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Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Clark, Columbia, Cowlitz, Douglas, Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Grant, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lewis, Lincoln, Mason, Okanogan, Pacific, Pend Oreille, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Spokane, Stevens, Thurston, Wahkiakum, Walla Walla, Whatcom, Whitman, Yakima

Washington Counties

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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.

Grays Harbor County, Washington

Grays Harbor County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Montesano
Year Organized: 1855
Square Miles: 1,917

Court House:

100 West Broadway
County Courthouse
Montesano, WA 98563-3614

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Grays Harbor on the county's Pacific Ocean coastline.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Grays Harbor was created 14 April 1854 from Thurston County.

Grays Harbor County takes its name from the broad, shallow bay that drains five rivers in southwest Washington. The dense forests of spruce, hemlock, cedar, and Douglas fir attracted loggers and mill operators and at the turn of the twentieth century, communities such as Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosmopolis, and Montesano flourished. Immigrant wage earners flooded in to harvest green gold. One hundred years later, the county struggled to reinvent itself without logging, milling, and fishing. The Native Americans who were shoved aside by the settlers reemerged with self-government and new enterprises.
File 7766: Full Text >

Economic

Grays Harbor County is located on the Coast of Washington State. It is bounded to the north by Jefferson County, to the south by Pacific and Lewis Counties, and to the east by Mason and Thurston Counties.

The confluence of Grays Harbor and the Chehalis River is 50 miles west of Olympia, 110 miles southwest of Seattle, and 140 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon. The area’s topography is naturally varied from rolling tree-covered hills to sandy ocean beaches. Interior river valleys give way to rugged mountains in the northern part of the county. Grays Harbor County is 1,917 square miles (1,227,072 acres) in area ranking it 15th largest of Washington’s 39 counties. The county averages 35 residents per square mile.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,224 square miles (5,761 km²), of which, 1,917 square miles (4,965 km²) of it is land and 308 square miles (797 km²) of it (13.83%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Jefferson County, Washington - north
Mason County, Washington - northeast
Thurston County, Washington - east/southeast
Lewis County, Washington - south/southeast
Pacific County, Washington - south

Cities and Towns:

- Aberdeen	city	Incorporated Area
- Cosmopolis	city	Incorporated Area
- Elma	city	Incorporated Area
- Hoquiam	city	Incorporated Area
- McCleary	city	Incorporated Area
- Montesano (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Oakville	city	Incorporated Area
- Ocean Shores	city	Incorporated Area
- Westport	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."