Grays Harbor
Grays Harbor is an estuarine bay located north of the mouth of the Columbia River, on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state, in the United States of America. It is a ria, which formed at the end of the last ice age, when sea levels flooded the Chehalis River. The bay is long and wide. The Chehalis River flows into its eastern end, where the city of Aberdeen stands at that river's mouth, on its north bank, with the somewhat smaller city of Hoquiam immediately to its northwest, along the bayshore. Besides the Chehalis, many lesser rivers and streams flow into Grays Harbor, such as Hoquiam River and Humptulips River. A pair of low peninsulas separate it from the Pacific Ocean, except for an opening about two miles (3 km) in width. The northern peninsula, which is largely covered by the community of Ocean Shores, ends in Point Brown. Facing that across the bay-mouth is Point Chehalis, at the end of the southern peninsula upon which stands the town of Westport.

Grays Harbor is named after Captain Robert Gray who discovered and entered it on May 7, 1792 in the course of his fur-trading voyages along the north Pacific coast of North America. Gray named the bay Bullfinch Harbor, but it was afterward named Gray's Harbor by Captain George Vancouver, whose contemporaneous explorations of the region—the ships of the two captains had met at sea, only days earlier—were well publicised at the time, while Gray's voyages were not. Gray's Harbor was the name that stuck (the apostrophe was omitted under US Board on Geographic Names guidelines). A few days later, on May 11 Gray found a navigable channel into the estuary of the Columbia River, and sailed into it, the first white man known to have done so.

Settlement of the area began in the early 1870s and was largely dependent on the lumber industry. As the forests of the eastern United States depleted, many loggers from the East and the Midwest migrated to the Grays Harbor area, as well as many Scandinavians and Finns from Europe.

Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge is located on of intertidal mudflats, salt marsh, and uplands around Hoquiam.

The "Daily Washingtonian" was a daily newspaper in Grays Harbor founded by Otis M. Moore.
Q47053
estuarine
Concept
Q2251
Columbia River
LOC
Q98
Pacific
LOC
Q1223
Washington
LOC
Q30
United States of America
LOC
Q554394
ria
LOC
Q259157
Chehalis River
LOC
Q259157
Chehalis River
LOC
Q233808
Aberdeen
LOC
Q990621
Hoquiam
LOC
Q5901384
Hoquiam River
LOC
Q1267685
Humptulips River
LOC
Q423697
Ocean Shores
LOC
Q1007612
Westport
LOC
Q777219
Robert Gray
PER
Q205485
George Vancouver
PER
Q1148422
US Board on Geographic Names
ORG
Q5149819
estuary of the Columbia River
LOC
Q3062433
sailed into it
UNK
Q1370714
lumber
Concept
Q4421
forest
Concept
Q1189650
eastern United States
LOC
Q845249
loggers
Concept
Q186545
Midwest
LOC
Q21195
Scandinavia
LOC
Q33
Finns
LOC
Q46
Europe
LOC
Q5598361
Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge
LOC
Q1544076
Grays Harbor
LOC
Q1544076
Grays Harbor
LOC
Q1544076
Grays Harbor
LOC
Q1544076
Grays Harbor
LOC
Q1544076
Grays Harbor
LOC
1792-05-07T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
May 7, 1792
DATE
1870-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1870
DATE
+3^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
3
NUMBER
+11^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
11
NUMBER
instance of
country
inflows
inflows
inflows
mouth of the watercourse
located in the administrative territorial entity
country
located in or next to body of water
located in or next to body of water
country
located in or next to body of water
mouth of the watercourse
continent