"This pioneer town founded in 1853 on this donation claim of Louis H. Davis, once was the county seat and an important stop-off for travelers between the Columbia River and Puget Sound. The sturdy little church, built in 1858 with hand-forged nails and lumber sawed in a water-powered mill, doubled as a school - Claquato Academy. The bronze bell in the belfry came around Cape Horn from Boston 1857. In the 1870s, when the railroad by-passed Claquato, most of the town moved 3 miles east to Chehalis."
