Cathlamet is a town in Wahkiakum County, Washington, set along the lower Columbia River on the Ocean Beach Highway (State Route 4). It is the county seat and the only incorporated town in Wahkiakum County, one of Washington's least populous counties, and it anchors the civic and commercial life of a region defined by river channels, timberlands, and small communities. The name reaches deep into local history: Wahkiakum derives from a Kathlamet Indian village on the north bank of the Columbia near the present town, and translates to "tall timber" in the Chinook language, a nod to the forested riverbanks that shaped the area's economy. The Columbia River has long been the town's lifeline. Cathlamet grew as a steamboat landing and river settlement, and in 1925 Walter Coates began a car-ferry service that linked Cathlamet to Puget Island and across to Westport, Oregon. That crossing survives today as the Wahkiakum County ferry, the last regularly scheduled car ferry on the lower Columbia River between the two states, departing from Puget Island at the terminus of State Route 409. The ferry remains both a practical link and a point of local pride, a working piece of the region's maritime past. With about 560 residents, Cathlamet is a small town in the fullest sense. The Wahkiakum School District runs a single K-12 pathway through Julius A. Wendt Elementary, John C. Thomas Middle School, and Wahkiakum High School, and the town offers a community pool, parks, and a golf course. Its setting between the river and the forested Willapa Hills, its historic ferry, and its role as county seat give Cathlamet a sense of place far larger than its population, appealing to those drawn to a genuinely rural, riverfront Pacific Northwest life.