You're In Logger Country Now!
A reconized landmark that has remained all these years in Onalaska Washington is the historic Smokestack standing watch over Carlisle Lake or known around town as "The Mill Pond"
[Pictured to the right]
Onalaska Book | 10 Years In The Making!
Onalaska: From Kansas to Washington...via Wisconsin, Arkansas, Minnesota and Texas 1886-1942, by Victor J. Kucera
Where to buy: Available at the Lewis County Historical Museum
Comming Soon: Alpha: The Classic Hills of the Alpha Prairie, Washington will detail the history of the pioneer community east of Onalaska. On a personal note, this is where my family roots settled in Washington Territory, before we became a state.
Where did the name Onalaska come from?
The name Onalaska comes from a mill in Onalaska Wisconsin, that was dismantled and rebuilt in a Carlisle-Pennell company town of Arkansas. the name, which evoked teh boom years of logging in the upper Midwest in the 1870's and 1880's was then used at company towns in Texas and in Lewis County.
William Carlisle, circa 1890
Onalaska was founded in 1914
The town was founded in 1914 by the Carlisle Lumber Co, which built the largest sawmill in the county. In 1942 the mill shut down and many of the workers moved away - the little row houses where the workers lived with their families were even sold to nearby farms.
Rememberances and Recipes from 1975. There are many pictures and written histories among the tasty recipes of Onalaska residents. 
History and Favorite Recipes of Onalaskans, 1997 edition. There are even more pictures, family stories and recipes galore in this cookbook!
Praise for Onalaska book:
“Thank you for all the work you did with this book - it has enriched my historical knowledge about the Carlisle Lumber Company and their genealogical past across the states, before they settled in our little town to stir up some sawdust where the grand smoke stack still stands today! “ -- Teresa Jordan