The city that was supposed to be Aberdeen
In March 1890 the Northern Pacific Railway picked Ocosta, on the south shore of Grays Harbor, as its terminus. A land boom followed immediately. When the lots went on sale, buyers spent more than ninety thousand dollars in a single day — on a town that at that point consisted of ten houses and nine real-estate offices. It came apart fast. The winter of 1892–93 buried the new tracks under landslides, and storms drove huge drift logs in on top of the damage. The 1893 recession dried up the money, the Northern Pacific went into receivership, and the harbor here turned out to be unsuitable anyway. The railroad cut a deal with Aberdeen instead, and Aberdeen became the city Ocosta was drawn up to be. The post office held on until 1943. The residents voted to disincorporate on 19 November 1932. What is left is a name on a school district, a road, a cemetery and a stretch of quiet shoreline — and one of the better what-if stories on the Washington coast.
More things to do in Westport & Grayland
Reichenberger Farm · Tokeland · Washaway Beach · Bottle Beach State Park · Fisherman's Boardwalk · Furford Cranberry Museum