Aberdeen is a city in
Grays Harbor County, WashingtonGrays Harbor County is a county in the state of Washington, in the United States of America. As of 2010, the population was 72,797. The county seat is at Montesano, and its largest city is Aberdeen. The county is named after a large estuarine bay near its southwestern corner...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, founded by Samuel Benn in 1884. Aberdeen was incorporated on May 12, 1890. The city is the economic center of Grays Harbor County, bordering the cities of
HoquiamHoquiam is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington state, United States. The town borders the city of Aberdeen at Myrtle Street with Hoquiam to the west. The two cities share a common economic history in lumbering and exporting but Hoquiam has maintained its independent identity...
and
CosmopolisCosmopolis is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,649 at the 2010 census. The city is often referred to by locals by its unofficial motto: "Cosmopolis: City.....
. Aberdeen is called the "Gateway to the
Olympic PeninsulaThe Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...
", but it is more famous as being the hometown of
NirvanaNirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
members
Kurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
and
Krist NovoselicKrist Anthony Novoselic II is a Croatian-American rock musician, best known for being the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band...
as well as professional wrestler
Bryan DanielsonBryan Danielson is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he wrestles on its SmackDown brand as Daniel Bryan, and currently holds the SmackDown Money in the Bank briefcase, which enables him to have a World Heavyweight Championship match at any time of his choosing...
. The population was 16,896 at the 2010 census.
History
Aberdeen was named for a local salmon cannery, a
namesakeNamesake is a term used to characterize a person, place, thing, quality, action, state, or idea that has the same, or a similar, name to another....
of
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, because it is situated at the mouth of two rivers just like Aberdeen, Scotland. Although it became the largest and best known city in Grays Harbor, Aberdeen lagged behind neighbors
HoquiamHoquiam is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington state, United States. The town borders the city of Aberdeen at Myrtle Street with Hoquiam to the west. The two cities share a common economic history in lumbering and exporting but Hoquiam has maintained its independent identity...
and
CosmopolisCosmopolis is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,649 at the 2010 census. The city is often referred to by locals by its unofficial motto: "Cosmopolis: City.....
in the early years. When A.J. West built the town's first sawmill in 1894, the other two municipalities had been in business for several years. Aberdeen and its neighbors vied to be the terminus for Northern Pacific Railroad, but instead of ending at one of the established mill towns, the railroad skimmed through
CosmopolisCosmopolis is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,649 at the 2010 census. The city is often referred to by locals by its unofficial motto: "Cosmopolis: City.....
and headed west for Ocosta.
HoquiamHoquiam is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington state, United States. The town borders the city of Aberdeen at Myrtle Street with Hoquiam to the west. The two cities share a common economic history in lumbering and exporting but Hoquiam has maintained its independent identity...
and Aberdeen citizens banded together to build a spur; and in 1895, the line connected Northern Pacific tracks to Aberdeen.
By 1900, Aberdeen was considered one of the grittiest towns on the
West CoastWest Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, with many saloons,
whorehousesBrothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
, and gambling establishments populating the area. Aberdeen was nicknamed "The Hellhole of the Pacific", or "The Port of Missing Men", because of its high murder rate. One notable resident was
Billy GohlWilliam "Billy" Gohl was an American serial killer who, while working as a union official, would murder sailors passing through Aberdeen, Washington. He murdered for an unknown period of time and was a suspect in dozens of murders until his capture in 1910...
, known locally as Billy "Ghoul", who was rumored to have killed at least 140 men. (Gohl was convicted of 2 murders )
During the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Aberdeen was hit hard, reducing the number of major saw mills from 37 to 9. Mill owners hired Filipino and Jewish immigrants to keep wages low in order to stay in business. The timber industry continued to boom, but by the late 1970s most of the timber had been logged. Most of the mills were closing down by the 1970s and 1980s.
Aberdeen is also the home port of the tall ship
Lady WashingtonLady Washington is a ship name that is shared by at least 4 different small wooden merchant sailing vessels during two different time periods. They should not be confused with USS Lady Washington. The original sailed for about 10 years in the 18th century. A somewhat updated modern replica was...
