History of Grand Mound
By Curt Cunningham

At the turn of the 20th century, Grand Mound was a small farming community of a few hundred people with a general store and post office. The population of Grand Mound in 1900 was 279 people. By 1910 the town grew to 394 and at it's peak in 1920, there were 689 souls. By the 1940's the town had around 200. Gone are the days when Grand Mound was a busy place catering to travelers going between the Columbia river and Puget Sound.

Washington Girls School

In 1913, Grand Mound became the home for the Washington State School for Girls. The school was created and established under the same legislative act as the state training school for boys at Chehalis that was established in 1890. At first, both girls and boys were housed at Chehalis, although the boys and girls were kept strictly separate and were not allowed to associate or even speak to each other. As the population of girls became larger than the boys, Governor Lister appointed a commission to look for a site to build a separate institution for the girls.

The commission chose a site at Grand Mound, where 160 acres of prairie land was purchased for $150 per acre. On January 1, 1915, 75 girls were moved from Chehalis into their new quarters. The superintendent's wife automatically became the matron of the girls, and who also happened to be completely incompetent to take charge of, and train a bunch of delinquent girls. Her appointment of subordinate officers and teachers was just as bad, as these people were even less competent to handle the incorrigible and wayward girls.

During May of 1915, H. H. Balch was convicted of helping a girl escape from the school. The local area residents had been complaining about the cruel treatment of the girls there. On June 8, 1916, a petition was submitted by the residents of Grand Mound asking the state board to investigate the cruelty to the inmates there. After a change in the leadership, the girls began to be treated better, and many did quite well while at the school. In 1959, the name was changed to the Maple Lane School, which lasted until 2012 when school closed down.

The Grand Mound Route or the Bucoda Route?

On May 5, 1915, residents of the southwestern part of Thurston county were engaged in a dispute before the highway commission over the route to be followed by the Pacific Highway between Tenino and Centralia. The residents of Bucoda wanted it to pass through their town, and the Grand Mound citizens wanted it to come their way. The Bucoda people were the first to formally petition the highway commission to change the route between Tenino and Centralia to be officially fixed through Bucoda.

The delegation from Grand Mound who appeared before Commissioner William R. Roy and Chief Engineer James Allen, were promised that no action would be taken on the route until the Grand Mound people had had an opportunity to submit their own petition supporting the route through their town, and the highway department had made an official inspection of both routes.

When the Pacific Highway was first created, only the principal cities through which it was to pass were designated. The highway commission was then authorized to determine the route between these designated places. In 1913, when the highway was first laid out, the original route between Olympia and Centralia followed what was known as the "middle road," which is today called Case Road. This road completed in 1858, bypassed Tenino and headed directly to Grand Mound.

By 1915, W. Dean Hays of Tenino who represented Thurston county in the lower house of the legislature, was successful in changing the route so that it would pass through Tenino, though its location between that city and Centralia was left unsettled. The controversy that erupted between Bucoda and Grand Mound was only one of many that had occurred along the general route of the highway, but the residents there were much more dedicated and interested in the issue and were motivated to circulate petitions and prepare arguments as to the preference of one route over the other.

On April 21, 1916, State Highway Commissioner James Allen who was in favor of the Bucoda route, because it is 4 miles shorter, lost out as the state highway board had already established the road from Tenino through Grand Mound to Centralia as the official route of the Pacific Highway. This ended the controversy that had been waged for the last couple of years.

The main reason the Grand Mound route was selected was that the Bucoda route had two dangerous railroad crossings that would have to be eliminated. The Grand Mound route would also be cheaper, because Lewis county had already paved the highway up to the Thurston county line, and the entire road was practically completed. The designation of the Grand Mound route was made at the request of the local county commissioners, so that they could proceed with the construction work. Although the issue had been settled, this would not be the end of the controversy.

Oregon Trail Marker Placed at Grand Mound

On October 12, 1916, at the intersection of Grand Mound Way and Old Highway 99, is an Oregon Trail marker that was placed by the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution. The marker placed at Grand Mound by these patriotic societies was unveiled that afternoon. Mrs. Bowden presided as chairman of the ceremonies, and the monument was presented by Mr. Dutton, Governor Lister, and Dr. J. B. Stanley, secretary of the Southwest Washington Pioneer Day association. The dignitaries dedicated the marker during the ceremony.

