Ocosta School District

Ocosta School District No. 172 is a rural school district in Grays Harbor County, Washington, and neighboring Pacific County. The school district serves Westport, Cohassett Beach, Grayland, Markham, and Tokeland. Westport's marina is the largest marina on the outer coast of the United States Pacific Northwest. Westport was officially incorporated on June 26, 1914. Names for the area in the past include Peterson's Point, Chehalis City, and Fort Chehalis. The last name is for a U.S. Army fort established in 1860 before the town was founded, "ts-a-lis" is the Lower Chehalis word for Westport, meaning "place of sand." Early explorers pronounced the word "Chehalis" and gave this name to the river and the people living upriver who later became the Chehalis people or "People of the Sands." The area was used regularly during the summer by local Native American tribes (most likely the Shoalwater Bay Tribe, comprising Willapa Chinook and Lower Chehalis people).