumber annually. Agriculture developed in the early 1900s with the impetus on the raising of poultry and the production of eggs. A Finnish immigrant, Impi Erving, began as a poulterer in Winlock in the 1900s, out-earning her husband Jacob's farm and cattle business. Jacob installed a kerosene-powered incubator in a bedroom of their house and the family was producing 500,000 eggs annually in a few years. Jacob Irving later constructed a 40,000 egg capacity temperature-controlled incubator system in Winlock in the early 1920s. Business entrepreneur John Marcotte opened the Cowlitz Produce Company at Winlock's Leonard Building in 1913, selling eggs from local farmers. The business reached in sales by the 1920s. A branch of the Washington Cooperative Egg & Poultry Association (WCEPA) was opened in Winlock in 1920. The organization constructed and operated out of a large building in Winlock that remains in the present day at the north end of town near the railroad tracks. The facility housed grain storage bins and accommodated poultry processing. and…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.00%) is water. The city grew an additional after the 2023 UGA annexation. Olequa Creek, a main tributary of the Cowlitz River, runs through the center of town from north to south. The eastern edge of the Willapa Hills lie to the west. To the east are relatively flat prairies. A notable landmark about four miles west of town is Sam Henry Mountain, elevation , named for an early section superintendent of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Mt. St. Helens, about to the east can be seen from viewpoints around the area. In May 1980, Winlock was covered with about of volcanic ash from the second major eruption of this peak one week after the cataclysmic eruption of May 18.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  1,238
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,194
• Steller's Jay

  Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  929
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  855
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  826
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  814
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  793
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  770

Most recent

• M 3.75 — 2026-09-05
  20 km E of Castle Rock, Washington
• M 2.61 — 2026-07-31
  18 km NE of Amboy, Washington
• M 2.84 — 2026-05-27
  4 km W of Wauna, Washington
• M 2.52 — 2026-03-17
  7 km SE of Mineral, Washington
• M 2.86 — 2026-03-11
  2 km W of Home, Washington
• M 2.65 — 2025-12-19
  5 km WSW of Pe Ell, Washington