Usk, in the south central part of Pend Oreille County, was named about 1890 by George H. Jones, founder of the town, in honor of the Usk River in Wales. Jones was obviously Welsh. Between Metaline Falls, just south of the Canadian Border, and Newport, in the south end of Pend Oreille County, there is just one place where the Pend Oreille River is bridged. That is here, at Usk.
One of two major employers in the area is the Vaagen Brothers Sawmill, employing about 100 people. The mill produces in the neighbourhood of 120,000 MBF of kiln dried, surfaced lumber per year, as well as framing lumber for the Australian construction market, squares and rail road ties. One may take a virtual tour of the mill at YouTube.
Just south of Usk is the Ponderay Newsprint plant. Founded in 1988, the plant employs 140 people. Though it is certainly not definite, it has recently been said that the plant may close or cut back operations in 2017 if new orders for their products are not forthcoming. This is just one of nineteen pulp & paper operations owned by Resolute Forest Products.
Other than the mills, there is not much at Usk, a Texaco station, a couple of eateries, a post office and a few houses is about it. It appears that many of the employees of the mills commute from surrounding towns.
The entry from the American Series book Washington: A guide to the Evergreen State follows.
Right here is
USK, 0.2 m. (2,051 alt., 100 pop.), with stores, a post office, and a service station, along the flats west of the river. Some logging is still being done in the vicinity, but the merchantable timber is almost exhausted. The history of the district around Usk is in a measure typical of the county. Isolated from population centers and off most rail lines, this region was not opened to logging operations until about the beginning of the century. Exploitation was rapid, boom times and depressions alternating with the fluctuation in the prices and the demand for lumber. Rapidly logging operations ate into the forests, leaving behind large areas of stump lands, which were then offered at about ten or twelve dollars an acre. Land-hungry men and women, seeing a possibility of realizing the American dream, bought, cleared, and attempted to farm this land, little realizing that it costs from one to three hundred dollars to clear a single acre. Even when cleared the land was often unproductive, because of its gravel or clay composition.
From Washington: A guide to the Evergreen State
