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Aberdeen is the homeport of the tall ship Lady Washington, a reproduction of a smaller vessel used by explorer Capt. Robert Gray.
The early settlers who came to the eastern edge of Grays Harbor in the 1880s called the place Wishkah after the nearby river. But some objected, and the city was eventually renamed for a local salmon cannery. That " Aberdeen" in Scottish means "the meeting of two rivers" — in this case, the Wishkah and the Chehalis — was a coincidental poetic touch.
Though the largest and best known of the three cities on Grays Harbor , Aberdeen lagged behind neighbors Hoquiam and Cosmopolis in the early years. When A.J. West built the future city's first sawmill in 1884, the other two municipalities had already been in business for several years.
Aberdeen was officially incorporated on May 12, 1890. On October 16, 1903, a massive fire swept through the city's commercial district, destroying 140 buildings and killing four people.
Famous Aberdonians include grunge rocker Kurt Cobain (technically born in nearby Hoquiam), painter Robert MotherwellRobert Motherwell ( 1915- 1991) was an Abstract Expressionist painter. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he was the youngest of "the New York School" (he coined the term), which also included Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Phillip Guston, Nobel-winning physicist Douglas Osheroff, photographer Lee Friedlander, choreographer Trisha Brown and novelist Robert CantwellRobert Cantwell ( January 31, 1908 — December 8, 1978) was a novelist and critic. His most notable work, "The Land of Plenty," focuses on a lumber mill in a thinly disguised version of his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. Cantwell, Robert Cantwell, Rober.
Despite attempts to diversify the local economy that stretch back decades, Aberdeen and the rest of Grays Harbor remain dependent on the timber industry.
Top employers on the Harbor include forestry giant WeyerhaeuserWeyerhaeuser Company ( NYSE:WY) is an American forest products company based in Federal Way, Washington. Weyerhaeuser is an international forest products company that operates five major business segments: • Timberlands — Grows and harvests trees in renew, locally owned Grays Harbor Paper L.P., Simpson Door and Hoquiam Plywood. The Stafford Creek Corrections Center, a state prison which opened in 2000, and Safe Harbor Technology, a technical support center, are two notable exceptions.
Other major employers include cranberry-growing collective Ocean Spray, Wal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer and the largest company in the world based on revenue. In the fiscal year ending January 31, 2004, Wal-Mart had $256. 3 billion in sales and $8. 9 billion in income. Forbes magazine points out that if and Washington Crab Products.
Aberdeen is located at the confluence of the Chehalis and WishkahThe Wishkah River is the river in Washington State in which one third of Kurt Cobain's cremains have been scattered. The river is located in Grays Harbor County, Washington and is about 40 miles (64 km) long. The river flows south and empties into the Che rivers, which form Grays Harbor , and at the intersection of U.S. Highway 101US Highway 101 runs along the West Coast of the United States, just as its counterpart U. Highway 1 runs along the East Coast. It used to continue south of Los Angeles to Mexico, but that part was decommissioned in favor of Interstate 5. It is often refer (also called the Pacific Coast Highway) and U.S. Highway 12.
The city is located at 46°58'33" North, 123°49'7" West (46.975833, -123.818669) 1The following is a list of sources used in the creation of Wikipedia articles on various geographic topics and locations, such as cities, counties, states, and countries. These sources are cited within the thousands of articles which link to this page..
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 31.5 km˛ (12.2 mi˛). 27.5 km˛ (10.6 mi˛) of it is land and 4.0 km˛ (1.5 mi˛) of it is water. The total area is 12.73% water.