Kamilche Co. history

In 1891, the Satsop logging railroad went bankrupt.

The Catholic mass was celebrated in Shelton as early as 1894 by priests who traveled to the town for that purpose from Seattle or Olympia, meeting in private homes.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in 1898 that the four largest logging companies in the state operated in Mason County.

When the State tried to lease out tidelands already allotted to Squaxin tribal members, they went to court in 1903.

In 1920, Mark Reed, Simpson Lumber Company, and the town of Shelton built Shelton General Hospital.

The large steel Shay locomotive was built in 1924 by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, for Simpson Logging.

The new mills reversed a loss of population and by 1930 the number of residents in Mason County had doubled to more than 10,000.

By 1940, the Rayonier plant in Shelton employed 530 local residents.

In 1946, the United States Forest Service signed the Cooperative Sustained Yield Agreement with Simpson, which guaranteed a steady supply of logs to the mills in Shelton for 100 years.

In 1964, the State of Washington opened a corrections facility on land donated by the Chamber of Commerce.

In 1968, it was purchased by International Telephone and Telegraph, becoming ITT Rayonaire, Incorporated.

A 1970 history of Shelton states: “Timber brought the influx of a new proud breed, drastically affecting settlements in the county.

A new middle-school building opened in 1989.

A casino built in 1992 provided a steady income to benefit tribal members.

In October 1994, WalMart opened a 102,000-square-foot store in Shelton, boosting employment by 200 jobs.

Since 1995, Shelton has been home to a branch of Olympic College.

When the federal license for the project was issued (the dams had been built without a permit) in 1998, provisions were made to maintain flows and passage for fish stocks, but the tribe continued to seek better protections for their resources.