Onalaska is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Lewis County, Washington, United States. Onalaska is located along Washington State Route 508. Onalaska has a publish office past ZIP code 98570.

Onalaska was built re the inland mill customary by the Carlisle Lumber Company in 1909. The smokestack close Carlisle Lake is the last relish of one of the most flourishing mid-sized sawmills in Washington State. At its pinnacle in 1929, company inventory numbered beyond 20 million board feet of lumber — enough to stretch anything the pretension to the Panama Canal.

The mill employed a sizeable number of Japanese and Japanese Americans. They lived north of today’s State Route 508 and east of Carlisle Avenue. The streets, which ran parallel to Carlisle Avenue were called Oriental Avenue, Nippon Avenue and Tokyo Avenue.

According to “Onalaska”, a records of the Carlisle Lumber Company by Vic Kucera the 1940 census showed 62 people of Japanese descent vibrant in Lewis County. Because of their experience in the mill, the local Japanese-Americans were sent to directly to Tulelake camp in California to back with its construction, Kucera writes. The Army needed their incite to finish the camp where they would spend the war.

The Lewis County Museum in Chehalis has an exhibit worship the Japanese and Japanese American internees.