The rumble of roller skates reverberated in the old building now housing Timmen's Landing cardroom and restaurant at La Center in earlier years.

"That was the thing to do in this town roller skate," said Mayor Jack Wells, one of the ex-skaters who also recalls fishing days in the wetlands below La Center.

"The water was black with carp then."

A few older residents can remember other picturesque scenes. They recall lumberjacks on the streets, and even steamboats unloading on the East Fork of the Lewis River.

In the past few years, La Center has been making even more history, as change comes faster and faster. The town is now widely known as the setting for five card rooms, the only such gambling houses in Clark County.

And residents talk of such developments as the elevator in the new Metroplex Communications Corp. building, probably the only elevator in northern Clark County. Or the new high school that opened in the fall of 1993, where students get a big boost in technology, with a ratio of about one computer per every three students.

Historian Carl Landerholm, a former La Center resident, said the town name is a corruption of "le centre" (the center), referring to the place where roads converged at the river landing.

John Timmen settled about 1860, and platted the community in the mid-1870s.

Roads were poor
Roads were primitive then, and steamboats on the river provided access.

The town started at the steamboat landing and extended up the hill. Some buildings were placed on stilts because of the steep hillside, said Jack Fillman, who presents slide shows on La Center history.

Timber helped support the town for a while. A 1907 business directory, when the town claimed 150 population, listed mills operated by Victor Martin and Thomas Wilson, also Columbia Mill and Tie Co., Highland Sawmill Co. and La Center Lumber Co.

At the time, the town had three general merchandise stores: Fanning and Brougher, Hobert and Kinder, and Meyers and Son. John Fleming managed a livery stable, and Mrs. Fleming operated a hotel. Two saloons, a blacksmith shop and feed mill were among other commercial activities in 1907.

La Center was incorporated in 1909, and the next year the population reached 288. By 1920, the census showed only 167 residents.

But the paving of the Pacific Highway through town helped keep the town alive. The bridge over the East Fork of the Lewis River, said to be the longest Pacific Highway bridge in Washington state, was dedicated in 1924.

Matt Woodward completed a hotel in 1924. He operated a cafe, confectionery, dance hall and pool hall in La Center in addition to the hotel. Out-of-town orchestras provided music at Saturday dances, and midnight suppers were a feature.

Woodward later operated an auto court in Woodland, and Mr. and Mrs. W.L. Ferguson took over the hotel in La Center. After World War II, the cafe was remodeled into living quarters, and the dance hall was converted to a roller rink.

Town bypassed
When Highway 99 was built, La Center was bypassed by the increasing north-south traffic. The old highway was renamed County Road 1; part of this route later was designated as Timmens Road, for the La Center founder.

One of the major post-war civic improvements was installation of a sewer system in 1968-69.

The town's experiment with cardrooms dates to early 1985 when the council approved a plan for Ed and Robin Runyon and Darrell Lee to open such a business. Later in 1985, the council agreed that the owners could open a second cardroom, in a former auto garage. Darrell and Vicki Lee bought out the Runyons' interests in the cardrooms in 1987.

The Lees now own three cardrooms, and two are operated by George Teeny.

Park planned
The Wheel Club was active for a long time in promoting La Center, especially with the annual Jamboree and Fair, but eventually faded out. A successor celebration, Our Days, sponsored by the Lions Club, also fell by the wayside. But a committee of volunteers is working on a Steamboat Days, to be staged in 1995.

The Wheel Club donated its property to the city, which bought five additional acres, and the entire 12 acres is being developed as the city's first park. Mayor Wells said new ball fields will be ready for play in the Spring of 1995. The 1990s have brought a big surge of growth for La Center.

Janice Fillman, town clerk-treasurer, said population increased from 483 in 1990 to 769 in April 1994 including a newly annexed area.

At the new high school on Highland Road, enrollment is up to 364 from 320 a year ago. Principal Warren Hopkins reported growth of more than 10 per cent annually for two school years.

Jay Cerveny, president of Metroplex Communications Corp., said telephone connections in the service area of Lewis River Telephone Co. are increasing at 8 per cent a year. They now total 3,600 in the company's service area extending from La Center to Cougar.

The telephone company, a subsidiary of Metroplex, is based at La Center. It was established in the early 1900s and was purchased by Cerveny's father, James P. (Paul) Cerveny, in 1947.

Merger proposed
The company is just one of nine subsidiaries of Metroplex, which was organized about three years ago and is concerned mainly with communications. Metroplex and eight subsidiaries will be merged with Telephone and Data Systems Inc. this year if the Federal Communications Commission approves. The only subsidiary not scheduled to be merged is a development company involved in Stone Creek Estates, constructing La Center homes.

Kent Anderson, living on a farm one mile east of La Center occupied by his family since 1865, said one big change in the area is "traffic you wouldn't have believed 10 years ago."

He estimated that half of the new residents, "getting away from the central city," are living in mobile homes.

Opening of the new Pekin Ferry-La Center road from Interstate 5 has provided easier access for residents than would have been possible in earlier years, Anderson said.

Much more development seems inevitable.