Shelton-Mason County Journal - Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886

In the summer of 1935, 25-year-old Dave James came to Shelton to edit the Shelton Independent, the "only Democratic newspaper on the West Coast - or maybe in the world." This story is adapted from a...

This is the conclusion of a story about U.S. Army war games that took place in and around Shelton in August 1941....

In the summer of 1941 (about four months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), the U.S. Army was anticipating a possible Japanese invasion of the West Coast, including southwest Washington. At...

A front-page story in the May 28, 1938, Shelton Daily Spokesman began: "Despite the fact that he lost the election to the Democratic candidate for county auditor back in 1884, Clermont S. Brumbaugh,...

In May 1956, the Simpson Lookout magazine included the following story:...

A front-page story in the May 1, 1938, Shelton Daily Spokesman began: "As the surprise feature of National Air Mail Week comes word today from Shelton Postmaster Jessie Knight that the first-ever...

Immediately after the Savoy Hotel was destroyed by fire in September 1925, the Shelton Kiwanis Club, the Active Club and the town council held a meeting to discuss the need for better firefighting...

In 1924, Olympic Highway came down into Shelton from Hillcrest. Drivers wanting to continue on the highway had to make a left turn onto Railroad Avenue, then turn right on Fifth Street and drive up...

In a letter to the Journal in the 1970s, Emma Richert wrote about her memories of Kneeland Park as it was in 1912. "It was an inlet or slough of saltwater at high tide, spotted with a big uprooted...

In spring 1929, the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Washington State College (now WSU) entered into a joint venture to "demonstrate to farmers and other residents the last word in marketing of all...

This story is from a series of articles in 1936-1938 issues of the Shelton Daily Spokesman....

The first settlers to make their homes near the head of Little Skookum Inlet in the mid-1880s called their settlement Kamilche, after the Native American name for the valley. Around 1889, a logging...

Washington's ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages became effective in 1916, making the state one of 33 that banned alcohol before the 18th Amendment to the Constitution made it...

On Feb. 7, 1940, Skokomish Valley neighbors of 70-year-old Billy Vincent feared the worst when they discovered that the cable on which he would have propelled his "basketlike contrivance" across the n...

Most people who've lived in Mason County for several years have experienced at least one significant earthquake. One of them occurred at 11:57 a.m. on April 13, 1949. The 7.1 magnitude earthquake,...

The following story is from the Feb. 2, 1939, edition of the Shelton-Mason County Journal. Oxbow is in the Wynoochee River drainage area....

In January 1973, the students in Virginia Pill's third-grade class at Hood Canal School, who had recently studied early Indians and pioneers, had a visit from two women who demonstrated how the early...

The idea for this story came from Jerry Sheldon, who as a boy, watched a boat being built in a shed near his home on Hillcrest. The details are from issues of the Shelton-Mason County Journal. Over a...

From the Jan. 9, 1920, issue of the Journal:...

At the Dec. 5 meeting of the Shelton City Council, Mayor Frank Travis Jr. announced the city had decided not to award a franchise for cable television within the city limits. He told applicant Thomas...

The Shelton-Mason County Journal of Dec. 4, 1941, was focused on the upcoming Christmas holiday. The front page included a schedule of where and when Santa Claus would be appearing, and shoppers were...

This is the conclusion of Jim Howell's memoirs of growing up at Simpson's Camp 3 between 1934 and 1946. We were poor and so were most others. I got two pairs of shoes each year. Ninety-eight-cent...

This two-part story is from a memoir written by Jim Howell in the late 1990s. Jim was born in Hoquiam in 1929 and lived with his parents and two sisters at Simpson Logging Company's Camp 3 in the...

On Oct. 27, 1949, a Shelton-Mason County Journal feature story began, "Imaginations of children run rampant on Hallowe'en night, Oct. 31. The evening is a combination of symbolic knick-knacks drawn...

In 1854, Joseph Sherwood and his brother Warren traveled from their home in Vermont to Sawamish County (name changed to Mason County 10 years later) in the Washington Territory, bringing with them...