Oakville is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. It was incorporated in 1905, with booming lumber, railway, and farming industries creating the early foundation of the community. The population was 715 at the 2020 census.
History
In 1818, the United States and Great Britain agreed to a treaty of joint occupancy in the Oregon Country, which included the land that would eventually become Oakville, Washington. Over the next several decades, citizens of the United States began to settle in the area. As traveling by boat was easier than moving through the dense forests, many used the river system, entering from the port of Grays Harbor and canoeing inland via the Chehalis River. The British government gave full ownership of the area to the United States in 1846. Around 1890, Northern Pacific Railway was laying tracks through the city. Oakville was officially incorporated on December 18, 1905.
In 1909, a report by the Railroad Commission of Washington described Oakville:
<blockquote>"Oakville is a town of about 400 inhabitants, located on the line of the Northern Pacific trailer in the center of an important lumbering and taking district. The timber resources of this section are of immense value and the bottom lands are well adapted to general farming. Oakville is a growing town and will develop more rapidly as the resources of the surrounding district are more thoroughly exploited." The city was "noted for large shipments of cascara bark." Factories were also part of the city's economy, with the E.H. Hilton & Co. Oiled Clothes Factory in operation by 1915, and the Oakville Co-Operative Cheese Company incorporating a few years later. It is said to be the last bank in Washington to be robbed by a rider on horseback.
The city's librarian Clara Trudgeon had been appointed by the State Traveling Library by 1908, making Oakville eligible to be a recipient of one of the 150 cases of books the state had in rotation. By 1919, the city had an active community center, and the high school had received accreditation as a four-year school.
<gallery class=center mode=packed heights=125px>
Oakville - Lonnborg Family - 1890.jpg|Settlers at their homestead on the west side of Oakville, circa 1890.
Oakville - Laying Track on the Rail Road.jpg|alt=The photo caption reads, "Laying track on the U.P.R.R. near Oakville, WN. Photo by G. Pearson."|Track being laid for the railroad near Oakville, circa 1890.
Oakville - George Pearson - 1906.jpg|Oakville in 1906|alt=A monotone image of a logging town, circa 1906, with a train in the foreground and buildings behind.
</gallery>
Oakville blobs
On August 7, 1994, a resident reported that a translucent, gelatinous substance had rained down in the night; she expressed concern that it might have caused her and her mother to become ill, and speculated that it might have been the reason her kitten died. According to the resident, a hospital lab technician tested the substance, colloquially known as "Oakville blobs", and said that it contained human blood cells. However tests made by the Department of Ecology refuted these results, as tests showed that there were no nuclei present. There are no remaining testing samples of the blobs.
The incident received coverage in several media outlets, including The New York Times, and a segment was produced about the event for an episode of Unsolved Mysteries and Monsters and Mysteries in America.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.
Oakville is on the northern shore of the Chehalis River, just downstream from the convergence of the Chehalis and Black rivers. This is an area subject to annual flooding, with major floods occurring most recently in 2007 and 1996. Both of these floods were federally declared disasters due to the extensive damage to human life, livestock, and property in the region. In 2016, the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority authorized $55,000 to be used to collect data, geography, and history on the flooding in the city, which reports indicated to be affecting approximately 35 homes and causing on average three road closures per event, with this flooding occurring typically twice a year.
To its north, Oakville is bordered by the hills of the Capitol State Forest. The area is filled with hills, valleys, rivers, and dense forests.
Climate
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Oakville has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.