Blood & Biohazard Cleanup Near Melbourne Montesano, WA

Montesano is a city in and the county seat of Grays Harbor County in southwest Washington, set on the north slope of the Chehalis River valley near the confluence of the Wynoochee River and the Chehalis River (ZIP code 98563).

The name began with the Scammon homestead: Isaiah and Lorinda Scammon filed a 640-acre Donation Land Claim on January 15, 1853, on the Chehalis River opposite the mouth of the Wynoochee, and their home — 'Scammon's Landing' — became an important stopping point for pioneers traveling the river.

Lorinda Scammon wanted the place called 'Mount Zion'; settler Samuel James instead suggested 'Montesano,' from the Spanish for 'mountain of health,' and his name stuck — a post office soon followed under the new name.

In 1860 the seat of what was then Chehalis County was moved to the Scammon place, and for 26 years county government effectively ran out of Lorinda Scammon's parlor before voters moved the seat to the platted town of Montesano in 1886.

The town itself was platted in 1870 — Samuel Henry Williams laid out part of Medcalf Prairie and surveyor Charles Newton Byles platted three blocks on the west side of Main Street — and Montesano was incorporated by the Washington Territorial Legislature on November 26, 1883.

The 2020 census counted 4,138 residents and 1,687 households in Montesano, spread across a notably large city area of about 10.5 square miles.

The city's landmark is the 1911 Grays Harbor County Courthouse, a three-story structure with a domed tower and interior murals of local history; local lore points to a dent in its front door said to have been made by a sheriff's bullet fired at a fleeing felon, and to the tongue-in-cheek motto coined for the city, 'come on vacation and leave on probation.'

Lake Sylvia State Park borders the town's northern edge, and Wynoochee Valley Road runs north from Montesano along the Wynoochee River as a gateway to the southern Olympic Mountains and the southern quarter of Olympic National Park.

Montesano has a very wet oceanic climate, averaging roughly 121 inches of precipitation a year.

Each December the city celebrates the Festival of Lights, a holiday weekend built around a Grand Parade, tours of decorated historic homes, and tours of the courthouse and its murals.