Members of the Pioneers' association and the Grand Mound school children played an important part in these ceremonies. Rev. Prank W. P. Camp delivered the invocation, and the marker was unveiled by Clara James. Irene Holcomb sang and Theodore Hobs of Centralia along with John R. James, who delivered the addresses, and read a letter that told stories of events that transpired in Grand Mound during the stagecoach days. C. C. Scates of Oakvllle then read a paper containing reminiscences of those early days that was written by Mrs. E. W. Sargent.

Work Stoppage

On September 13, 1918, the improvement of the Pacific Highway from Grand Mound to the Lewis county line was abandoned by the county commissioners at their meeting, after 3 weeks of consideration. The contractor's bid on the job was $9,500, or $1,500 more than the sum appropriated for the work. Behind this decision lies a little controversy among the commissioners themselves.

According to Commissioner Sams, when the plan was under consideration some months ago, the county was to put up $20,000 towards a new Westside bridge before the adoption of the bonding plan. Sams agreed with Commissioner Dodge to the expenditure of $8,000 on the Grand Mound road, assuming it would be spent on grading and gravelling the present highway. Commissioner Sams was still agreeable to this plan, even after the bridge deal fell through, but he said that when the Grand Mound project was presented to the board three weeks ago, he discovered that the contractor's bid was not only higher than the amount agreed upon, but that the money was to be used in buying a new right-of-way and merely putting up a grade.

The cost of this right-of-way would boost the expenditure to $10,500, and that the plan was to pave that stretch the following year. To do that, Sams said, would have taken all but $7,000 or $8,000 of both the permanent highway and county road and bridge funds. Commissioner Sams claimed he was still agreeable to the plan of spending $8,000 on the present highway to put it in better shape for travel, but that for the reasons enumerated he opposed awarding the contract as presented. Commissioner Bennett joined in with him. 

Throughout 1919, nothing was done to improve the road through Grand Mound, and it remained in terrible shape, which prompted the residents of the area to complain about the condition of the road to the newspapers. That fall, rumors began to circulate that the county was preparing to begin work on that section of road again, which gave the locals some hope that a good road would eventually be made.

Work Begins Again

Work on the 1.99 mile section of road from Grand Mound to the Lewis county line began on April 30, 1920, as Federal Aid Project # 57. The construction of the highway between Grand Mound and Tenino began on June 30, 1921. By 1922, the section between Tenino and Grand Mound had been completed along with a new bridge over Scatter creek. Today a small section of the old Pacific Highway can still be seen in Grand Mound just north of the Sargent Road intersection on the east side of Old Highway 99.

The Bucoda Route Redux

During the construction and paving of the highway between Tenino and the Lewis county line, motorists were detoured onto the Bucoda route during the two years it took to complete the section. Seeing an increase in traffic must have given the citizens of Bucoda some false hope of getting the highway rerouted. During October of 1920, the Bucoda citizens made another appeal to the state highway commission to reroute the highway.

They asserted that a right-of-way can be obtained along the west side of the railroad that would mostly be donated eliminating the two dangerous crossings that now exist. The Bucoda citizens said that the Bucoda route would benefit a greater population that is currently served by the present route through Grand Mound, and that the Bucoda road is four miles shorter. The present route was selected because of these two dangerous crossings. At this meeting, some Grand Mound citizens attended to voice their disagreement with any proposed proposed change.

The appeal was denied and the Pacific Highway continued to be routed through Grand Mound. The Bucoda route would receive the designation of Permanent Highway 1N and was considered an option to the Pacific Highway between Centralia and Tenino.

Grand Mound Continues On

During the 1920s, agriculture continued to dominate the area and strawberries became the major crop. A strawberry processing plant was built at Grand Mound that shipped out barrels of the ripe berries. This operation lasted for about ten years until the Great Depression hit the area in the early 1930's, and the industry collapsed because of the falling prices.

Around 1934, the Northern Pacific railway closed their depot at Grand Mound, and Rochester, which is about 4.5 miles northwest of town, was becoming the social and commercial center of the area. By 1941, the town was nothing more than a gas station and a store with the post office located inside.

When the freeway was completed through Grand Mound in the mid 1950's, the store and post office closed down due to lack of business, and all that remained was the gas station. Gone are the days of countless settlers stopping for the night at the James cabin as they were rushing north to stake their claims, and later the stage coaches, that would make a stop at the hotel for the night.

Grand Mound got a resurgence in activity in March of 2008, when the 398 room Great Wolf Lodge opened. The hotel caters to children and is majority owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis. Families who stay there, all have an enjoyable time, and leave having had a great experience.

Grand Mound is seeing plenty of growth today and now is a suburban community, with many new businesses, strip malls, restaurants etc.