Salkum, Washington

The area was a village of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.^[2] Salkum is a Cowlitz Indian word meaning "boiling water" or "boiling up", a reference to a nearby series of waterfalls on Mill Creek. The waterway was once known as Salkum Creek and the community took its name from the prior moniker.^[2][3][4][5]

The first non-Native settlers built a grist mill at Mill Creek in 1881, beginning the town's future.^[6] The community, lacking immediate access to local roads, was served by a steamer that traveled the Cowlitz River, bringing supplies to residents and in return, shipping grain and livestock to regional markets. A dock once existed on Mill Creek, the original location of the Salkum settlement.^[5] A post office was established in 1882 and moved in 1890, shifting the town's center two miles north.^[7] Salkum became a timber community, producing lumber until the 1930s when the sawmills shut down.^[2]

Salkum opened its first library, as part of the Timberland Regional Library system, in 1986 as a test to expand library services to rural communities. Proving successful, the community refurbished an unoccupied gas station and the library was moved into the larger building in 1993.^[8][9][10]