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History · Willapa

16% of Willapa’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1955 on.

0on the National Register
16%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Willapa’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Willapa are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Willapa.Old housesHalf of Willapa’s homes were built before 1956.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Willapa’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Willapa’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Woodwards Landing
1870–1884
Willipa
1884–1954
18701950today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Willapa came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Willapa.

Read it all →

The town is actually one of the oldest European-founded towns in the area, being founded back in 1852. The first name was "Woodard’s Landing", named after Samuel Lowell Woodard, the first settler within the town. The current name was only adopted after the establishment of the first postal office in the area.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Willapa, 1870 to 1955

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1870Post officeThe Woodwards Landing post office opens
  3. 1884Post officeThe Woodwards Landing post office closes
  4. 1884Post officeThe Willipa post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1954Post officeThe Willipa post office closes
  7. 1955On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Willapa on the map, 1955 to 1986

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Willapa. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Willapa on the 1955 USGS mapWillapa on the 1986 USGS map1955Raymond sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Willapa.

Famous people

Famous people close to Willapa

Nobody well known was born in Willapa itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Kurt CobainAmerican rock musician, singer and songwriter · b. 1967
Douglas OsheroffAmerican physicist · b. 1945
G
George H. HitchingsNobel Prize-winning American physician · b. 1905
Bryan DanielsonAmerican professional wrestler · b. 1981
R
Robert MotherwellAmerican abstract expressionist painter, printm… · b. 1915
H
Howard P. RobertsonAmerican mathematician and physicist · b. 1903

Questions about Willapa’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.