, a reproduction of a smaller vessel used by the explorer Captain Robert Gray, featured in the
Pirates of the CaribbeanPirates of the Caribbean is a multi-billion dollar Walt Disney franchise encompassing a series of films, a theme park ride, and spinoff novels as well as numerous video games and other publications. The franchise originates with the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, which opened at Disneyland in...
film
The Curse of the Black PearlPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 adventure fantasy film based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney theme parks. It was directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
.
Film, television, and video game appearances
Recently,
Lady Washington has appeared in various films, portraying the HMS
Interceptor in the film
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black PearlPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 adventure fantasy film based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney theme parks. It was directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
and the
brigA brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
Enterprise, a namesake of the
Starship EnterpriseThe Enterprise or USS Enterprise is the name of several fictional starships, some of which are the focal point for various television series and films in the Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. It is considered a name of legacy in the fleet...
, on the
holodeckA holodeck, in the fictional Star Trek universe, is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases. The first use of a "holodeck" by that name in the Star Trek universe was in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint", although a conceptually...
in
Star Trek Generations. She also provided the basis for the RLS
Legacy in the
DisneyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
animated feature
Treasure PlanetTreasure Planet is a 2002 animated science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 27, 2002...
.
Geography
Aberdeen is located at the eastern end of Grays Harbor, near the mouth of the
Chehalis RiverThe Chehalis River may refer to:*Chehalis River , in the United States*Chehalis River , in Canada...
and southwest of the
Olympic MountainsThe Olympic Mountains is a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington in the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high - Mount Olympus is the highest at - but the western slopes of the Olympics rise directly out of the Pacific...
. Gray’s Harbor is notable as the northernmost
riaA ria is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Typically, rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they can be straight and without significant branches. This pattern is inherited from the...
on the Pacific Coast of North America, owing to the fact that it has remained free of glaciers throughout the Quaternary due to unfavourable topography and warm temperatures. It is thought that, during glacial periods of the Quaternary, the Chehalis River was a major refugium for aquatic species, as was the west coast from the Olympic Peninsula southward for plants that later formed the northern part of the Pacific temperate rainforest in formerly glaciated areas.
Climate
Aberdeen experiences a climate on the boundary between
MediterraneanA Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
(
KöppenThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Csb) and
oceanicAn oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
(Köppen
Cfb). Although the rainfall is extremely high between October and March, July and August still have a distinct excess of evaporation over rainfall. Temperatures are generally very mild due to the proximity of the warm Pacific Ocean and the
Kuroshio CurrentThe Kuroshio is a north-flowing ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean. It is similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic and is part of the North Pacific ocean gyre...
: snow is extremely rare although during December 1964 22.3 inch (0.56642 m) fell. Occasionally when winds come from the southeast very high temperatures can occur: as in August of 1981 when temperatures reached 105 °F (40.6 °C).
Education
The city's school district has two high schools:
J. M. Weatherwax High SchoolJ. M. Weatherwax High School, commonly Aberdeen High School, is a public high school located in Aberdeen, Washington. The high school mascot is the Bobcat. The school teaches grades from 9 to 12.- Demographics :...
, or Aberdeen High School as it is now called, and Harbor High School, an alternative high school with an enrollment exceeding 200 students. Aberdeen High has a long time school sports rivalry with nearby Hoquiam High School.
In 2002, the Weatherwax building of Aberdeen High School, built in 1909, burned to the ground. The new building was completed in 2007 and held its grand opening on August 25, 2007.
Aberdeen School District also consists of one junior high: Miller Junior High; 5 elementary schools: Central Park Elementary, McDermoth Elementary, Stevens Elementary, AJ West Elementary and Robert Gray Elementary; and 1 Roman Catholic parochial school: St. Mary's Catholic School.
