The town's namesake, a 150-foot-high rock, was a landmark for Cowlitz Indians and Hudson's Bay Co. traders in the early 1800s. Castle Rock prospered as a Cowlitz River steamboat port and trading center for valley farms. A local sawmill was the first to produce cedar shingles, using the Western red cedar, which grows in abundance in the region.
Castle Rock marks the beginning of the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, a scenic route that leads past the area affected by the eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980.
There is also a Castle Rock, Colorado.
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