Centralia (Washington)
Lewis County
53-11160
Centralia is a city in Lewis County in the U.S. state of Washington. In 2000, Centralia had 14,742 inhabitants.
History
In the days of the pioneers Centralia was a stopping point halfway between the Columbia and Seattle for the stagecoach. 1850 made JG Cochran, who had arrived from Missouri with a young African- American slave named George Washington, his claim to land at the site of the later city contends. Later, Cochran freed his slaves and took him as her son instead of. In 1852 he sold him his claim for $ 6,000. This built himself a house and founded a city. He offered the plots at the price of ten dollars, and a plot was free if the buyer undertook to build a house. The town of Centerville was officially certified on 3 February 1886.
1891 had the population that had grown to about 1,000 residents, find that certain of the location of post office was often confused with another location in the state of Washington, which is also called Centerville. That's why the name of Centerville Centralia has been changed. The city was the scene of the 1919 known as the Centralia Massacre become incident. The bank robber Roy Gardner was founded in 1915 Olympic Club Hotel detected in the center of the city and then arrested. In the 1940 census, Centralia had 7414 inhabitants.
Detlef Schrempf, who played for many years in the NBA professional basketball league, attended as an exchange student 1980-1981 the Centralia High School. Were born in Centralia telecommunications entrepreneur Craig McCaw, the players of the Toronto Blue Jays, Lyle Overbay, and the offensive lineman of the Washington Redskins Calvin Armstrong and the dancer Merce Cunningham.
Economy and Employment
For Centralia was a strong dependence of a mine for coal, which was the largest employer in the city. On 28 November 2006, the mine operator company TransAlta announced to close the mine and about 600 miners were laid off as a result. The nearby power plant was not affected, except for the fact that the coal is verfeuerte antransportiert now from Wyoming and Montana. However, more than 300 former employees find work in other jobs and fears that the closure of the local economy could completely shattered, have not been fulfilled.
Geography
Centralias geographical coordinates are 46 ° 43 ' N, 122 ° 58' W46.720555555556 - 122.96138888889. Centralia is located in the valley of the Chehalis River, approximately 8 km north of Chehalis.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.3 km ², 19.2 km ² wovom on land and 0.1 km ² omitted ( = 0.67 %) to water.
Demography
At the time of the census of 2000, there were 14,742 people Centralia. The population density was 768.1 people per km ². There were 6510 housing units at an average 339.2 per km ². The population consisted of Hoquiams 89.76 % White, 0.44 % African American, 1.25% Native American, 0.94% Asian, 0.30 % Pacific Islander, 4.94 % reported other races to belong and 2.38 % from two or more races. 10.22 % of the population to be Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Residents Centralias distributed to 5943 households out of which 29.4 % were living in children under 18 years. 41.7 % married couples living together, 13.0 % had a female householder with no husband present, and 40% were non-families. 32.7 % of households were made up of individuals and someone lived in 16.9 % of all households aged 65 years or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size is 3.02.
The city population was spread out with 25.2 % under the, 10.5% 18-24 year olds, 25.7 % 25 -44- year-old, 19.4% 45-64 year olds and 19.2 % under the age of 65 years or more. The average age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 89.8 males. In the over -18s accounted for 100 women 86.6 males.
The median household income in Hoquiam was 30.078 U.S. dollars and the median family income reached the level of 35 684 U.S. dollars. The average income of men was 31,595 U.S. dollars, compared to 22,076 U.S. dollars for women. The per capita income in Centralia was 16,305 U.S. dollars. 18 % of the population and 13.6 % of families had affected an income below the poverty line, including 24.4 % of minors and 10.8 % of those age 65 or over.
Rail connections
Amtrak, the national operator of passenger rail transport, also served Centralia. A shuttle in north-south direction Coast Starlight connects the village to Tacoma, Olympia and Seattle in the north, in the south he served, among other things Portland and continues on to California, with final stop in Los Angeles. On the same route, at the Amtrak Cascades trains traveling north to Vancouver in British Columbia and south to Eugene.
Media
In Centralia, the newspaper The Chronicle, whose distribution in the state of Washington in 2005 was to seventeenth place and covers a large part of Lewis County appears. Various aligned to the municipal level leaves are bi-weekly published as The Lewis County News and The East County Journal.
Several radio stations broadcast in and around Centralia her program:
- KELA - MW 1470 kHz
- KITI - MW 1420 kHz
- KCED - FM 91.3 MHz
- KMNT - FM 104.3 MHz
- KACS - FM 90.5 MHz
- KITI -FM - FM 95.1 MHz
Famous Daughters and Sons
- Merce Cunningham (1919-2009), dancer and choreographer
- Don Butterfield (1923-2006), jazz musician and music publisher
- Lyle Overbay ( born 1977 ), first baseman for the New York Yankees