The Willapa River is a river on the Pacific coast of southwestern Washington in the United States , approximately 20 miles (32 km) long. It drains an area of low hills and a coastal plain into Willapa Bay , a large estuary north of the mouth of the Columbia River .
5-515: The river rises in the Willapa Hills in southeastern Pacific County , approximately 25 miles (40 km) west of Chehalis . It flows northwest in a winding course past the small communities of Willapa and Raymond . It enters the northwest end of Willapa Bay at South Bend . The name is that of the Willapa people , an Athapaskan-speaking people, now extinct, who occupied the valley of
10-948: A physiographical province, the Willapa Hills are bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Columbia River to the south, the Olympic Mountains to the north, and the Cascade Range to the east. Some definitions place the Puget Lowland physiographic province east of the Willapa Hills. Included within the province are the Black Hills , the Doty Hills , and a number of broad river valleys, some of which open up into broad estuaries on
15-594: The Columbia River, as the Oregon Coast Range . The highest point is 3,087-foot (941 m) Boistfort Peak . The Willapa Hills are the lowest uplands in the entire Pacific Coast Range system. Almost all of the land is privately held, and has been repeatedly logged. Only a few long corners remain with virgin forest. Alders that are less than twenty years old are typically harvested for pulp mills . The Willapa Hills receive abundant rainfall and
20-719: The Pacific such as Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay . Other definitions do not include the Black Hills. The USGS GNIS defines the Willapa Hills as bounded by the Columbia River to the south and the Chehalis River to the north, without giving specific east and west bounds. The Willapa Hills are one of the Pacific Coast Ranges , which continue north as the Olympic Mountains and south, across
25-540: The river and also the prairies between the headwaters of the Chehalis and Cowlitz Rivers . This Pacific County, Washington state location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in the state of Washington is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Willapa Hills The Willapa Hills is a geologic , physiographic , and geographic region in southwest Washington. When described as
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