- Kelso
-
/kel"soh/, n.a town in SW Washington. 11,129.
* * *
small burgh (town) and agricultural market centre, Scottish Borders council area, historic county of Roxburghshire, southeastern Scotland. It lies on the River Tweed at the head of the Merse, a rich agricultural plain south of the Lammermuir Hills. The town has an important market and is noted for its yearly horse and ram sales.Like many of its neighbours, medieval Kelso suffered from border warfare with the English. The abbey was founded by King David I of Scotland (reigned 1124–53). Completed in the mid-13th century, it became one of the most powerful in Scotland, but it suffered damage in English raids and was reduced to ruins in 1545. The transept functioned as the parish church until 1771, and one vault was used as the town jail. The abbey was presented to the nation in 1919 by the duke of Roxburgh, and restoration was undertaken.Medieval Kelso was overshadowed by the nearby castle and flourishing royal burgh of Roxburgh (Roxburghshire), a favourite royal residence and prosperous town. After Roxburgh Castle's final destruction in 1460, the Scottish kings abandoned Roxburgh in favour of the rising burgh of Kelso, which had its royal status confirmed in 1634. After the erection of a bridge over the River Tweed in 1754, Kelso became a stop on the important London-to-Edinburgh coach route. John Rennie's new five-arched bridge over the Tweed in 1803 was his model for the famous London Bridge (1811). Pop. (2001) 5,116.city, seat (1932) of Cowlitz county, southwestern Washington, U.S., on the Cowlitz River, immediately northeast of Longview. Built on the site of the Cowlitz Indian village of Tiahanakshih, the area that became Kelso was settled in 1847 by Peter Crawford, a Scottish surveyor who laid out the town site in 1884 and named it for his hometown in Scotland. The city's economy is based chiefly on lumbering, fishing, dairying, and fruit growing. The Cowlitz County Historical Museum (1949) is located there. Seaquest State Park and Silver Lake (noted for fishing) are nearby. A riverfront section of the city, including more than 130 homes, was destroyed by a slow-moving mudslide in 1998 and 1999. Inc. town, 1889; city, 1908. Pop. (1990) 11,820; (2000) 11,895.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
