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HistoryMichael F. Luark homesteaded at what is now Lake Sylvia State Park in 1868. The family built a water-powered sawmill, the first in Grays Harbor County. In 1909, a dam was constructed at the end of Lake Sylvia to provide hydro-electric power and water to the city of Montesano. The Wilder family lived in the generator room for many years and Silas Wilder’s wife was the only woman known to operate a power plant in the United States during the 1920s. The powerhouse was dismantled in the early 1930s.
The area around Lake Sylvia State Park is rich with logging lore and history. Huge, old-growth stumps are everywhere in the park. There is a giant wooden ball carved from a single log by a local logging legend. Story has it the logger could stand atop the floating ball and "walk it" from one end of the lake to the other. Logging ceased in the 1930s and the City of Montesano donated the land around Lake Sylvia to the State Parks Commission for conservation in 1936. Additional lands were added by a trade in 1985.
Interpretive opportunitiesThere are currently no interpretive opportunities at this park.
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