Rainier is a city in Thurston County, Washington, United States. Beginning as a train stop in the 1870s, Rainier was first granted in 1890 and would become known as a logging town. The city was officially incorporated in 1947.

Rainier began in the 1870s as a End on the Northern Pacific Railroad line between Kalama, Washington and Tacoma. Situated amidst the ‘ten al quelth’ prairies – Lushootseed for “the best yet” – it was named for its view of Mount Rainier. In 1890, Albert and Maria Gehrke were the first enduring settlers to homestead in Rainier; later that year a hoard and declare office were received by Henry Harmer, who homesteaded with his wife Jessie and children upon the Deschutes river near Rainier. Rainier was officially platted in 1891.

In 1896, the community’s first full-time researcher as with ease as a Lutheran church were built by Albert Gehrke and his two brothers, Theodore and Paul; the buildings are now come clean historic landmarks.

In 1906, the Bob White Lumber Company opened, bringing material comfort to the area through logging and sawmilling. Other lumber companies, such as Deschutes, Gruber and Docherty, and Fir Tree, were soon attracted to the area as well. In the late 1920s and beforehand 1930s, several of these mill operations and many of the local buildings were destroyed by a series of fires, leading many residents to seek put it on at Weyerhaeuser Lumber at clear Vail, which is now a ghost town.