Trees, rhododendrons and blackberries segregate most of the sites. Our facilities are not the parking lot style campground. Far from the urban hustle, our campground in the Willapa Hills borders the Little North River on U.S. Highway 101 between Aberdeen and Raymond, Washington.
In the picnic shelter we have hosted weddings, bachelor parties, family reunions and memorials.
Favorite local pasttimes include hunting, fishing, mushroom gathering and berry picking.
Artic was named in 1887 when Mrs. Arta Saunders applied for a post office permit with the United States Postal Service. Some of the story is probably lost in the mists of time, but it seems clear that she wanted to name her town “Arta.” There is little reason to call it Arctic because our climate is relatively mild, with only occasional winter snowfall or frosty days.
According to the book Washington Place Names she, or her husband, filled out the government form in cursive and failed to close up the small “a” in “Arta,” making it look like “Artic” to the postal officials in Washington DC.
Over the years attempts have been made to “correct” the mistake and change the spelling to “Arctic”, but the original error lingers on.