Porter is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) in

Grays Harbor County Grays Harbor County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 75,636. Its county seat is Montesano, and its largest city is Aberdeen. Grays Harbor County is included in the Aberdeen Micropolitan ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, United States. The population was 204 at the 2020 census, slightly down from 207 at the 2010 census. Prior to 2010 it was part of the Malone-Porter CDP;

Malone Malone is an Irish surname. From the Irish "''Mael Eóin''", the name means a servant or a disciple of Saint John. People * Gilla Críst Ua Máel Eóin (died 1127), historian and Abbot of Clonmacnoise, Ó Maoil Eoin * Adrian Malone (1937–2 ...

and Porter are now separate CDPs. They are located just off

U.S. Route 12 U.S. Route 12 (US 12) is an east–west United States Numbered Highways, United States highway, running from Aberdeen, Washington, to Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, for almost . The highway has mostly been superseded by Interstate 90 (I-90) an ...

, southeast of Elma and northwest of Oakville, and along a shortline that is part of the

Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad The Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad operates over 150 miles of track serving the U.S. State of Washington, and is headquartered in Centralia, Washington where interchanges with the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad are made. History ...

History

Porter was named after Fairchild Porter, who settled in the area around 1860.The Sharon

Grange Grange may refer to: Buildings * Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906 * Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682 * Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery Geography Australia * Grange, South Austral ...

, located in Oakville, began in the Porter community as the Porter Grange No. 800 in 1923. Much of Porter was destroyed by fire on January 31, 1924. Porter Saloon was re-built later that same year. When it re-opened in 1933 following the repeal of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

, it was one of the first establishments to receive a liquor license in the state of Washington.

Geography

Porter is located in southeastern Grays Harbor County, east of the Chehalis River valley near the mouth of Porter Creek. The CDP extends northeast up the Porter Creek valley and east to the first ridgecrest of the local Black Hills. It is bordered to the northwest by the

CDP and to the west by

, which leads west to

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and southeast to Grand Mound and

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the Porter CDP has a total area of , all of it land.

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Grays Harbor County, Washington Census-designated places in Washington (state)