A Twilight Travel Guide to Forks, Washington
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The town of Forks was created in the late 1860s, when the local Native Americans started burning the area to encourage the growth of wild berries to attract deer and elk.
People first settled in forks in the 1870s, and the town was named Fords Prairie. But there was already a town with that name, so they renamed the city Forks, due to its location at the forks of the Calawah, Soleduck and Bogachiel rivers.
The first industries of Forks was agriculture and dairy products. Forks grew during the gold rush and there was soon a demand for forest products enabling Forks to become a prosperous logging town. For more information, you can visit the Forks Timber Museum, which is on the South side of town, right next to the Forks Visitor Center. Forks was officially incorporated as a town on August 28, 1945.
Forks is historically the “rainiest place in the United States,” which is why it was chosen as the setting for the Twilight book series. The average annual rainfall is 121 inches per year and the average snowfall is 11 inches per year. The average low temperature is 49 degrees in summer and 33 degrees in winter. The average high temperature is 72 degrees in summer and 45 degrees in winter.
