We’re Steve and Melissa Genson of Rochester, in the southwest corner of Thurston County, Washington.
We own Genson Publishing LLC, which publishes the online South Thurston Journal.
We live on our small organic farm, Thornfield Acres, in between the Black River and the Chehalis River–just upriver from where the Black flows into the Chehalis.
We bought our property in 1993, built our home in 1995, and started our farm soon afterwards. Our farm is nestled to the south of the Black Hills. We raised and homeschooled our family here.
We built our restaurant, the Mason Dixon Line, beginning in the fall of 2000. We opened our restaurant in June 2001.
Our restaurant kitchen is also a WSDA-licensed processing kitchen for our farm. Our restaurant closes during summer farm season.
We started this online newspaper because we believe that south Thurston County is a special place with unique people. We felt their stories needed to be told.
We hope you learn something new from our Journal.
Let us know if there is something you think we should be writing about. We always want to learn about new things.
Contact us – souththurstonjournal@gmail.com
360-556-7759, 360-556-7174
Mailing address – 9900 Highway 12 SW, Rochester, WA 98579
Facebook – @SouthThurstonJournal