User:Shortiefourten/Former communities, company towns, and rail stations in Lewis County, Washington

Former communities, mill towns, and rail stations in Lewis County, Washington are composed of once existing neighborhoods, railroad stops, and company towns, especially for mining or timber production.

Burnt Ridge
Burnt Ridge was a small community approximately 4 mi east of Onalaska.

History
Telephone lines were connected to the community at a local store in 1909. The town had a dance hall under the Burnt Ridge Community Club and another hall for the Burnt Ridge American Legion. A church known as the Full Gospel Church burned down in 1935. The area became known, starting in the late-20th century, for a 3,000 acre privately owned parcel with a large horse trail system that would sometimes be open to the public. An annual event known as "Fun Ride" took place and riders traversed over a 12 mi loop trail.

Education
The Burnt Ridge school began in a log cabin structure, built out of one tree, in the late 1880s. It was replaced with a new building in 1905. The school was the sight of a disagreement that escalated to the county attorney general and a judge when a dance, deemed by some residents to be inappropriate, was held in the building during the Christmas season in 1913. The enrollment of Burnt Ridge District No. 40 was never large, with 11 students counted in 1914. That same year, the school adopted a "home credit" system which included credits for such tasks as cleaning one's teeth, feeding livestock, going to bed at a certain time, making or preparing food, or completing other various household chores.

A new two-room schoolhouse, made of hollow tile and containing a bell, was built in the 1920s. The students were visited by Governor Roland H. Hartley in 1929 and the schoolhouse underwent extensive renovations, including plumbing and the repair of the veranda, in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Due to a consolidation of the district with Onalaska, the school ceased being used in 1945. The school building was sold in September 1962 after earlier attempts were hindered for legal reasons, and the grounds, listed at 2.65 acre, were put up for auction a month later; the land sale was completed for $75.

Cowlitz
Also known as Cowlitz Corner, it was connected to Winlock by a paved road, Washington State Route 505, in 1921.

Fulton
The Fulton post office was located in the home of the namesake of the town, the Fulton family. The office, which was also the site of the local ferry crossing, was destroyed during a flood of the Cowlitz River in 1891 but rebuilt near Rainey Creek. The post office was moved to Kosmos.

Greenwood
Near Wildwood

Klaus
Former community located at Washington State Route 508 and Jackson Highway.

Knab
Also known as Layton's Prairie.

Lake Creek
Near Bositfort

Lost Valley
A neighborhood west of Bositfort.

Osborn
Also known as Osburn. Post office discontinued in April 1896.

Ruth, Washington
Ruth, also known as Ruth Station, was a loading station on the Milwaukee line of the Northern Pacific Railway that ran parallel to the Ocean Beach Highway between Chehalis and South Bend, Washington. Timber from nearby sawmills and logging communities would be shipped from Ruth to Pacific coast ports or to the Puget Sound region. The rail station no longer exists.

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.