Aberdeen is home to
Grays Harbor CollegeGrays Harbor College is a community college located in Aberdeen, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1930. The college sits on an campus in Aberdeen with "learning centers" in Raymond, Ilwaco, North Aberdeen and Southside Aberdeen...
, located in south Aberdeen, and is represented by the Charlie Choker mascot. The college emphasizes student opportunities, and has resources to help students transfer to a four year college to complete a degree.
Notable people
- Elton Bennett
Elton Bennett was a 20th Century American artist living and working in the Northwest.Born in 1910 in Cosmopolis, Washington, Bennett grew up and worked on the Washington coast, attended art school at the age of 36 and by 1956 became a full-time artist making serigraphs or silk screen prints...
, artist
- Guy Bingham
Guy Richard Bingham is a former American football center in the National Football League for the New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons, and the Washington Redskins. He played college football at the University of Montana and was drafted in the tenth round of the 1980 NFL Draft.Bingham attended and...
, football player
- Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown is a postmodernist American choreographer and dancer.Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington, and received a B.A. degree in dance from Mills College in 1958. Brown later received a D.F.A. from Bates College in 2000. For several summers she studied with Louis Horst at the American Dance...
, choreographer
- Mark Bruener
Mark Frederick Bruener is a former American football tight end of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers 27th overall in the 1995 NFL Draft. He played college football at Washington.Bruener played nine seasons with the Steelers followed by five with the Houston...
, football player
- Mike Melinkovich, football player
- Jeff Burlingame
Jeff Burlingame is an American author of several books, and the executive director and co-founder of the Kurt Cobain Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to memorializing the late Nirvana frontman in his hometown of Aberdeen.-Writing career:Jeff Burlingame began his professional...
, author
- Robert Cantwell
Robert Emmett Cantwell was a novelist and critic. His most notable work, The Land of Plenty, focuses on a lumber mill in a thinly disguised version of his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington....
, novelist |
Kurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
, musician
Dale CroverDale Crover is an American rock musician. Crover is best known as the drummer for Melvins and Men of Porn, Shrinebuilder, and for a brief time, drummer for Nirvana. He is also guitarist and vocalist for Altamont...
, musician
Bryan DanielsonBryan Danielson is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he wrestles on its SmackDown brand as Daniel Bryan, and currently holds the SmackDown Money in the Bank briefcase, which enables him to have a World Heavyweight Championship match at any time of his choosing...
, professional wrestler
Jack ElwayJohn Albert "Jack" Elway, Sr. was an American football player and head coach; he was the father of John Elway, a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback.-Early life:...
, football coach
John ElwayJohn Albert Elway, Jr. is a former American football quarterback and currently is the executive vice president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League . He played college football at Stanford and his entire professional career with the Denver Broncos...
, football player
Lee FriedlanderLee Friedlander is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 70s, working primarily with 35mm cameras and black and white film, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of the photographs including fragments of...
, photographer
Victor GrinichVictor Grinich was a pioneer in the semiconductor industry and a member of the Traitorous Eight that founded Silicon Valley....
, founder of Silicon ValleySilicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
Noname Jane, pornographic actress |
Robert MotherwellRobert Motherwell American painter, printmaker and editor. He was one of the youngest of the New York School , which also included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Philip Guston....
, painter
Peter NortonPeter Norton is an American programmer, software publisher, author, and philanthropist. He is best known for the computer programs and books that bear his name. Norton sold his PC-Software business to Symantec Corporation in 1990....
, software engineer
Krist NovoselicKrist Anthony Novoselic II is a Croatian-American rock musician, best known for being the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band...
, musician
Douglas Osheroff, Nobel-winning physicist
Patrick SimmonsPatrick Simmons is an American musician best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the rock band The Doobie Brothers. His fingerstyle guitar playing complements the strumming style of Tom Johnston. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he has been the band's only consistent member throughout their tenure...
