Rayville, Washington
Photo courtesy of Larry Roberts from a 1935 Metsker Map
of Grays Harbor County Township 18 N., Range 5 W.W.NM.

A few miles west of the town of McCleary, Washington where the railroad tracks cross Church Road was the small rural area of Rayville.  The area was named after Joseph Ray a local sawmill owner.  Rayville had a post office between 1905 and 1907.  A forest fire in 1902 burnt the town down and the small community of Whites several miles to the west.  Viola Ellen Cotton was born in Rayville in 1901, and she use to talk about growing up in Summit, Elma and McCleary before her passing. Her dad Anson Day Cotton worked at a local shingle mill owned and opperated by the Church family.  He was one of the best fiddle players in the area at the turn of the century playing everywhere. The only remains of the town are two house built in the 1920’s, the Garden City School District School House now used to store fire equipment and the foundation an old gas station and store in the grass of Sunrise Auto Body.

Old barn just north of Chruch Road on W Elma Hicklin Road.
Photo courtesy of Larry Roberts

Old homestead at the corner of Church Road and Elma McCleary Road.
Photo courtesy of Larry Roberts

Foundation of an old gas station and store in front of Sunrise Auto Body
on Elma McCleary Road south of Church Road.
Photo courtesy of Larry Roberts

Old Bates Mill North of the old Summit School
East of Summit Road on E Elma Hicklin Road
near where Anson Cotton built a home by Chruch's Mill in 1907.
Photo courtesy of Larry Roberts

Middle Branch of the Wildcat Creek that meanders between Rayville and Summit.
Photo courtesy of Larry Roberts