Aberdeen, Washington

Aberdeen, Washington
—  City  —
Location of Aberdeen in Grays Harbor County, Washington
Coordinates: 46°58′33″N 123°49′7″W
Country	United States
State	Washington
County	Grays Harbor
Area
• Total	12.2 sq mi (31.5 km2)
• Land	10.6 sq mi (27.5 km2)
• Water	1.6 sq mi (4.0 km2)
Elevation	23 ft (7 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	16,896
• Density	1,548.8/sq mi (598.0/km2)
• Demonym	Aberdonian
Time zone	Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP code	98520
Area code(s)	360
FIPS code	53-00100
GNIS feature ID	1511950
Website	http://aberdeenwa.gov/

A tribute to Kurt Cobain in Aberdeen, was installed by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee. "Come as You Are" is a song by Nirvana.

Aberdeen ( /ˈæbərdiːn/) is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States, founded by Samuel Benn in 1884. Aberdeen was incorporated on May 12, 1890. The city is the economic center of Grays Harbor County, bordering the cities of Hoquiam and Cosmopolis. Aberdeen is called the "Gateway to the Olympic Peninsula", but it is more famous as being the hometown of Nirvana members Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. The population was 16,896 at the 2010 census.

History

Aberdeen was named for a local salmon cannery, a namesake of Aberdeen, Scotland, because it is situated at the mouth of two rivers just like Aberdeen, Scotland. Although it became the largest and best known city in Grays Harbor, Aberdeen lagged behind neighbors Hoquiam and Cosmopolis in the early years. When A.J. West built the town's first sawmill in 1894, the other two municipalities had been in business for several years. Aberdeen and its neighbors vied to be the terminus for Northern Pacific Railroad, but instead of ending at one of the established mill towns, the railroad skimmed through Cosmopolis and headed west for Ocosta. Hoquiam and Aberdeen citizens banded together to build a spur; and in 1895, the line connected Northern Pacific tracks to Aberdeen.

By 1900, Aberdeen was considered one of the grittiest towns on the West Coast^{[citation needed]}, with many saloons, whorehouses, and gambling establishments populating the area. Aberdeen was nicknamed "The Hellhole of the Pacific", or "The Port of Missing Men", because of 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. (Gohl was convicted of 2 murders )

During the Great Depression, Aberdeen was hit hard, reducing the number of major saw mills from 37 to 9. Mill owners hired Filipino and Jewish immigrants to keep wages low in order to stay in business. The timber industry continued to boom, but by the late 1970s most of the timber had been logged. Most of the mills were closing down by the 1970s and 1980s.

Aberdeen is also the home port of the tall ship Lady Washington, a reproduction of a smaller vessel used by the explorer Captain Robert Gray, featured in the Pirates of the Caribbean film The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Film, television, and video game appearances

Recently, Lady Washington has appeared in various films, portraying the HMS Interceptor in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and the brig Enterprise, a namesake of the Starship Enterprise, on the holodeck in Star Trek Generations. She also provided the basis for the RLS Legacy in the Disney animated feature Treasure Planet.

In the book Another Roadside Attraction, by [Robbins], Aberdeen is mentioned as the location of the alleged body of Christ that is the central plot point to the story.

Geography

Aberdeen is located at the eastern end of Grays Harbor, near the mouth of the Chehalis River and southwest of the Olympic Mountains. Gray’s Harbor is notable as the northernmost ria on the Pacific Coast of North America, owing to the fact that it has remained free of glaciers throughout the Quaternary due to unfavourable 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.

Climate

Aberdeen experiences a climate on the boundary between Mediterranean (Köppen Csb) and oceanic (Köppen Cfb). Although the rainfall is extremely high between October and March, July and August still have a distinct excess of evaporation over rainfall. Temperatures are generally very mild due to the proximity of the warm Pacific Ocean and the Kuroshio Current: snow is extremely rare although during December 1964 22.3 inches (0.57 m) fell. Occasionally when winds come from the southeast very high temperatures can occur: as in August 1981 when temperatures reached 105 °F (40.6 °C).