, musician
Wesley Carl Uhlman, politician
Kurdt VanderhoofKurdt Vanderhoof, born in 1961, is an American guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist and founding member of the American heavy metal band Metal Church. He formed the band in 1980 after the alias given to his San Francisco apartment. Vanderhoof moved back to his hometown, Aberdeen, Washington....
, musician |
Rock musicians
Aberdeen is best known, however, for producing seminal
grungeGrunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
and
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands and musicians such as
NirvanaNirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
including
Kurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
and
Dale CroverDale Crover is an American rock musician. Crover is best known as the drummer for Melvins and Men of Porn, Shrinebuilder, and for a brief time, drummer for Nirvana. He is also guitarist and vocalist for Altamont...
of
The MelvinsThe Melvins are an American band that formed in 1983. They usually perform as a trio, but in recent years have performed as a four piece with two drummers. Since 1984, singer and guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover have been the band's constant members...
. Some of Cobain's lyrics, in songs such as "Something in the Way" and parts of the
BleachBleach is the debut album by the American rock band Nirvana, released in June 1989 through the independent record label Sub Pop. The main recording sessions took place at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, Washington between December 1988 and January 1989...
album, referred to locations within the town.
Krist NovoselicKrist Anthony Novoselic II is a Croatian-American rock musician, best known for being the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band...
, Nirvana's bassist, was born in
Compton, CaliforniaCompton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city to incorporate. The city is considered part of the South side by residents of Los...
, but moved to Aberdeen in his youth, where he met Cobain.
Patrick SimmonsPatrick Simmons is an American musician best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the rock band The Doobie Brothers. His fingerstyle guitar playing complements the strumming style of Tom Johnston. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he has been the band's only consistent member throughout their tenure...
of the Doobie Brothers and
Kurdt VanderhoofKurdt Vanderhoof, born in 1961, is an American guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist and founding member of the American heavy metal band Metal Church. He formed the band in 1980 after the alias given to his San Francisco apartment. Vanderhoof moved back to his hometown, Aberdeen, Washington....
of
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band
Metal ChurchMetal Church was an American heavy metal band. They originally formed in Seattle, Washington as Shrapnel in 1980. Their first album was released in 1984, and the band's most recent work, This Present Wasteland, was released in 2008....
are from Aberdeen, while Kirkland Arrington and Duke Erickson, also of
Metal ChurchMetal Church was an American heavy metal band. They originally formed in Seattle, Washington as Shrapnel in 1980. Their first album was released in 1984, and the band's most recent work, This Present Wasteland, was released in 2008....
, are from Hoquiam.
The band
Cage the ElephantCage the Elephant is an American rock band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, that formed in mid-2006. Since their formation, the band has gained a large following in the US as well as the UK and Canada for their sound and their high-energy live performances. The band released their self-titled debut...
has a song about Aberdeen called simply "Aberdeen", a tribute to the hometown of
Kurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
.
Industry
Despite attempts to diversify the local economy, Aberdeen and the rest of Grays Harbor remain dependent on the timber and fishing industries.
On December 19, 2005,
WeyerhaeuserWeyerhaeuser is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world. It is the world's largest private sector owner of softwood timberland; and the second largest owner of United States timberland, behind Plum Creek Timber...
closed the Aberdeen large-log sawmill, and would close the Cosmopolis pulp mill in early 2006. This resulted in the loss of at least 342 jobs. In January, 2009, Weyerhaeuser closed two additional plants in Aberdeen, resulting in another 221 lost jobs. In both cases many employees were not told by Weyerhaueser management, but learned about the closures from local radio stations who received a press release prior to a scheduled press conference.
Employers on the Harbor include locally owned Grays Harbor Paper, LLC (defunct as of May 26, 2011), The Westport Shipyard, Sierra Pacific Industries, The Simpson Door Company, Dead End Street, LLC, Hoquiam Plywood, the Stafford Creek Corrections Center, a state prison which opened in 2000, and Safe Harbor Technology, a technical support center.
