Randle is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in extreme eastern Lewis County, Washington

Lewis County, Washington

Lewis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of 2010, the population was 75,455. The county seat is at Chehalis, and its largest city is Centralia....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Randle is located on U.S. Route 12 and is notable as the northeastern access point to the Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is south of Seattle, Washington and northeast of Portland, Oregon. Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a...

 Windy Ridge viewpoint, by way of forest service roads that cut through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Gifford Pinchot National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in southern Washington, USA. With an area of 1.37 million acres , it extends 116 km along the western slopes of Cascade Range from Mount Rainier National Park to the Columbia River. It includes the 110,000 acre Mount St....

. Randle is located right next to the Cowlitz River

Cowlitz River

The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens....

 and is about four miles north of the Cispus River

Cispus River

The Cispus River is approximately 53 miles in length and flows into the Cowlitz River at Lake Scanewa in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. Its tributaries drain most of south-central and southeastern Lewis County, extreme northeast Skamania County, and some of western Yakima County.Its main...

, a tributary of the Cowlitz. The rural area surrounding Randle is known locally as the "Big Bottom Valley," which is reflective of the fact that the valley floor in which the Cowlitz River winds westward through Randle is "big"--flat, fertile land that is at places more than 3 miles wide.

History

William Joerk explored in the area around 1882. Randle was first settled in 1886 by James L. Randle. The townsite was founded in 1902.

Geography

Randle is the center of the White Pass School District, which, in addition to Randle, covers the small towns of Glenoma

Glenoma, Washington

Glenoma is a small unincorporated town in Lewis County, Washington, United States. It derives its name from the words "glen" and "ome" ....

, Washington, and Packwood

Packwood, Washington

Packwood is an unincorporated community located in easternmost Lewis County, Washington.Packwood is located at the intersection of US Highway 12 and Gifford Pinchot National Forest Road 52 . It is located between Mount Rainier National Park to the north and Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument...

, Washington (its school district jurisdiction includes a vast rural expanse in extreme eastern Lewis County, terminating at the Cascade Mountains and the county border with Yakima County

Yakima County, Washington

Yakima County is the second largest county by area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is named after the Yakama tribe of Native Americans. In the 2010 census, its population was 243,231...

).

Politics

Randle is a heavily Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 area, like most of Lewis County. The results for the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election were as follows:

• George W. Bush
  George W. Bush
  George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
  
   (Republican
  Republican Party (United States)
  The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
  
  ) - 501 (63.34%)
• John F. Kerry (Democrat
  Democratic Party (United States)
  The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
  
  ) - 273 (34.51%)
• Ralph Nader
  Ralph Nader
  Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
  
   (Independent
  Independent (politician)
  In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
  
  ) - 9 (1.14%)
• Michael Peroutka
  Michael Peroutka
  Michael Anthony Peroutka is a Maryland lawyer, the founder of the Institute on the Constitution. He once held a position in the United States Department of Health and Human Services and was the Constitution Party candidate for president in 2004. He is co-host of The American View radio...
  
   (Constitution Party
  Constitution Party (United States)
  The Constitution Party is a paleoconservative political party in the United States. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party by Howard Philips in 1991. Phillips was the party's candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential elections...
  
  ) - 4 (0.51%)
• Other candidates - 4 (0.51%)

Note that this information is based on the Randle East and Randle West precincts only. As this is an unincorporated area, there are no defined bounds, and the precinct may be incongruous with the census boundaries.