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Washington Counties

There are 39 counties in the state of Washington.

Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory and admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. The first counties were created from unorganized territory in 1845.

Asotin County, Washington

Asotin County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Asotin
Year Organized: 1883
Square Miles: 636

Court House:

135 2nd Street, PO Box 250
County Courthouse
Asotin, WA 99402-9532

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The Nez Percé name for Eel Creek.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Asotin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of the Lewiston, ID-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of both Nez Perce County, Idaho, and Asotin County. As of 2000, the population was 20,551. The county seat is at Asotin, and its largest city is Clarkston.

Asotin County, formed out of Garfield County in 1883, is located in extreme southeastern Washington. In the 2000 Census, the county population was 20,551, and the population of Clarkston, its largest town, was 7,337. The county seat is the small town (pop. 1,095 in 2000) of Asotin, seven miles south of Clarkston. At 636 square miles, Asotin County is the sixth-smallest county in the state. It has a fertile agricultural region in the north-central region, while farther south, the terrain becomes more rugged and is marked by creeks and gullies. Elevations dip to as low as 740 feet in the northeastern corner near Clarkston, and rise to exceed 6,000 feet in the extreme southwestern region in the Blue Mountains. Asotin County's history has been primarily an agricultural one centered on farming and fruit orchards.
File 7643: Full Text >

Economic

Asotin County is located at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. The river system is home to a thriving aluminum jet boat manufacturing industry and provides the wood processing and other industrial users direct barge transportation to the West Coast.
There are three ports within the immediate area and adequate industrial land for business growth and expansion. The highway grid supports access to Idaho and the Southern tier of Washington and the Northern tier of Oregon with connections to North-South and East-West interstates.

The warm climate, excellent health care facilities, year-round golfing and other recreational opportunities provide exceptional amenities for those looking for an active community for retirement.

The region boasts a safe, rural, educated life-style, attracting businesses with its small town hospitality and impressing them with its commitment to area commerce.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 641 square miles (1,659 km²), of which, 635 square miles (1,646 km²) of it is land and 5 square miles (14 km²) of it (0.83%) is water. It is part of the Palouse, a wide and rolling prairie-like region of the middle Columbia basin.

Neighboring Counties:

Whitman County, Washington north
Nez Perce County, Idaho east
Wallowa County, Oregon south
Garfield County, Washington northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Asotin (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Clarkston	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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