Other major employers include the cranberry-growing cooperative
Ocean SprayOcean Spray is an agricultural cooperative of growers of cranberries and grapefruit headquartered in Lakeville/Middleborough, Massachusetts. It currently has over 600 member growers . The cooperative employs about 2,000 people, with sales of $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2005...
, worldwide retailer
Wal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
and Washington Crab Products.
In 2007,
Imperium RenewablesImperium Renewables, Inc. is a renewable energy company based in Seattle, Washington. It is the parent company for Seattle Biodiesel and Imperium Hawaii in Oahu.The company was founded in 2004 by John Plaza....
of Seattle invested $40 million in the construction of the
biodiesel plantGrays Harbor Biodiesel Plant is the largest biodiesel production facility in the United States, with an annual capacity of per year. The facility is sited on a parcel of land at the Port of Grays Harbor, Washington....
at the Port of Grays Harbor. It is estimated the plant will produce as much as 100 million USgals (378,541.2 m³) of biodiesel fuel made from plants and vegetable material annually.
In September 2010, the Weyerhaeuser Cosmopolis Pulp Mill was purchased by the Beverly Hills-based Gores Group and restarted as Cosmo Specialty Fibers, Inc. They started production of pulp on May 1, 2011.
Demographics
As of the
censusA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 16,461 people, 6,517 households, and 4,112 families residing in the city. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,548.8 people per square mile (597.9/km²). There were 7,536 housing units at an average density of 709.1 per square mile (273.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 84.87% White, 0.47% African American, 3.70% Native American, 2.10% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 5.15% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3.57% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.22% of the population. 16.4% were of
GermanThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, 9.3%
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, 9.3%
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 8.7%
IrishThe Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
and 5.9%
NorwegianNorwegians constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Brazil.-History:Towards the end of the 3rd...
ancestry according to Census 2000. 90.2% spoke
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and 7.7%
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
as their first language.
There were 6,517 households out of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.9% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.9% were non-families. 29.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.05.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.8% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 98.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,683, and the median income for a family was $37,966. Males had a median income of $32,710 versus $20,446 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $16,092. About 16.1% of families and 22.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.7% of those under age 18 and 9.6% of those ages 65 or over.
Sister cities
Aberdeen has two sister cities, according to Washington State Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen's website.
http://www.ltgov.wa.gov/International/Washington%20Organizations/Sisters/:
Hakui, Ishikawais a city located in Ishikawa, Japan.- General :As of June 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 23,682 with 8,368 households and a density of 288.95 persons per km². The total area is 81.96 km².The city was founded on July 1, 1958.- Name :...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
Kanazawa, Ishikawais the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.-Geography, climate, and population:Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan, bordered by the Japan Alps, Hakusan National Park and Noto Peninsula National Park. The city sits between the Sai and Asano rivers. Its total area is 467.77 km².Kanazawa's...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
Generally, however, it is grouped with Hoquiam and Cosmopolis, which are both nearby.
Further reading
- Ed Van Syckle, "The River Pioneers," Pacific Search Press, 1982.
- Ed Van Syckle, "They Tried to Cut It All," Pacific Search Press, 1980.
- Murray Morgan, "The Last Wilderness," Viking Press, 1955.
- Anne Cotton, "The History of Aberdeen," Grays Harbor Regional Planning Commission, 1982.
- John C. Hughes & Ryan Teague Beckwith, "On the Harbor: From Black Friday to Nirvana," Stephens Press, LLC. 2005.
- Jeff Burlingame
Jeff Burlingame is an American author of several books, and the executive director and co-founder of the Kurt Cobain Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to memorializing the late Nirvana frontman in his hometown of Aberdeen.-Writing career:Jeff Burlingame began his professional...
, "Kurt Cobain: 'Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind'" Enslow Publishers, 2006.
- Jeff Burlingame
Jeff Burlingame is an American author of several books, and the executive director and co-founder of the Kurt Cobain Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to memorializing the late Nirvana frontman in his hometown of Aberdeen.-Writing career:Jeff Burlingame began his professional...
, "Moon Olympic Peninsula" Avalon Travel, 2012.
External links