You can drive from Longview to Stella on Washington State Route 4 in a few minutes. This trip takes the slow way instead. It's a 15.8 km (9.8 mi) run on back roads through Coal Creek and Eufaula, up Fall Creek Road, and down Germany Creek to the Columbia River. It ends at the best-preserved building left from Stella's logging boom.

Route at a glance

   
Start Coal Creek Road, northwest of Longview, Cowlitz County
End Stella, at Stella Road and SR 4 (Ocean Beach Highway)
Direction Generally westbound, with a loop north up Fall Creek
Distance 15.8 km (9.8 mi)
Driving time About 38 minutes, not counting stops
Roads Coal Creek Rd, Harmony Dr, Stella Rd, Wohl Rd, Fall Creek Rd, Germany Creek Rd, SR 4
Leg Roads Distance Est. time
Coal Creek → Eufaula Coal Creek Rd → Harmony Dr → Stella Rd → Wohl Rd 4.3 km (2.7 mi) ~11 min
Eufaula → Fall Creek Rd junction Stella Rd, westbound 5.7 km (3.5 mi) ~14 min
Up Fall Creek Fall Creek Rd 2.6 km (1.6 mi) ~6 min
Across to Germany Creek Fall Creek Rd → Germany Creek Rd 3.0 km (1.9 mi) ~7 min
Into Stella Germany Creek Rd → SR 4 → Stella Rd 0.2 km (0.1 mi) <1 min

Distances and times are routing estimates from OpenStreetMap data. Your actual time will depend on stops, traffic, and conditions.

The drive

Coal Creek Road

The trip starts on Coal Creek Road, in one of several small unincorporated communities in the hills above SR 4, northwest of Longview. SR 4, also called the Ocean Beach Highway, runs about 62 miles along the north bank of the Columbia. Cowlitz County originally built the section between Stella and Kelso. This route stays off the highway until the last few hundred metres.

Up to Eufaula

From Coal Creek, Harmony Drive and a short stretch of Stella Road lead up onto Wohl Road and into Eufaula. Eufaula sits at about 120 m (394 ft), noticeably higher than Stella down by the river.

Today it's a quiet rural community, but the ridge was once working forest. A regional archive photograph is captioned "Rigging a spartree, Eufaula Company, approximately 1921." The Eufaula Company operated from about 1915 to about 1926. A spar tree was a tall tree that crews topped and rigged with cables and blocks, so logs could be hauled in to one landing. It was the backbone of high-lead logging in that era.

Stella Road westbound

The longest leg runs west along Stella Road, the back way into Stella. The town was named after Stella Packard, the daughter of a local merchant, according to Edmond Meany's 1923 Origin of Washington Geographic Names.

Fall Creek Road

At the foot of Fall Creek Road, the route turns north. The Stella-Wiest Cemetery is off this road. Its name links to one of Stella's early families: Ida Wiest married William H. Williamson Sr., who arrived in the area in 1879.

Fall Creek also feeds a small waterfall near the highway, known unofficially as Stella Falls or Fall Creek Falls. It drops over columnar basalt, part of the rock that frames the lower Columbia. The falls are not on this route, but they make an easy add-on near Stella.

Across to Germany Creek

The farthest point north is on upper Fall Creek Road. From there, the route crosses into the Germany Creek drainage and follows it back down toward the river.

Germany Creek, together with nearby Mill and Abernathy creeks, makes up one of the lower Columbia watersheds where agencies study salmon and steelhead habitat. The name also shows up in local history. The Stella Historical Society held its first event in July 1976 at the Bunker Hill Grange, which began around 1908 as the German Creek School.

Destination: Stella and the Stella Blacksmith Shop

Germany Creek runs into the Columbia at Stella. In the early 1900s Stella was a busy logging centre on the river. Fires and economic change later took most of the town, and the clearest survivor is the Stella Blacksmith Shop.

B.F. Brock, a prominent local lumberman, built the shop in 1907. It served the logging industry as well as the town's residents and merchants. It's a one-storey wood-frame building of about 36 × 26 ft (11 × 8 m). It has a false-front parapet on the east side and sliding double doors on overhead rollers. The shop's historic drill press still stands where it always did.

The building survived because local people saved it. Clifford and Pearl Burr and Dale Johnson, all descendants of early settlers, founded the Stella Historical Society in 1976. Esther Williamson donated four original town buildings to the Society. Two still stand: the blacksmith shop and the old Stella Post Office. The Society restored the shop between 1977 and 1984, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 1985.

Visiting tips

  • Museum hours: check the Stella Historical Society or its Facebook page before you go. Hours were not verified for this post.
  • Private land: most of this route passes homes and private property. Stay on public roads, and stop only in legal, safe pullouts.
  • SR 4: this is a state highway, so take care at the crossing and park only in designated spots.
  • Stella-Wiest Cemetery: listings mention a gate and a dirt access road. Confirm access before visiting, and be respectful.
  • Roads and conditions: check WSDOT travel alerts before you set out.

Sources