Longview
Across from the hotel, at 18th Avenue and Olympia Way, is a memorial to a group of settlers who met here in 1852 to petition the U.S. Congress to create a territory north of the Columbia River separate from Oregon. Members of the “Monticello Convention” saw their wish granted the following year with the creation of the Washington Territory. Another historic site is south of town at the mouth of the Cowlitz River; Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery camped there in 1805.
Just north of R.A. Long Park, spanning Olympia Way at Civic Center, is Nutty Narrows, said to be the world's first bridge for squirrels. A local resident built the bridge in 1963 to provide the critters with safe passage over the busy thoroughfare. Longview has become something of a “squirrel bridge capital.” Since 2011 four more bridges have been built, and another is in the works.