Aberdeen ( ) is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. The population was 17,013 at the 2020 census. The city is the most populous in Grays Harbor County and the region's economic center, bordering the cities of Hoquiam and Cosmopolis. Aberdeen is occasionally referred to as the "Gateway to the Olympic Peninsula".
History
Samuel Benn, a New York City native, established a homestead on the Chehalis River in 1859 and later platted a town at the site named Aberdeen. According to accounts collected by historian Edmond S. Meany, the name has two possible origins: from the Ilwaco-based Aberdeen Packing Company, which opened a cannery on the homestead in 1873; Like the Scottish city, Aberdeen is a port settlement situated at the mouth of two rivers—the Chehalis and the Wishkah. Hoquiam and Aberdeen citizens together built a spur; in 1895, the line connected Northern Pacific tracks to Aberdeen.
thumb|Ellmore Packing Co. clam and salmon cannery in Aberdeen, 1915
By 1900, Aberdeen had become home to many saloons, brothels, and gambling establishments. It was nicknamed "The Hellhole of the Pacific", as well as "The Port of Missing Men" due to its high murder rate. One notable resident was Billy Gohl, known locally as Billy "Ghoul", who was rumored to have killed at least 140 men, disposing of the bodies in the Wishkah River. Gohl was ultimately convicted of two murders.
Aberdeen was hit hard during the Great Depression, with the number of major local sawmills reduced from 37 to 9. By the late 1970s, most of the area had been logged and the remaining mills closed during the next decade. By the early 1990s, the industry was decimated due to resource reduction. Local political and business leaders ignored this fact and did not pursue economic diversification.
Geography
Aberdeen is at the eastern end of Grays Harbor, near the mouth of the Chehalis River and southwest of the Olympic Mountains. Grays Harbor is notable as the northernmost ria on North America's Pacific Coast because it has remained free of glaciers throughout the Quaternary due to unfavorable topography and warm temperatures. It is thought that, during glacial periods of the Quaternary, the Chehalis River was a major refugium for aquatic species, as was the west coast from the Olympic Peninsula southward for plants that later formed the northern part of the Pacific temperate rainforest in formerly glaciated areas.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.