BAY CENTER

A Willapa Bay/ Palix River fishing village near Highway 101.

Bay Center is on a peninsula (the tip is called Goose Point), which extends into the center of Willapa Bay. The point was the site of an Indian encampment and trading ground before and after the arrival of white settlers. Bay Indians called the river and camp Palix (also Palux, Copalux), meaning "slough covered with trees."

Joel Brown, who took a Donation Land Claim in the area now known as Rhodesia Beach (named for the Rhodes family) in 1853, was the first white settler on the Peninsula. He dreamed of founding a town on the point called Brownsville but died in 1854 on his way to Olympia to serve in the Territorial Legislature.

Dr. James R. Johnson and family filed a Donation Land Claim for Goose Point in 1855. For several years Johnson was the only doctor of medicine on the bay and maintained his practice at Bruceport.

By 1873 the beachfront on the point was crowded with homes occupied by farmers and oystermen. They called their settlement "Palix." In 1875 residents decided they needed a post office (Oysterville, across the bay, was the nearest) and held a contest to name the settlement. Mrs. Leonard (Mattie Goodpasture) Rhoades suggested the name "Bay Centre" (her spelling) because the community is located near the geographic center of Willapa Bay.

A post office was established on May 16, 1876. The spelling of the town name changed to "Bay Center" in 1877.

Around the turn-of-the-century there were so many churches on the point residents referred to the town as either "New Jerusalem" or "Saints' Rest."

Today, the community is home to several oyster seed hatcheries and a small fleet of boats.