Centralia

Centralia is on Farm Road 357 fifteen miles northeast of Groveton in northeastern Trinity County. The area was settled around the time of the Civil War. In 1873 a public square was laid off at the townsite on the Ainsworth survey, and various businesses were begun. The community was named Centralia for its location between Nogalus Prairie and Apple Springs. A post office was established there in 1874, and by 1885 the community had a reported population of 150 and several steam sawmills and gristmills, two blacksmiths, two general stores, a district school, and a saloon. Centralia's population reached 300 by 1914, but the town began to decline after World War I. In the mid-1930s only a store, a chair factory, and seventy-five residents remained there. By the early 1970s the community's remaining businesses had closed. In 1990 Centralia was a dispersed community with twenty-six residents. In 2000 the population was fifty-three.