Matilda N. Jackson State Park Heritage Site is a lesser-known, yet lovely picnic spot near Chehalis in southwest Washington. Featuring towering Douglas fir trees, a wooded trail, and a Civilian Conservation Corps picnic shelter, this park is a peaceful place to stop for lunch off Jackson Highway. It’s named for a pioneer woman who came west on the Oregon Trail, and is one of the only Washington State Parks named after a woman. After losing her first husband on their westward journey, Matilda married John R. Jackson and helped establish the prominent homestead and early civic hub where Jackson House State Park Heritage Site stands, only a minute down the road from the park that bears Matilda’s name. Matilda’s daughter, Louisa Audre Ware, donated the land to Washington State Parks in 1917 and requested it be named in her mother’s honor.
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