Early History of Kelso and Cowlitz County

Americans settled in Cowlitz County even before settling in Seattle. The first local settler was a Scotsman named Peter W. Crawford, a surveyor by trade, who took a land claim on the east bank of the Cowlitz River in 1847. Early settlers met at a settlement called Monticello, near what is now Longview, to draft a petition to Congress to create the Washington Territory out of the Oregon Territory, at the Monticello Convention of 1852. The convention was held in the home of Harry Darby Huntington. Local settlers who attended the convention included Peter Crawford and Seth Catlin. The convention was a success; Congress drafted a bill establishing Washington Territory, which President Millard Fillmore signed into law on March 2, 1853. This marked the beginning of the state of Washington. Washington became a state on November 11, 1889.

Monticello became the first county seat of Cowlitz County on April 21, 1854. The county seat moved to a town called Freeport, just upriver from Monticello near today's West Kelso, in 1865. The settlement of Monticello was wiped out in a flood in 1867. In 1872, with an influx of Northern Pacific Railway workers, the county seat moved to Kalama.

Historical Photo:
Freeport in 1873 (University of Washington Library)

In 1884, Peter Crawford platted a city on his land claim and named it Kelso, after his hometown in Scotland. After decades of trying, Kelso became the county seat in 1923. In January of that year, Freeport was wiped out by flood, clearing the way for a lumber baron to start a new city.

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