[citation needed] A differing, distinct account is that Charlie Pershell, a Frenchman, settled in the area and married an Indian woman.

Owned by both Lewis and Pacific counties, it was overseen by Dr. Angus MacMillan who also managed a similar tuberculosis hospital in Forest, Washington during the 1940s.

[7] The town lost its water supply, which was provided over the historic Weyerhaeuser Pe Ell Bridge, during the Great Coastal Gale of 2007.

The Chehalis River in the Pe Ell area rose 50 feet (15.2 m) during the event, overcoming the bridge and wrecking the water main.

The financial costs to replace the bridge and the water supply lines led the Pe Ell community to temporarily consider dissolving the town's government.

[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.59 square miles (1.53 km2), all of it land.

Begun as a birthday celebration between a local group of young men in 1978, the event consists of entrants buying or building water crafts and floating down the Chehalis River from Pe Ell to Rainbow Falls State Park, where riders can float over a slight waterfall that still remains despite severe flooding damage due to the Great Coastal Gale of 2007.

[15] The city of Pe Ell has historically used local law enforcement staff, rather than the county sheriff's department, for policing.

[16] The town went through several years of intermittent local police coverage, with the county sheriff's department filling in when the marshal's office was vacant.

[17] In 2022, Pe Ell reached an agreement with the city of Morton to outsource police coverage.

[20] Similar to other towns within Lewis County, Pe Ell is recognized as being majority Republican and conservative.

The Pe Ell School District provides public education from preschool to 12th grade.

The schoolhouse was built of split cedar and funded by donations; twelve students attended the first year.

The growing population led to the construction of a new, larger Central school beginning in 1892 only to find an expansion necessary in 1913, with a gymnasium added in 1921.

The combined Pe Ell elementary and high school, furnished with a library and athletic fields, was completed at the end of 1952.