Chehalis

The Chehalis River gathers waters from the hills south of the Olympic Mountains and turns west to enter Grays Harbor. The Upper and Lower Chehalis peoples lived along its course and those of its tributaries, in a country of forests, prairies and salmon streams. The name Chehalis came from a village at the entrance to the harbor. In 1792 people from the lower river traded there with the American captain Robert Gray, whose ship had crossed the bar into the bay.