Climate data for Aberdeen
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °F (°C)	66 (19)	73 (23)	82 (28)	88 (31)	96 (36)	101 (38)	105 (41)	105 (41)	100 (38)	86 (30)	73 (23)	63 (17)	105 (41)
Average high °F (°C)	45.8 (7.7)	49.4 (9.7)	52.9 (11.6)	57.1 (13.9)	61.8 (16.6)	65.5 (18.6)	69.1 (20.6)	69.8 (21.0)	68.5 (20.3)	61.3 (16.3)	52.0 (11.1)	46.6 (8.1)	58.3 (14.6)
Average low °F (°C)	34.6 (1.4)	35.3 (1.8)	36.7 (2.6)	39.4 (4.1)	43.9 (6.6)	48.5 (9.2)	51.3 (10.7)	51.9 (11.1)	48.7 (9.3)	43.7 (6.5)	38.7 (3.7)	35.7 (2.1)	42.4 (5.8)
Record low °F (°C)	6 (−14)	8 (−13)	18 (−8)	13 (−11)	22 (−6)	32 (0)	34 (1)	36 (2)	30 (−1)	19 (−7)	11 (−12)	6 (−14)	6 (−14)
Precipitation inches (mm)	12.78 (324.6)	9.73 (247.1)	8.85 (224.8)	5.76 (146.3)	3.68 (93.5)	2.66 (67.6)	1.20 (30.5)	1.61 (40.9)	3.50 (88.9)	7.31 (185.7)	12.54 (318.5)	13.5 (343)	83.12 (2,111.2)
Snowfall inches (cm)	4.4 (11.2)	1.9 (4.8)	0.7 (1.8)	0.1 (0.3)	0.0 (0)	0.0 (0)	0.0 (0)	0.0 (0)	0.0 (0)	0.0 (0)	0.4 (1)	1.1 (2.8)	8.6 (21.8)
Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.01 inch)	21	18	20	17	13	11	6	7	10	16	20	22	181
Source:

Education

The Weatherwax building of Aberdeen High School burned down in 2002

The city's school district has two high schools: J. M. Weatherwax High School, or Aberdeen High School as it is now called, and Harbor High School, an alternative high school with an enrollment exceeding 200 students. Aberdeen High has a long time school sports rivalry with nearby Hoquiam High School.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, the Weatherwax building of Aberdeen High School, built in 1909, burned to the ground. The new building was completed in 2007 and held its grand opening on August 25, 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Aberdeen School District also consists of one junior high: Miller Junior High; 5 elementary schools: Central Park Elementary, McDermoth Elementary, Stevens Elementary, AJ West Elementary and Robert Gray Elementary; and 1 Roman Catholic parochial school: St. Mary's Catholic School.

Aberdeen is home to Grays Harbor College, located in south Aberdeen, and is represented by the Charlie Choker mascot. The college emphasizes student opportunities, and has resources to help students transfer to a four year college to complete a degree.

Notable people

Elton Bennett, artist Guy Bingham, football player Trisha Brown, choreographer Mark Bruener, football player Jeff Burlingame, author Robert Cantwell, novelist Kurt Cobain, musician

Dale Crover, musician Bryan Danielson, professional wrestler now known as Daniel Bryan Jack Elway, football coach John Elway, football player Lee Friedlander, photographer Victor Grinich, founder of Silicon Valley Noname Jane, pornographic actress

Robert Motherwell, painter Peter Norton, software engineer Krist Novoselic, musician Douglas Osheroff, Nobel-winning physicist Patrick Simmons, musician Wesley Carl Uhlman, politician Kurdt Vanderhoof, musician John Workman, writer, artist

Rock musicians

Aberdeen is best known, however, for producing seminal grunge and punk rock bands and musicians such as Nirvana including Kurt Cobain and Dale Crover of The Melvins. Some of Cobain's lyrics, in songs such as "Something in the Way" and parts of the Bleach album, referred to locations within the town.

Krist Novoselic, Nirvana's bassist, was born in Compton, California, but moved to Aberdeen in his youth, where he met Cobain.

Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers and Kurdt Vanderhoof of heavy metal band Metal Church are from Aberdeen, while Kirkland Arrington and Duke Erickson, also of Metal Church, are from Hoquiam.

Industry

Despite attempts to diversify the local economy, Aberdeen and the rest of Grays Harbor remain dependent on the timber and fishing industries.

On December 19, 2005, Weyerhaeuser closed the Aberdeen large-log sawmill, and would close the Cosmopolis pulp mill in early 2006. This resulted in the loss of at least 342 jobs. In January 2009, Weyerhaeuser closed two additional plants in Aberdeen, resulting in another 221 lost jobs. In both cases many employees were not told by Weyerhaueser management, but learned about the closures from local radio stations who received a press release prior to a scheduled press conference.

Employers on the Harbor include locally owned Grays Harbor Paper, LLC (defunct as of May 26, 2011), The Westport Shipyard, Sierra Pacific Industries, The Simpson Door Company, Dead End Street, LLC, Hoquiam Plywood, the Stafford Creek Corrections Center, a state prison which opened in 2000, and Safe Harbor Technology, a technical support center.

Other major employers include the cranberry-growing cooperative Ocean Spray, worldwide retailer Wal-Mart and Washington Crab Products.

In 2007, Imperium Renewables of Seattle invested $40 million in the construction of the biodiesel plant at the Port of Grays Harbor. It is estimated the plant will produce as much as 100 million US gallons (380,000 m³) of biodiesel fuel made from plants and vegetable material annually.

In September 2010, the Weyerhaeuser Cosmopolis Pulp Mill was purchased by the Beverly Hills-based Gores Group and restarted as Cosmo Specialty Fibers, Inc. They started production of pulp on May 1, 2011.

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1890	1,638		—
1900	3,747		128.8%
1910	13,660		264.6%
1920	15,337		12.3%
1930	21,723		41.6%
1940	18,846		−13.2%
1950	19,653		4.3%
1960	18,741		−4.6%
1970	18,489		−1.3%
1980	18,739		1.4%
1990	16,565		−11.6%
2000	16,461		−0.6%
2010	16,896		2.6%
[citation needed]

As of the census of 2000, there were 16,461 people, 6,517 households, and 4,112 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,548.8 people per square mile (597.9/km²). There were 7,536 housing units at an average density of 709.1 per square mile (273.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 84.87% White, 0.47% African American, 3.70% Native American, 2.10% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 5.15% from other races, and 3.57% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.22% of the population. 16.4% were of German, 9.3% English, 9.3% American, 8.7% Irish and 5.9% Norwegian ancestry according to Census 2000. 90.2% spoke English and 7.7% Spanish as their first language.

There were 6,517 households out of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.9% were married couples living together, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.9% were non-families. 29.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.05.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.8% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 98.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,683, and the median income for a family was $37,966. Males had a median income of $32,710 versus $20,446 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,092. About 16.1% of families and 22.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.7% of those under age 18 and 9.6% of those ages 65 or over.

Sister cities

Aberdeen has two sister cities, according to Washington State Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen's website.[1]:

• Hakui, Ishikawa, Japan
• Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

Further reading

• Ed Van Syckle, "The River Pioneers," Pacific Search Press, 1982.
• Ed Van Syckle, "They Tried to Cut It All," Pacific Search Press, 1980.
• Murray Morgan, "The Last Wilderness," Viking Press, 1955.
• Anne Cotton, "The History of Aberdeen," Grays Harbor Regional Planning Commission, 1982.
• John C. Hughes & Ryan Teague Beckwith, "On the Harbor: From Black Friday to Nirvana," Stephens Press, LLC. 2005.
• Jeff Burlingame, "Kurt Cobain: 'Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind'" Enslow Publishers, 2006.
• Jeff Burlingame, "Moon Olympic Peninsula" Avalon Travel, 2012.
• John Workman, "The Third Man" chapter in "Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood" compiled by Bhob Stewart, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003.
• John Workman, "Betty Being Bad" Fantagraphics Books, 1990.

External links

• Official city website
• Aberdeen, Washington at the Open Directory Project