Randle is a small town in eastern

Lewis County, Washington Lewis County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 82,149. The county seat is Chehalis, and its largest city is Centralia. Lewis County comprises the Centralia, WA Micropolitan Statisti ...

, United States. Randle is located on

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 The highway has mostly been superseded by Interstate 90 (I-90) an ...

and is notable as the northeastern access point to the

Mount St. Helens Mount St. Helens (known as Lawetlat'la to the indigenous Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat) is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United St ...

Windy Ridge viewpoint, by way of forest service roads that cut through the

Gifford Pinchot National Forest Gifford Pinchot National Forest is a National Forest located in southern Washington, managed by the United States Forest Service. With an area of 1.32 million acres (5300 km2), it extends 116 km along the western slopes of Cascade Ran ...

. Randle is located right next to the

Cowlitz River The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens. The Cowlitz has a ...

and is about north of the

Cispus River The Cispus River is about long and flows into the Cowlitz River at Lake Scanewa in the Cascade Range of Washington. Its tributaries drain most of south-central and southeastern Lewis County, extreme northeast Skamania County, and some of wester ...

, a tributary of the Cowlitz. The rural area surrounding Randle is known locally as the "Big Bottom Valley," which is reflective of the fact that the valley floor in which the Cowlitz River winds westward through Randle is "big"—flat, fertile land that is, in places, more than wide.

History

William Joerk explored in the area around 1882. Randle was first settled in 1886 by James L. Randle. The townsite was founded in 1902. The White Pass High School was built in 1951. In 2011, it was demolished and built into a new school.

Geography

Randle is the center of the White Pass School District, which, in addition to Randle, covers the small towns of Glenoma, Washington, and Packwood, Washington (its school district jurisdiction includes a vast rural expanse in extreme eastern Lewis County, terminating at the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

and the county border with

Yakima County Yakima County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 256,728. The county seat and largest city is Yakima. The county was formed out of Ferguson County in January 1865 and is named for the Yakam ...

). The community of Randle is located within Census Tract 9719 of Lewis County.

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Randle has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Economy

In 2019,

Crystal Geyser Water Company Crystal Geyser Water Company, or just Crystal Geyser, is a private company founded in 1977 in Calistoga, California. They produce bottled sparkling water based on mineral water and spring water sources at their original facility in Calistoga. ...

purchased property in Randle and proposed the construction of a water bottling plant. The proposal drew extensive opposition from local residents who were concerned about damage to the Cowlitz River watershed and industrialization of the area. In 2022, Lewis County PUD authorized a deal to acquire the property from Crystal Geyser to expand the adjacent campground and wilderness areas along the Cowlitz River.

Politics

Randle is a heavily

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

area, like most of Lewis County. The combined results for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election for the Randle East and Randle West voting districts were as follows: *

Donald J. Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

(

) - 689 (67.95%) * Joe Biden (

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

) - 311 (30.67%) *

Jo Jorgensen Jo Jorgensen (born May 1, 1957) is an American libertarian political activist and academic. Jorgensen was the Libertarian Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2020 election, in which she finished third in the popular vot ...

(

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

) - 10 (0.99%) *

Howie Hawkins } Howard Gresham Hawkins III (born December 8, 1952) is an American trade unionist, environmental activist, and perennial candidate from New York. A co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, Hawkins was the party's presidential nominee ...

(

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

) - 4 (0.40%) Note that this information is based on the Randle East and Randle West precincts only. As this 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 ...

, there are no defined bounds, and the precinct may be incongruous with the census boundaries.

References

{{authority control Populated places in Lewis County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Lewis County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state)