Draft:Ruth, Washington

Ruth, Washington (also known as Ruth Station, Washington) is an extinct town and was a loading station on the Milwaukee line of the Northern Pacific Railway that ran parallel to the Ocean Beach Highway. It was 10 miles west ot Chehalis in west central Lewis County at an elevation of 264 feet on the Chehalis River. Timber from nearby sawmills and logging communities would be shipped from Ruth to Pacific coast ports or to the Puget Sound region.

Ruth, and surrounding communities, saw infrastructure improvements in the mid-1920s and in the 1930s. A steel bridge on the highway, with new pavement, was competed in 1926 and a new spur, using old railroad ties, were added in 1930. Weyerhauser planned a new rail line connecting the timber areas near Ryderwood to Ruth in 1935. The following year, the tracks at Ruth were sold to Chehalis Western Railroad.

A swim party in the Chehalis River with fatalities was reported as happening near Ruth in 1930.

The rail station no longer exists.