The Fine Lumber Town Of Hoquiam Thinks About The Past And Becomes A Player

Small towns sort of have minds of their own. The way a town grows and develops through the years is certainly the result of many conscious actions by its members, but also the result of many, many small decisions made everyday by its population. The town may well end up far from where it started, and hopefully it is always becoming what its community wants. But sometimes, real decisions must be made, and that’s never easy.

The town of Hoquiam, Washington, to take one entirely random example, is in the midst of making some definitive decisions about its future. Originally a logging and lumber town, the people of Hoquiam display their pride at their town’s history with logging competitions and fall parades, and with an event that gets international attention, Loggers’ Playday. So but the town isn’t all lumber and sawmills; so how to make the most of the city’s other attributes, particularly its natural ones?

Hoquiam’s waterfront is at the center of its ongoing discussion of how Hoquiam will grow in the coming years. The Hoquiam River flows through the city’s downtown, emptying into Grays Harbor, all in all a lovely natural feature and abundant with potential. A well-used waterway did good things for Baltimore, and practically put San Antonio on the tourist map. Is Hoquiam ready for waterfront dining and entertainment?

The waterfront has been mostly out of use since its big days in the 1980s, but now the new interest in developing the area means Hoquiam has some decisions to make about what kind of Hoquiam it wants to become. Questions not easily answered, especially when tax money is involved.

Hoquiam sits, as has been said, at the mouth of the river that bears its name. To its east is the larger town of Aberdeen. It won’t surprise you to learn that these two towns have carried on a bit of a rivalry, in high school sports and otherwise, for years. These proposed developments will affect Aberdeen as well as Hoquiam, and this relationship is important also to keep in mind. A fine waterfront could benefit even rivals, but again, only if done wisely.

It’s a matter of responsible decisions — balancing its connection to its past with its potential future identity, finding the right leaders to enact and carry out those decisions. For small towns, these kinds of development decisions are so important because so much of the community itself will be changed, both the identity and the infrastructure. But if you have the advantage of location, that’s a good start.

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