Grand Mound, WA

Small town with big attractions. Grand Mound traces its origins to the days when the Chehalis Tribe grazed animals on the prairie.

Grand Mound Community Guide

The tribe thrives here today, sharing ownership of Grand Mound’s biggest attraction, Great Wolf Lodge. With a dozen indoor waterslides and activities for all ages, shopping, and dining, this theme park is a premier destination for families.

While Grand Mound has gone through a few name changes — from Agayt (“long open space”) to nsq’wanxtn (“place to dry hides on a frame”) to Prairie de Butte once Hudson’s Bay Company began to settle in the area—the current name refers to the same wide, raised land that’s part of a system of regional hillocks. A few miles north are the famously mysterious Mima Mounds, fields of earthen piles that, after much studying, appear to be random acts of nature (unless aliens had something to do with it). Grand Mound today provides views of mountains, evergreen trees, and the Chehalis River, making a bucolic place to get away from it all or to start a journey to a nearby mountain or one of Thurston County’s bigger cities.

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