The sprawling rural district north of Camas has at least six churches, several stores, two auto wrecking yards and the only airport east of 152nd Avenue.

But one can stand on the steps of the beautiful Fern Prairie Methodist Church, built 105 years ago, and gaze south for miles over the broad prairie without seeing any ferns.

It wasn't always that way.

"In the old days, the prairie between the airport and the Fern Prairie Grange Hall was covered with ferns, said Edward Webberley, one of a number of longtime residents who have lived there for more than a half century.

Fern Prairie once had its own post office, established May 13, 1878, five miles north of Camas. Because Camas did not exist 100 years ago, the mail was brought to Fern Prairie from Washougal and distributed by the first postmaster, Pinckney Blair.

The post office lasted only 16 years. Camas was founded in 1883 and in 1884 began to serve the Fern Prairie district.

There were several large farms in Fern Prairie long before the post office was created or the Methodist church built. Among the more porminent was the Van Vleet place, then known as The Oaks, which lay just north of the Fern Prairie Cemetary. The big oak trees are still there, but the property now is occupied by a mobile homes park.

Webberley, who moved to Fern Prairie from Ohio in 1911 with his family, said the area then was dotted with small farms. Hay, corn and potatoes were grown for selling to paper mill workers of Camas.

"It took a full half-day to hitch a team, drive to Camas, conduct your business and return," Webberley recalled. "Now I can drive there in five minutes."

With the exception of a couple large dairies, the farms have virtually disappeared. They have been replaced by dozens of single-family residences and mobile homes.

"There are ten houses now where there used to be one," Webberley observed. Webberley said he attended the Fern Prairie School, starting in 1911. The district merged with the Camas School District a few decades ago, and the school building is now part of a wrecking yard operation.

If there is a focal point for the community , it is probably the Fern Prairie Grange, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last January. Along with Grange events the hall is used for other community activities, including an annual fair.

Missing from the Fern Prairie scene is a long flume that once ran from Jones Creek, some eight miles north of Camas, diagnolly across Fern Prairie. This spectacular flume carried logs and lumber from the Spears Logging Co. camp on the flanks of Larch Mountain south to the Camas paper mill.

This flume skirted the edge of the property now owned by Webberly, and continued south through the center of Camas.