McCleary is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, situated along the U.S. 12 corridor roughly midway between the state capital of Olympia and the Pacific coast. With a population of nearly 2,000, it is one of the smaller incorporated cities in the county, set in a landscape of rolling hills and managed forestland. The city began as a logging camp in late 1898 and grew into a genuine timber town under Henry McCleary, a prominent Washington lumber baron for whom the city is named. Henry McCleary built his first mill in the area in 1906 and, in 1910, cleared land for a new sash-and-door factory that became the community's industrial anchor for decades. He is credited with inventing the veneer door, and the plant at its peak set production records in the early 1920s. The town was formally incorporated on January 6, 1943. McCleary's defining modern institution is the Bear Festival, a community celebration launched in 1959 and held each year on the second weekend of July at Beerbower Park. The festival features a grand parade, a softball tournament, a car show, a soapbox derby, and the event's signature Bear Festival stew, drawing visitors from across the region and cementing the city's reputation as a close-knit, family-oriented town. Education is centered on the local McCleary School District, which operates a single PK-8 school serving about 350 students, with most high school students attending Elma High School nearby. Transportation runs along U.S. 12, which connects the city to Olympia in about 25 minutes and, by extension, to Interstate 5, Tacoma, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Grays Harbor Transit also provides bus service between the two communities, giving residents a small-town setting with a practical commute to the South Sound's employment centers.