The town of Onalaska, WA was created as a company town for the Carlisle Lumber Company. Founded by William Carlisle, the town was centered around a large sawmill, and its development is tied to the logging history of Lewis County

Carlisle Lumber Co. & The Mill History

The town of Onalaska, Washington in its original glory

The Smokestack was built in the 1920s and is the last piece of Carlisle Lumber Company's mill standing today. In 1926, The Chehalis Bee-Nugget  claimed the mill was, "the world's largest inland sawmill" and one of Washington's most successful. By its peak in 1929, the mid-sized mill's inventory counted over 20 million board feet of lumber!

According to a 1936 Lewis County Advocate report, the development and progress of Onalaska grew steadily with Carlisle Lumber Company from 1914-1928, when it began to taper off due to The Great Depression. There were an estimated 425 logging employees, directly furnishing a livelihood to over 1,500 people.

In 1931 with lumber at its worst, the mill stayed in operation while hundreds of sawmills nation-wide closed. However, after worker strikes and employment difficulties from 1935-1938, Carlisle Lumber Company closed permanently in 1942 when the family went broke.

After the mill shut down, many houses were hauled to nearby farms where they still stand. Carlisle Lumber Company's buildings and mill equipment were sold, and the mill burnt to the ground when a worker's cutting torch caught a building on fire. Today, the Carlisle Lumber Co. Smokestack is listed on the Washington Historic Register.

Onalaska was named for a phrase in Thomas Campbell's poem, "The Pleasures of Hope." There are also Onalaska towns in Arkansas, Texas, and Wisconsin, all sharing history through the lumber industry.