BALEVILLE

A rural farming and residential community located on Highway 105 and the north shore of the Willapa River across from South Bend.

Elijah Pernich, an early resident on the south bend of the Willapa River, bought land on "Mailboat Slough" in 1871. Several real estate schemes subdivided the land around Mailboat Slough for boomtowns (1889-1891 and 1910) but each of the schemes failed and most of the subdivisions became additions to South Bend. North Pacific City (1889) and Willapacific (1910) were two of the most highly promoted schemes. In both cases, the land was low and swampy, sales were slow, the promised railroad terminals were never built, and the towns were ultimately a bust.

Around 1891, Joseph Camenzind bought the Terminus Addition, which was on high ground, for his dairy herd and built a farmhouse and barn overlooking the Willapa River. Herbert Bale purchased land near the Camenzind farm in 1898.

Later, Herbert's father Lee Bale, brother George T. Bale, and son Harry Bale purchased acreage in the same vicinity. In 1910 the Milwaukee railroad promised Herbert Bale a depot near his farm and named it Baleville. The railroad did not lay track past Raymond but the community was thereafter known as Baleville.

The Bale and Camenzind farms and pastures still cover much of the landscape in Baleville, along with the South Bend sewage treatment plant and county airport facility.